The Fabulous Baker Boys
Encyclopedia
The Fabulous Baker Boys is a 1989 American romantic
drama
musical film
written and directed by Steve Kloves
, and starring real life brothers Jeff Bridges
and Beau Bridges
as two brothers struggling to make a living as lounge jazz pianists
in Seattle. In desperation, they take on a female singer, Michelle Pfeiffer
, who revitalises their careers, causing the brothers to re-examine their relationship with each other and with their music.
It was nominated for Academy Awards
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
(Michelle Pfeiffer), Best Cinematography
, Best Film Editing
and Best Music, Original Score
.
Film critic Roger Ebert
described this film as "one of the movies they will use as a document, years from now, when they begin to trace the steps by which Pfeiffer became a great star."
) and Frank (Beau Bridges
), are brothers living in Seattle, making a living playing in lounges and music bars, their gimmick being that they play intricate jazz- and pop-flavored duets on matching grand pianos. Frank handles the business aspect while Jack, single, attractive, and more talented as a player, feels disillusioned and bored with the often hackneyed material they play. He is, nonetheless, able to live a comfortable and responsibility-free existence because of Frank's management, sleeping where and with whom he pleases. Frank has a wife and family he adores, but Jack has no personal connections in his private life, other than Eddie, his soulful but aging Black Labrador, and Nina, the lonely child of a single mom living in his building, who walks Eddie and takes piano lessons from Jack. In all other respects, professionally and personally, Jack's life is a series of empty one-night stands. Now and again, he plays the challenging music he really cares about at a local jazz club.
Concerned over the way they keep losing gigs, the Baker Boys hold auditions for a female singer to join the outfit, ending up with the beautiful but eccentric Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer
), a former escort with unusual charisma, a sultry singing voice, and emotional baggage
she keeps well hidden most of the time. She's late for the audition, cockily irreverent of their professional reputation, and ticks Frank off by saying she's got an intuition he'll hire her anyway—but overcomes his reservations with her impassioned performance of "More Than You Know
", with Jack accompanying her and clearly more impressed with Susie's singing (and Susie herself) than he wants to admit. After a rocky start, the new act becomes unexpectedly successful, leading to bigger gigs and better money, but Frank is worried that Jack will ruin it by sleeping with Susie, having noted the growing attraction between the two, and being all too well aware of his brother's effect on the opposite sex.
Jack and Susie circle each other warily from gig to gig, neither wanting to make the first move. In the meantime, Jack has a stark revelation of how fragile his world really is when Eddie has to spend the night at an animal hospital. He needs to have several teeth removed, a procedure that could easily kill the elderly dog, who is, the normally cool and emotionally distant Jack suddenly realizes, his only real friend in the world.
The now sought-after trio (and Eddie, still recovering from surgery) head out of town to play an extended engagement at a grand old-style hotel. Frank has to leave suddenly, when one of his kids has a minor accident. Without him to act as chaperone, Susie and Jack give in to their feelings after playing a sizzling duet of "Makin' Whoopee" at the hotel's New Year's Eve celebration. Before they have sex, Susie opens up to Jack about her past at the escort service, sleeping with clients simply because they were nice to her. She tries to tell him how good a player he is, but he's unwilling to admit his regrets to her. The romance is uneasy and off-kilter from the start, and it doesn't last long.
Back in Seattle, there is increasing tension within the act, as Frank senses what has happened between Jack and Susie, and both of them begin to rebel against Frank's creative control, which has them performing crowd-pleasers like "Feelings"
every night, instead of the jazz standards they prefer. After she spends the night with Jack at his apartment (leading to an embarrassing encounter with Nina), Susie reveals that she got a lucrative offer from a catfood conventioneer at the hotel to sing jingles for TV, which would mean leaving The Baker Boys. She later takes the job when Jack, wounded she'd even consider going (and thinking about the conventioneers she used to know as an escort), refuses to admit how he feels about her, and acts as if her departure is no big deal. As a parting shot, she tells him he's selling himself on the cheap as much as she ever did as an escort, by working a cheesy lounge act instead of developing his talent as a serious jazz musician.
Jack and Frank quarrel over Susie's departure and the increasingly embarrassing gigs Frank has been landing them, and they get into a fight, with Jack nearly breaking Frank's fingers in frustrated rage, then storming off saying he can't pretend anymore. Jack later blows up at Nina, driving her away—but goes after her to apologize—and learns that she's getting a new stepdad, so he won't be such a big part of her life anymore.
