industrialist Henry Ford, celebrity Evelyn Nesbit, black leader Booker T. James Cagney, Norman Mailer, Mary Steenburgen, Frankie Faison, Mandy Patinkin, Robert Joy, Elizabeth McGovern, Brad Dourif, Jeff Daniels, Kenneth McMillan, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Allen, Pat O'Brien, Fran Drescher, Howard Rollins Jr. Ragtime, an epic musical about the dreams and realities of early 20th century America, opens on Broadway Jan. An ornate misfire, Ragtime is of interest today only for its remarkable cast of veterans and stars-to-be, including Pat O'Brien and Eloise O'Brien, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Allen, Moses Gunn, Jeff Daniels and Fran Drescher. The problem is that Cagney's character (a police commissioner) isn't in the book, and his inclusion not only throws the story off balance, but necessitates the removal of several potentially interesting characters and events.Īnother detriment is the gratuitous (and illogical) nudity in the Evelyn Nesbit scenes, which earned the film its R rating. At the turn of the 20th century, architect Stanford White unveils a nude statue atop Madison Square Garden, modeled after former chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit. Nesbit off to New York and took Evelyn to an isolated German. Mothers Younger Brother is infatuated with the notorious Vaudeville actress Evelyn Nesbit (The Crime of the Century), who is oblivious to him. There are also several scenes involving an unnamed upper-middle-class family (headed by James Olson and Mary Steenburgen) who are evidently meant to be the audience's eyes and ears, but are frankly not terribly interesting.īack in 1981, Ragtime was given plenty of press coverage as the comeback picture for James Cagney, after twenty years in retirement. This enraged Thaw, but did not dissuade his desire for her hand in marriage. This last subplot consumes most of the film's running time, to the overall detriment of the pacing. Goldman, the anarchist, adds even less, making periodic entrances chiefly to rail against injustice. Thaw ( Robert Joy) kills architect Stanford White ( Norman Mailer) and a lone black man's (Howard Rollins Jr.) quest for justice when his car is destroyed by a racist fire chief ( Kenneth McMillan). Nesbit and Houdini (Jim Corti) make visits, but add little to the plot mechanics.
Ragtime movie evelyn nesbit movie#
Among the mosaic of colorful factual and fictional characters in the novel were escape artist Harry Houdini and radical Emma Goldman.īoth characters are all but eliminated in the film version, which only concentrates on three of Doctorow's many plot threads: The story of an immigrant artist ( Mandy Patinkin) who becomes a movie director the saga of Gibson Girl Evelyn Nesbit Shaw ( Elizabeth McGovern), for whose sake playboy Harry K. Rollins, Jr.) meets the family by accident, or maybe by fate. Coalhouse (in a superb performance by Howard E. Thats before the saga of Coalhouse Walker alters his life. Doctorow's novel Ragtime was a sprawling fictional account of American manners and mores in the years between 19. For Younger Brother, the sirens of the big city call, in the form of an infatuation with the chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit (Elizabeth McGovern).
0 kommentar(er)
