Essential Cinema: Cold Turkey
By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 26, 2011 4:30PM
On January 12, 1971, All in the Family premiered on CBS. By its second season it was the highest-rated show on TV. Its legendary producer, Norman Lear, would have half-dozen of the most popular shows on the air by the end of the decade, including The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times, and Maude. But Lear directed only one feature film: Cold Turkey.
After musing over the legacy of weapons manufacturer Alfred Nobel, Valiant Tobacco PR man Merwin Wren (Bob Newhart) has come up with the perfect publicity stunt. "Have you ever seen a whole office building give up smoking? A whole neighborhood?" he asks Valiant's skeptical board of directors. "So for $25 million, where are you going to find a whole town that will give up smoking?" Valiant Tobacco will award a tax-free $25 million to any town in America whose residents will quit smoking for 30 days. Foolproof, right?
Not quite. Hemorrhaging residents to big cities elsewhere in the state, the desperate burg of Eagle Rock, Iowa (pop. 4,006) decides to take up the challenge, thanks largely to the efforts of a crusading minister, Rev. Clayton Brooks (Dick Van Dyke). $25 million is just the thing the town needs to give itself a makeover and thereby woo the Department of Defense to build their new missile plant in Eagle Rock. But even after every resident has signed the no-smoking pledge and the entire town begins to suffer from withdrawal, Wren is scheming to smuggle in some cigarettes ...
Filmed in 1969 largely on location in Greenfield, Iowa, Cold Turkey includes several comedic actors who would later pop up on Lear's TV shows. From All in the Family there's Jean Stapleton, Vincent Gardenia, and Barnard Hughes. Graham Jarvis starred in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and Paul Benedict played next-door neighbor Harry Bentley on The Jeffersons. Newhart co-star Tom Poston even has a role as the town drunk.
But it seems like America was not quite ready for an anti-smoking satire in 1971; box office returns were tepid and the movie was quickly overshadowed by Lear's TV work. Seen today however it's invigoratingly prescient. Its jibes at the military-industrial complex, media manipulation, and right-wing patriotism are much sharper than Thank You For Smoking. It's also just plain funnier. Comedy team Bob and Ray spoof a parade of celebrity anchormen (including, in the movie's best sight gag, Walter Cronkite). And watching the town quickly crack up after going cold turkey hasn't aged a bit.
Cold Turkey screens Monday, January 31 at 7:00pm at Doc Films, and I'll be introducing the film. Hope to see you there!
Doc Films is at the Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall at The University of Chicago, 1212 East 59th Street