Now ready to pursue the solo career his loyalty to Frank and delayed maturity had kept on the back burner, Jack goes to Frank's house to mend fences. The brothers finally let each other know how much they care about each other, now that they don't have to work together. Frank accepts Jack's decision to go his own way, and says he'll switch to giving piano lessons at home—in his mind, he was simply helping his brother lead the carefree swinging single life that he secretly envied, and had thought Jack wanted. They reminisce happily about the early days of their act, and play a riotous chorus of "You're Sixteen
", knowing now that their connection is unbreakable, no matter what happens.
Jack goes to see Susie, who is not enjoying the jingle business much, to let her know he's sorry about the way he behaved, and to subtly but unmistakably communicate that he wants to try again with her. She isn't ready to give him another chance yet, but they part as friends, and Jack tells her he's got an intuition they'll see each other again, echoing her earlier prediction that the brothers would hire her for the act. She walks off to her job, with him watching until she's nearly out of sight. As the credits roll, the soundtrack plays Michelle Pfeiffer and Dave Grusin's interpretation of "My Funny Valentine
".
wrote The Fabulous Baker Boys after his first script, Racing with the Moon
(1985), was made into a motion picture. Three years after the screenplay was first acquired for production by Paula Weinstein, the picture was greenlighted by Gladden Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox with Kloves directing.
Jeff Bridges
was Kloves's first choice for the role of Jack Baker. "Jeff, for me, is like the old time actors who you never know are acting; he's seamless - you just never see him working at it." Jeff's brother, Beau Bridges
, was then shown the script, although he admitted he was a "little reluctant since Jeff had initiated it and I didn't want anyone to feel that big brother had been forced upon them. By the time I'd finished reading the script, however, I would have killed to have done it." According to Kloves, "Beau has the most wonderful knack of making memorable moments out of simple gestures."
For the plum role of Susie Diamond, actresses such as Madonna
, Debra Winger
, Brooke Shields
, Jodie Foster
and Jennifer Jason Leigh
were considered. Madonna was highly critical of the finished picture, calling it "too mushy." The role eventually went to Michelle Pfeiffer
. Kloves was quoted as saying that "Michelle is the icing on the cake. Her Susie Diamond is right on the mark--and she is a wonderful singer. Michelle is an actress with unlimited range." Pfeiffer, despite having already sung on screen in her cinematic début, Grease 2
(1982), was never a professionally-trained singer; she started taking voice lessons two months before filming commenced. Her vocal coach, Sally Stevens, commended her dedication: "She was singing these songs in a very exposed way--no strings or lush orchestrations to hide behind, just a piano. She worked ten hours a day in the studio and then took the tapes home with her to study them." In preparation for the most famous scene, a rendition of 'Makin' Whoopee' atop a grand piano that took six hours to film, Pfeiffer only had one choreography lesson, and wore knee and elbow pads during rehearsals.
Composer and jazz pianist Dave Grusin
dubbed Jeff Bridges's piano playing, while John F. Hammond dubbed Beau Bridges.
Principal photography began on December 5, 1988. Though set in Seattle, Washington
, The Fabulous Baker Boys was filmed primarily on location in Los Angeles, California
.
based on 23 reviews. The film was released on October 13, 1989, in 858 theaters, grossing USD $3.3 million in its opening weekend, before going on to make $18.4 million, above its $11.5 million budget.
Pauline Kael
in The New Yorker
wrote of the film as a "romantic fantasy that has a forties-movie sultriness and an eighties movie-struck melancholy. Put them together and you have a movie in which eighties glamour is being defined." Richard Schickel
in Time
called the film "a Hollywood rarity these days, a true character comedy... The wary way in which she [Susie] and Jack circle in on a relationship is one of the truest representations of modern romance that the modern screen has offered." Janet Maslin
in The New York Times
described it as a "film specializing in smoky, down-at-the-heels glamour, and in the kind of smart, slangy dialogue that sounds right without necessarily having much to say." Rita Kempley in the Washington Post wrote that "Kloves is a nostalgic young man whose passion for Ella Fitzgerald
records, film noir and romantic melodrama mesh in this classic directorial début. The Fabulous Baker Boys is like a beloved movie from the glory days of Hollywood. It transports you. It's an American rhapsody." Time Out wrote that "with more than enough witty, well-observed details, it's a little charmer... understatement is crucial to the script's success." Roger Ebert
in the Chicago Sun-Times
was of the opinion that "The Fabulous Baker Boys doesn't do anything very original, but what it does, it does wonderfully well."
