SYNOPSICS
So Fine (1981) is a English,Italian movie. Andrew Bergman has directed this movie. Ryan O'Neal,Jack Warden,Mariangela Melato,Richard Kiel are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1981. So Fine (1981) is considered one of the best Comedy movie in India and around the world.
Jack Fine, owner/manager of Fine Fashions of Brooklyn, which solely produces women's dresses, has been having a difficult time the past year due to the company not keeping up with the changing fashions. Associated, Jack is in debt to the tune of $1.5 million to loan shark and gangster, Mr. Eddie, a hulking and flamboyant man who has a penchant for picking up and destroying things which are bothering him. Jack now falls into that category. Instead of proverbially or literally breaking Jack's legs or worse, Mr. Eddie decides to take over Fine Fashions until the debt is paid, with Jack's son, Bobby Fine, an English Literature professor at upstate Chippenango State College, to manage the operations. Not only does this new career, which Bobby has no option but to accept, threaten the possibility of Bobby obtaining this year's tenure track position in the department, but Bobby at the helm of the fashion house threatens to ruin it completely, as Bobby has no idea about fashion whatsoever. ...
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So Fine (1981) Reviews
VEGAS..... then RENO, you dont like it.....Tough
'So Fine'(1981) Absolutely hysterical comedy about a college professor forced by one- syllable mobster( played perfectly by 7'2'' giant Richard Kiel)to join his manufacturer father in the garment industry and inadvertently invents see-through jeans that become a national rage. Ryan O'Neal( believe it or not) is very good as the flustered professor and the great Jack Warden as the father, all but steals the film. Non- stop laughs for 90 minutes
Absolutely hilarious!
It is truly criminal that this movie is not available on DVD, especially when you consider the tripe that is out there. The acting is on target and the writing is superb. Richard Kiel is perfect as the asexual mobster who forces Jack Warden to bring his dorky English professor son Ryan O'Neal into the family garment business. An affair between O'Neal and Kiel's incredibly hot wife ensues, leading to a clothing fiasco that results in the development of jeans with clear plastic back pockets and a windfall profit for the company. O'Neal returns to school, leaving his New York garment district co-workers with Shakespeare ("We few, we happy few...") And from there the finale (Verdi's Otello, Richard Kiel in the title role, an appearance on paper by Pope John Paul II, and one of the classic lines of Jack Warden's career) can only be described as perfect. BTW, Fred Gwinn is exceptional as the head of O'Neal's English department. Don't miss it!
A modern screwball comedy
What makes this movie a comedy classic are the sub-plots involving Ryan O'Neal as a straight laced academic who gets involved with a sexy woman who is the girl friend of Big Eddie (the biggest bad guy you will ever met). While I wouldn't want to compare Ryan O'Neal with Cary Grant there is a feel of some of the Grant roles where he plays the shy awkward guy rather than his normal sophisticated role. This movie has the feel of an old time screwball comedy but with some scenes that only could be shown in a more modern movie. I will never forget the passionate couch scene where the girl breaks out in opera. Well worth the viewing if you can find it. Unfortunately it is not available on DVD yet... that needs to change!
Unheralded gem, deserves DVD release!
This is one of those movies that wouldn't seem to be very good, until you watch it - once or twice or half a dozen times. Each major actor handles his or her role with aplomb and genuine talent - especially so for the recently deceased and sadly missed Jack Warden. Warden plays a struggling garment maker in New York, with O'Neal as his college-professor son. The various details of the plot can be seen in the other comments, but basically it boils down to the fact that Jack is in debt to Kiel's gangster character ("Mr Eddie") and for some odd reason, Kiel insists on O'Neal joining the business. O'Neal falls for Kiel's lovely but ignored and bored wife, thereby endangering not only the business, but his life. Warden's reactions to the news are priceless, a combination of horror and bemused admiration for O'Neal's lovemaking prowess. Through an accident of timing, O'Neal ends up spending the night under the marriage bed of Kiel and his wife, and since she threw his clothes out the window in a fit of passion, he has to get home in the morning in a pair of her jeans. He splits the rear end of them, and patches them with some clear plastic scavenged from a trash can. His entry to the garment shop creates a stir, and within a few movie moments, the "So Fine" jeans are a national rage. The business back on top, O'Neal heads back to school. However, Mrs. Big Eddie follows him there, then of course Mr. Eddie himself is on the trail, and finally Warden too. The climactic scenes, played out against a college production of "Othello" are hilarious in themselves. But, as several have noted, the funniest line in the movie, and one of the dozen or so best lines ever, is Jack Warden's unabashed question to his love interest in the gondola on the canals of Venice just before the credits roll. As a send up of the garment industry, provincial colleges, gangsters, Shakespeare, Mozart and various others, this movie hits on many different levels. There are at least a half dozen quick 'funny bits', not the least of which are scenes like Richard Kiel lip-syncing to the Four Season's "Walk like a Man" while stopping for some nourishment at an IHOP-like place, O'Neals impassioned goodbyes to the fellow garment workers, quoting Henry IVs "we few, we happy few" speech, Fred Gwynne's imperious college president turn, the police at the end peering at Keil's Drivers License (note the picture - only his neck and chin show, a "Big man" joke that passes by REALLY FAST), who look at each other in a quizzical fashion, one saying, "Nationality?" and the other, peering at the Othello-made up Kiel's passed out body, "Moor?". There are so many quick jokes in this movie you really have to watch it four or five times to catch them all. Highly recommended.
JEANS FOR THE MILLENNIUM....
Having never been a Ryan O'Neal fan, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed "So Fine". I'm sure a great supporting cast helped (especially Jack Warden). We travel from the Ivy Halls of University life to the garment district of New York City, from clothing factory to an opera performance. Throw in a little infidelity, the "mob", and a new clothing fad, and you have a roller coaster ride of a film. Oh, and some advice, never date a woman whose last relationship was with Richard Kiel. He's the jealous (and angry) type. One thing I never understood. The accidental creation of the jeans (that led to fame and fortune), never having made it to a real world fad. They consisted of jeans with cut-outs on the seats of the pants, with clear plastic instead of denim material. It's a great look! They may have seemed a bit risque in those days or more of a costume but no more. Anyone who has been to a beach or a pool lately will consider them tame. It may be an idea whose time has come........