The look and atmosphere of the film were highly praised. The New York Times wrote that the "warm, rich hues of Michael Ballhaus
's cinematography contribute immeasurably to the film's invitingly intimate glow." Time thought that Steve Kloves
and his "fine cinematographer, Michael Ballhaus, have created a gently dislocating noirish mood - not quite menacing but not exactly comfortable either - and let it speak for itself. It is a setting where actors can live and breathe like real people." Desson Howe in the Washington Post wrote that "the man [Ballhaus] who, among many films, shot Rainer Werner Fassbinder
's The Marriage of Maria Braun
, Martin Scorsese
's The Last Temptation of Christ
, James L. Brooks
's Broadcast News
and Mike Nichols
's Working Girl
, gives human skin a peachy glow, frames a seduction scene (involving back-caressing and parted lips) that's the next best thing to being there and, in what amounts to the visual zenith of the movie, paints a champagne-drinking balcony scene with appropriately moonlit intoxication."
Michelle Pfeiffer
's performance drew rave reviews from almost every critic. The New York Times called her "as unexpected a choice for this musical bombshell as Jeff Bridges
is for Jack, but, like him, she proves to be electrifyingly right... when Ms. Pfeiffer, draped across Jeff Bridges's piano and setting some new standard for cinematic slinkiness, performs in the above-mentioned New Year's Eve sequence with the camera gliding hypnotically around her, she just plain brings down the house." The Chicago Sun-Times wrote of this film as "the movie of her flowering - not just as a beautiful woman, but as an actress with the ability to make you care about her, to make you feel what she feels... Whatever she's doing while she performs that song ['Makin' Whoopee'] isn't merely singing; it's whatever Rita Hayworth
did in Gilda
and Marilyn Monroe
did in Some Like It Hot
, and I didn't want her to stop." The New Yorker thought that she recalled "the grinning infectiousness of Carole Lombard
, the radiance of the very young Lauren Bacall
, and Pfeiffer herself in other movies." Time described her as "a cat with at least nine dimensions ever aflicker in her eyes." Variety
wrote that "Pfeiffer hits the nail right on the head. She also hits the spot in the film's certain-to-be-remembered highlight - a version of 'Makin' Whoopee' that she sings while crawling all over a piano in a blazing red dress. She's dynamite." The Washington Post described her as "slinky and cynical, more Bacall
than Bacall. Like the sun through a magnifying glass, she burns an image on the screen."
Jeff Bridges
and his brother, Beau Bridges
, were also acclaimed for their performances. Time thought that "the Bridges boys are better than fabulous in it - Jeff not quite falling over the line into unredeemable cynicism, Beau never succumbing to the pull of moral blandness." The New Yorker wrote that "Jeff Bridges has never been as glamorously beyond reach as he is here." The New York Times thought that "Beau Bridges also has a chance to shine." The Washington Post was of the opinion that "Jeff Bridges, lean, sexy and contemptuous, is more than up to it in this, his best work to date... Beau Bridges, all pudgy and wounded, makes a subtle villain of the fussy, guilt-inflicting Frank."
The Fabulous Baker Boys was ranked at #12 on Entertainment Weekly
s list of the "25 Sexiest Movies Ever".
Michelle Pfeiffer's memorable rendition of "Makin' Whoopee", sprawled over a piano in a red evening dress, has been referenced and parodied numerous times, entering pop culture as an iconic image. Homages to this scene have appeared in the film Hot Shots!
, and episodes of Eureka
, Ellen
and Animaniacs
.
.
Michelle Pfeiffer
won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
, fending off competition from Sally Field
, Jessica Lange
, Andie MacDowell
and Liv Ullmann
. She also won various critics awards, including the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
, the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress
and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
, but lost both to Jessica Tandy
in Driving Miss Daisy
(1989).
Dave Grusin
's soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score
, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the BAFTA Award for Best Original Film Score
and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score - Motion Picture
. The film also won the BAFTA Award for Best Sound
.
Steve Kloves
was presented with the Sutherland Trophy
by the British Film Institute
, and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award
.
Michael Ballhaus
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
, and won the LAFCA Award for Best Cinematography
and the NSFC Award for Best Cinematography
.
Beau Bridges
won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
.
William Steinkamp
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.
, star of the Doctor Who
spin-off
Torchwood
, announced that she is about to sign on to appear in a BBC TV Wales remake of The Fabulous Baker Boys. This show was revealed to be unrelated to the 1989 film.
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
written and directed by Steve Kloves
Steve Kloves
Stephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
, and starring real life brothers Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
and Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
as two brothers struggling to make a living as lounge jazz pianists
Jazz piano
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities...
in Seattle. In desperation, they take on a female singer, Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
, who revitalises their careers, causing the brothers to re-examine their relationship with each other and with their music.
It was nominated for Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Michelle Pfeiffer), Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
and Best Music, Original Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
.
Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
described this film as "one of the movies they will use as a document, years from now, when they begin to trace the steps by which Pfeiffer became a great star."
Plot
The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jack (Jeff BridgesJeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
) and Frank (Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
), are brothers living in Seattle, making a living playing in lounges and music bars, their gimmick being that they play intricate jazz- and pop-flavored duets on matching grand pianos. Frank handles the business aspect while Jack, single, attractive, and more talented as a player, feels disillusioned and bored with the often hackneyed material they play. He is, nonetheless, able to live a comfortable and responsibility-free existence because of Frank's management, sleeping where and with whom he pleases. Frank has a wife and family he adores, but Jack has no personal connections in his private life, other than Eddie, his soulful but aging Black Labrador, and Nina, the lonely child of a single mom living in his building, who walks Eddie and takes piano lessons from Jack. In all other respects, professionally and personally, Jack's life is a series of empty one-night stands. Now and again, he plays the challenging music he really cares about at a local jazz club.
Concerned over the way they keep losing gigs, the Baker Boys hold auditions for a female singer to join the outfit, ending up with the beautiful but eccentric Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
), a former escort with unusual charisma, a sultry singing voice, and emotional baggage
Emotional baggage
Emotional baggage can be defined as 'Painful memories, mistrust and hurt carried around from past sexual or emotional rejection'.It is an image of 'a big sack that you carry around with you at all times...[with] every disappointment, trauma, and wrong that you've ever experienced....This image, the...
she keeps well hidden most of the time. She's late for the audition, cockily irreverent of their professional reputation, and ticks Frank off by saying she's got an intuition he'll hire her anyway—but overcomes his reservations with her impassioned performance of "More Than You Know
More Than You Know (1929 song)
"More Than You Know" is a popular song, with music written by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu. The song was published in 1929....
", with Jack accompanying her and clearly more impressed with Susie's singing (and Susie herself) than he wants to admit. After a rocky start, the new act becomes unexpectedly successful, leading to bigger gigs and better money, but Frank is worried that Jack will ruin it by sleeping with Susie, having noted the growing attraction between the two, and being all too well aware of his brother's effect on the opposite sex.
Jack and Susie circle each other warily from gig to gig, neither wanting to make the first move. In the meantime, Jack has a stark revelation of how fragile his world really is when Eddie has to spend the night at an animal hospital. He needs to have several teeth removed, a procedure that could easily kill the elderly dog, who is, the normally cool and emotionally distant Jack suddenly realizes, his only real friend in the world.
The now sought-after trio (and Eddie, still recovering from surgery) head out of town to play an extended engagement at a grand old-style hotel. Frank has to leave suddenly, when one of his kids has a minor accident. Without him to act as chaperone, Susie and Jack give in to their feelings after playing a sizzling duet of "Makin' Whoopee" at the hotel's New Year's Eve celebration. Before they have sex, Susie opens up to Jack about her past at the escort service, sleeping with clients simply because they were nice to her. She tries to tell him how good a player he is, but he's unwilling to admit his regrets to her. The romance is uneasy and off-kilter from the start, and it doesn't last long.
Back in Seattle, there is increasing tension within the act, as Frank senses what has happened between Jack and Susie, and both of them begin to rebel against Frank's creative control, which has them performing crowd-pleasers like "Feelings"
Feelings (song)
"Feelings" is a song based on a melody composed by Loulou Gasté and made famous by Morris Albert, who recorded it as a single released in 1974 that later appeared as the title track of his 1975 debut album. The song's lyrics, recognizable by their "whoa whoa whoa" chorus, concern the singer's...
every night, instead of the jazz standards they prefer. After she spends the night with Jack at his apartment (leading to an embarrassing encounter with Nina), Susie reveals that she got a lucrative offer from a catfood conventioneer at the hotel to sing jingles for TV, which would mean leaving The Baker Boys. She later takes the job when Jack, wounded she'd even consider going (and thinking about the conventioneers she used to know as an escort), refuses to admit how he feels about her, and acts as if her departure is no big deal. As a parting shot, she tells him he's selling himself on the cheap as much as she ever did as an escort, by working a cheesy lounge act instead of developing his talent as a serious jazz musician.
Jack and Frank quarrel over Susie's departure and the increasingly embarrassing gigs Frank has been landing them, and they get into a fight, with Jack nearly breaking Frank's fingers in frustrated rage, then storming off saying he can't pretend anymore. Jack later blows up at Nina, driving her away—but goes after her to apologize—and learns that she's getting a new stepdad, so he won't be such a big part of her life anymore.
Now ready to pursue the solo career his loyalty to Frank and delayed maturity had kept on the back burner, Jack goes to Frank's house to mend fences. The brothers finally let each other know how much they care about each other, now that they don't have to work together. Frank accepts Jack's decision to go his own way, and says he'll switch to giving piano lessons at home—in his mind, he was simply helping his brother lead the carefree swinging single life that he secretly envied, and had thought Jack wanted. They reminisce happily about the early days of their act, and play a riotous chorus of "You're Sixteen
You're Sixteen
"You're Sixteen" is a song written by the Sherman Brothers . It was first performed by American rockabilly singer Johnny Burnette, whose version peaked at number eight on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in December 1960....
", knowing now that their connection is unbreakable, no matter what happens.
Jack goes to see Susie, who is not enjoying the jingle business much, to let her know he's sorry about the way he behaved, and to subtly but unmistakably communicate that he wants to try again with her. She isn't ready to give him another chance yet, but they part as friends, and Jack tells her he's got an intuition they'll see each other again, echoing her earlier prediction that the brothers would hire her for the act. She walks off to her job, with him watching until she's nearly out of sight. As the credits roll, the soundtrack plays Michelle Pfeiffer and Dave Grusin's interpretation of "My Funny Valentine
My Funny Valentine
"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green...
".
Cast
- Jeff BridgesJeff BridgesJeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
as Jack Baker - Beau BridgesBeau BridgesLloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
as Frank Baker - Michelle PfeifferMichelle PfeifferMichelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
as Susie Diamond - Ellie Raab as Nina (child neighbor of Jack)
- Xander BerkeleyXander BerkeleyAlexander Harper "Xander" Berkeley is an American actor. His roles include George Mason on the television series 24.-Early life:Berkeley was born in Brooklyn, New York, but has lived most of his life in New Jersey...
as Lloyd - Jennifer TillyJennifer TillyJennifer Tilly is an American actress and poker player. She is an Academy Award nominee, and a World Series of Poker Ladies' Event bracelet winner. She is the older sister of actress Meg Tilly.-Early life:...
as Blanche "Monica" Moran - Dakin MatthewsDakin MatthewsDakin Matthews is an American actor with a long history of work in film, television and theater. He is also a playwright, director, and theatrical scholar.-Life and career:...
as Charlie - Ken LernerKen LernerKen Lerner is an American television, stage and film actor who is perhaps most famous for playing "Principal Flutie" in the first episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Early life:...
as Ray - Albert Hall as Henry
- Terri TreasTerri TreasTerri Treas is an American actress, writer and director. She has starred in films and on television. Terri is best known for her role as Newcomer Cathy Frankel on the Fox Network short-lived science fiction series Alien Nation and in the five movies produced subsequent to the TV series which...
as Girl in Bed - Gregory ItzinGregory ItzinGregory Martin Itzin is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as disgraced U.S. President Charles Logan in the television series 24.-Early life:...
as Vince Nancy - Bradford EnglishBradford EnglishBradford English Born in 1943, is a character actor who has starred in film and on movies. He is best known in the horror film community for his role in the 1995 horror movie Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers as John Strode...
as Earl - David CoburnDavid CoburnDavid Coburn is an American actor, voice actor and singer. He is best known as the voice of Captain Planet in the TV series, Captain Planet and the Planeteers.-Filmography:...
as Kid at Vet
Production
Steve KlovesSteve Kloves
Stephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
wrote The Fabulous Baker Boys after his first script, Racing with the Moon
Racing with the Moon
Racing with the Moon is a 1984 dramatic film starring Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern, and Nicolas Cage. It was directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Steven Kloves. The original music score was composed by Dave Grusin.-Synopsis:...
(1985), was made into a motion picture. Three years after the screenplay was first acquired for production by Paula Weinstein, the picture was greenlighted by Gladden Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox with Kloves directing.
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
was Kloves's first choice for the role of Jack Baker. "Jeff, for me, is like the old time actors who you never know are acting; he's seamless - you just never see him working at it." Jeff's brother, Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
, was then shown the script, although he admitted he was a "little reluctant since Jeff had initiated it and I didn't want anyone to feel that big brother had been forced upon them. By the time I'd finished reading the script, however, I would have killed to have done it." According to Kloves, "Beau has the most wonderful knack of making memorable moments out of simple gestures."
For the plum role of Susie Diamond, actresses such as Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
, Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
, Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
and Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
were considered. Madonna was highly critical of the finished picture, calling it "too mushy." The role eventually went to Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
. Kloves was quoted as saying that "Michelle is the icing on the cake. Her Susie Diamond is right on the mark--and she is a wonderful singer. Michelle is an actress with unlimited range." Pfeiffer, despite having already sung on screen in her cinematic début, Grease 2
Grease 2
Grease 2 is a 1982 American musical film and sequel to Grease, which is based upon the musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Grease 2 was produced by Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch, who also choreographed the first film...
(1982), was never a professionally-trained singer; she started taking voice lessons two months before filming commenced. Her vocal coach, Sally Stevens, commended her dedication: "She was singing these songs in a very exposed way--no strings or lush orchestrations to hide behind, just a piano. She worked ten hours a day in the studio and then took the tapes home with her to study them." In preparation for the most famous scene, a rendition of 'Makin' Whoopee' atop a grand piano that took six hours to film, Pfeiffer only had one choreography lesson, and wore knee and elbow pads during rehearsals.
Composer and jazz pianist Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
dubbed Jeff Bridges's piano playing, while John F. Hammond dubbed Beau Bridges.
Principal photography began on December 5, 1988. Though set in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, The Fabulous Baker Boys was filmed primarily on location in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Reception
The Fabulous Baker Boys currently holds a rating of 96% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 23 reviews. The film was released on October 13, 1989, in 858 theaters, grossing USD $3.3 million in its opening weekend, before going on to make $18.4 million, above its $11.5 million budget.
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
wrote of the film as a "romantic fantasy that has a forties-movie sultriness and an eighties movie-struck melancholy. Put them together and you have a movie in which eighties glamour is being defined." Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
called the film "a Hollywood rarity these days, a true character comedy... The wary way in which she [Susie] and Jack circle in on a relationship is one of the truest representations of modern romance that the modern screen has offered." Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described it as a "film specializing in smoky, down-at-the-heels glamour, and in the kind of smart, slangy dialogue that sounds right without necessarily having much to say." Rita Kempley in the Washington Post wrote that "Kloves is a nostalgic young man whose passion for Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
records, film noir and romantic melodrama mesh in this classic directorial début. The Fabulous Baker Boys is like a beloved movie from the glory days of Hollywood. It transports you. It's an American rhapsody." Time Out wrote that "with more than enough witty, well-observed details, it's a little charmer... understatement is crucial to the script's success." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
in the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
was of the opinion that "The Fabulous Baker Boys doesn't do anything very original, but what it does, it does wonderfully well."
The look and atmosphere of the film were highly praised. The New York Times wrote that the "warm, rich hues of Michael Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. is a German cinematographer. In 1990, he was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.- Life and career :...
's cinematography contribute immeasurably to the film's invitingly intimate glow." Time thought that Steve Kloves
Steve Kloves
Stephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
and his "fine cinematographer, Michael Ballhaus, have created a gently dislocating noirish mood - not quite menacing but not exactly comfortable either - and let it speak for itself. It is a setting where actors can live and breathe like real people." Desson Howe in the Washington Post wrote that "the man [Ballhaus] who, among many films, shot Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
's The Marriage of Maria Braun
The Marriage of Maria Braun
The Marriage of Maria Braun is a 1979 West German film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The film stars Hanna Schygulla as Maria, whose marriage with the soldier Hermann remained unfulfilled due to World War II and his post-war imprisonment...
, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's The Last Temptation of Christ
The Last Temptation of Christ (film)
The Last Temptation of Christ is a 1988 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the controversial 1953 novel of the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis. It stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus Christ, Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, David Bowie as...
, James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
's Broadcast News
Broadcast News (film)
Broadcast News is a 1987 romantic comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by James L. Brooks. The film concerns a virtuoso television news producer , who has daily emotional breakdowns, a brilliant yet prickly reporter and his charismatic but far less seasoned rival...
and Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
's Working Girl
Working Girl
Working Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...
, gives human skin a peachy glow, frames a seduction scene (involving back-caressing and parted lips) that's the next best thing to being there and, in what amounts to the visual zenith of the movie, paints a champagne-drinking balcony scene with appropriately moonlit intoxication."
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
's performance drew rave reviews from almost every critic. The New York Times called her "as unexpected a choice for this musical bombshell as Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
is for Jack, but, like him, she proves to be electrifyingly right... when Ms. Pfeiffer, draped across Jeff Bridges's piano and setting some new standard for cinematic slinkiness, performs in the above-mentioned New Year's Eve sequence with the camera gliding hypnotically around her, she just plain brings down the house." The Chicago Sun-Times wrote of this film as "the movie of her flowering - not just as a beautiful woman, but as an actress with the ability to make you care about her, to make you feel what she feels... Whatever she's doing while she performs that song ['Makin' Whoopee'] isn't merely singing; it's whatever Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
did in Gilda
Gilda
Gilda is a 1946 American black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor. It stars Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale. The film was noted for cinematographer Rudolph Mate's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis' wardrobe for Hayworth , and...
and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
did in Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is an American comedy film, made in 1958 and released in 1959, which was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and George Raft. The supporting cast includes Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film is a remake by Wilder and I....
, and I didn't want her to stop." The New Yorker thought that she recalled "the grinning infectiousness of Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
, the radiance of the very young Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
, and Pfeiffer herself in other movies." Time described her as "a cat with at least nine dimensions ever aflicker in her eyes." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
wrote that "Pfeiffer hits the nail right on the head. She also hits the spot in the film's certain-to-be-remembered highlight - a version of 'Makin' Whoopee' that she sings while crawling all over a piano in a blazing red dress. She's dynamite." The Washington Post described her as "slinky and cynical, more Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
than Bacall. Like the sun through a magnifying glass, she burns an image on the screen."
Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
and his brother, Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
, were also acclaimed for their performances. Time thought that "the Bridges boys are better than fabulous in it - Jeff not quite falling over the line into unredeemable cynicism, Beau never succumbing to the pull of moral blandness." The New Yorker wrote that "Jeff Bridges has never been as glamorously beyond reach as he is here." The New York Times thought that "Beau Bridges also has a chance to shine." The Washington Post was of the opinion that "Jeff Bridges, lean, sexy and contemptuous, is more than up to it in this, his best work to date... Beau Bridges, all pudgy and wounded, makes a subtle villain of the fussy, guilt-inflicting Frank."
The Fabulous Baker Boys was ranked at #12 on Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s list of the "25 Sexiest Movies Ever".
Michelle Pfeiffer's memorable rendition of "Makin' Whoopee", sprawled over a piano in a red evening dress, has been referenced and parodied numerous times, entering pop culture as an iconic image. Homages to this scene have appeared in the film Hot Shots!
Hot Shots!
Hot Shots! is a 1991 comedy spoof film starring Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, Kevin Dunn, Jon Cryer and Ryan Stiles . It was directed by Jim Abrahams, co-director of Airplane! , and was written by Abrahams and Pat Proft...
, and episodes of Eureka
Eureka (TV series)
Eureka is an American science fiction television series that premiered on Syfy on July 18, 2006. Since then four seasons have aired, and a fifth is currently being filmed. The second half of season 4 began on SyFy on July 11, 2011 and ended on September 19, 2011...
, Ellen
Ellen (TV series)
Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...
and Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
.
Awards and nominations
The Fabulous Baker Boys was nominated for four Academy AwardsAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
.
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951...
, fending off competition from Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
, Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
, Andie MacDowell
Andie MacDowell
Rosalie Anderson "Andie" MacDowell is an American model and actress. She has received the Golden Camera and an Honorary César.-Early life:...
and Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
. She also won various critics awards, including the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Best Actress is one of the annual film awards given by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.-1940s:-1950s:- 1960s :- 1970s :- 1980s :- 1990s :- 2000s :-2010s:...
, the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
TheNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the National Society of Film Critics to honour the best leading actress of the year.-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:...
and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is one of the annual awards given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:...
. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...
, but lost both to Jessica Tandy
Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
in Driving Miss Daisy
Driving Miss Daisy
Driving Miss Daisy is a 1989 American comedy-drama film adapted from the Alfred Uhry play of the same name. The film was directed by Bruce Beresford, with Morgan Freeman reprising his role as Hoke Colburn and Jessica Tandy playing Miss Daisy...
(1989).
Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
's soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score
Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
The Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media has been awarded since 1960. Until 2001 the award was presented to the composer of the music alone. From 2001 to 2006, the producer and engineers shared in this award...
, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the BAFTA Award for Best Original Film Score
BAFTA Award for Best Film Music
The Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music is an annual award given by British Academy of Film and Television Arts.-1960s:*1968 - The Lion in Winter - John Barry...
and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...
. The film also won the BAFTA Award for Best Sound
BAFTA Award for Best Sound
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Sound has been presented to its winners since 1968 and sound designers of all nationalities are eligible to receive the award.-Winners 1968-present:...
.
Steve Kloves
Steve Kloves
Stephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
was presented with the Sutherland Trophy
Sutherland Trophy
Created in 1958, the Sutherland Trophy was awarded annually by the British Film Institute to "the maker of the most original and imaginative [first or second feature] film introduced at the National Film Theatre during the year"...
by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
.
Michael Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. is a German cinematographer. In 1990, he was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.- Life and career :...
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, and won the LAFCA Award for Best Cinematography
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography is one of the annual film awards given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
and the NSFC Award for Best Cinematography
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
.
Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor is an annual film award given by the National Society of Film Critics.The awards was given for the first time in 1968 .-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:...
.
William Steinkamp
William Steinkamp
William Steinkamp is an American film editor with more than 20 film credits. He had a longstanding, notable collaboration with director Sydney Pollack, editing nearly all of Pollack's films from Tootsie through the director's last film, The Interpreter .-Relative assistance:Steinkamp's first...
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.
| Awarding Body | Award | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards Academy Awards An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers... |
Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
nomination |
| Best Cinematography Academy Award for Best Cinematography The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:... |
Michael Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. is a German cinematographer. In 1990, he was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.- Life and career :... |
nomination | |
| Best Film Editing | William Steinkamp William Steinkamp William Steinkamp is an American film editor with more than 20 film credits. He had a longstanding, notable collaboration with director Sydney Pollack, editing nearly all of Pollack's films from Tootsie through the director's last film, The Interpreter .-Relative assistance:Steinkamp's first... |
nomination | |
| Best Music, Original Score | Dave Grusin Dave Grusin David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys... |
nomination | |
| BAFTA Awards | Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
nomination |
| Best Original Film Score BAFTA Award for Best Film Music The Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music is an annual award given by British Academy of Film and Television Arts.-1960s:*1968 - The Lion in Winter - John Barry... |
Dave Grusin Dave Grusin David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys... |
nomination | |
| Best Sound BAFTA Award for Best Sound The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Sound has been presented to its winners since 1968 and sound designers of all nationalities are eligible to receive the award.-Winners 1968-present:... |
J. Paul Huntsman Stephan von Hase Chris Jenkins Gary Alexander Doug Hemphill |
winner | |
| British Film Institute British Film Institute The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London... |
Sutherland Trophy Sutherland Trophy Created in 1958, the Sutherland Trophy was awarded annually by the British Film Institute to "the maker of the most original and imaginative [first or second feature] film introduced at the National Film Theatre during the year"... |
Steve Kloves Steve Kloves Stephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys... |
winner |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Chicago Film Critics Association The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong... |
Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
winner |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
winner |
| Best Original Score - Motion Picture Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947... |
Dave Grusin Dave Grusin David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys... |
nomination | |
| Grammy Awards | Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media has been awarded since 1960. Until 2001 the award was presented to the composer of the music alone. From 2001 to 2006, the producer and engineers shared in this award... |
Dave Grusin Dave Grusin David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys... |
winner |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Los Angeles Film Critics Association The Los Angeles Film Critics Association was founded in 1975. Its main purpose is to present yearly awards to members of the film industry who have excelled in their fields. These awards are presented each January... |
Best Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is one of the annual awards given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
winner (tied with Andie MacDowell Andie MacDowell Rosalie Anderson "Andie" MacDowell is an American model and actress. She has received the Golden Camera and an Honorary César.-Early life:... ) |
| Best Cinematography Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography is one of the annual film awards given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
Michael Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. is a German cinematographer. In 1990, he was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.- Life and career :... |
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| National Board of Review | Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Actress The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Best Actress is one of the annual film awards given by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.-1940s:-1950s:- 1960s :- 1970s :- 1980s :- 1990s :- 2000s :-2010s:... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
winner |
| National Society of Film Critics National Society of Film Critics The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:... |
Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress TheNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the National Society of Film Critics to honour the best leading actress of the year.-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
winner |
| Best Supporting Actor National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor is an annual film award given by the National Society of Film Critics.The awards was given for the first time in 1968 .-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:... |
Beau Bridges Beau Bridges Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book... |
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| Best Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. is a German cinematographer. In 1990, he was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.- Life and career :... |
winner | |
| New York Film Critics Circle | Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work... |
winner |
| Writers Guild of America Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi.... |
Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Writers Guild of America Award The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949... |
Steve Kloves Steve Kloves Stephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys... |
nomination |
BBC remake
In July 2010, British actress Eve MylesEve Myles
Eve Myles is an award winning Welsh actress of stage and screen. She is best known to Welsh audiences for her portrayal of Ceri Owen in the BBC Wales drama Belonging, and to audiences worldwide for her role as Gwen Cooper in the science fiction show Torchwood, a spin-off from Doctor Who.-Personal...
, star of the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
, announced that she is about to sign on to appear in a BBC TV Wales remake of The Fabulous Baker Boys. This show was revealed to be unrelated to the 1989 film.