Smile

1975

Action / Comedy

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 70% · 18 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 70% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 2760 2.8K

california beauty contest satire choreographer beauty pageant used car salesman

Plot summary

It's time again for California's "Young American Miss" beauty pageant, the biggest event of the year for Big Bob Freelander and Brenda DiCarlo, who give their all to put on a successful pageant. But Brenda is having marital difficulties and Bob's son is up to some mischief. Could this year's pageant be in jeopardy?

Director

Michael Ritchie Photo
Michael Ritchie

Top cast

Melanie Griffith Photo
Melanie Griffith as Karen - Young American Miss
Annette O'Toole Photo
Annette O'Toole as Doria - Young American Miss
Caroline Williams Photo
Caroline Williams as Helga - Young American Miss
Bruce Dern Photo
Bruce Dern as Big Bob
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.02 GB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds 1
1.88 GB
1920*1040
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by consortpinguin 8 / 10

Enjoyable Comedy

"Smile" is a perfect satire of our human penchant for joining clubs and organizations. Set against the "Miss Teen California" Pageant, this film parodies the pettiness, power plays, and self-importance of the contest's organizers.At the time, I had just joined the Jaycees and I roared with laughter at all the "Jaycee types" I saw. Bruce Dern, the enthusiastic but dense Jaycee President "Big Bob Friedlander" sets the tone of the festivities. Barbara Feldon as chairwoman Brenda DiCarlo runs a taut ship, but is none too bright. In fact her husband, Andy, is literally driven to drink and runs away from the "exhausted rooster" ceremony rather than kiss a dead chicken. Big Bob's son, "Little Bob" and his friends get caught running a business of taking pictures of the girls dressing rooms through the windows. In one of the less ethical aspects of the pageant, the Jaycees wait until their choreographer has taught the girls a dance number using a runway out into the audience. Suddenly the Jaycees take away the runway to accommodate "the golden circle" of $150 seats. As the choreographer tries the number without the runway, one of the girls falls. Putting the honest choreographer in a moral bind of money vs. safety, the Jaycees only put the runway back in by forcing him to deduct the cost of the "golden circle" tickets from his fee. This film is a lot of laughs, starting at the very beginning, when one of the local pageant winners presents as her "talent" a demonstration of how to pack your suitcase. During the credits, as she runs to the plane to the pageant, her suitcase flies open, spilling everything all overt he place. The contestants steal the show. Some of the "talent" is singing, and, well, none of them have ever won a Grammy. Shortly after Maria ingratiates her way into Barbara Feldon's favor, her "talent" of flinging lighted batons ends in disaster as a few of the other contestants chuckle conspiratorially.I didn't quit the Jaycees, but I certainly had many laughs at the meetings! In short, a great comedy! I recommend it highly and give it an "8."
Reviewed by marcslope 8 / 10

Everything that's wrong with America, in under two hours

Extremely smart little satire that uses a state beauty pageant as a microcosm for a stinging look at American values, with hypocrisy rampant and greed triumphant. Writer Jerry Belson delineates his characters very carefully, so that we know whom to side with and whom to despise, and the nearly no-name cast portrays them brilliantly. Talented Joan Prather is the contestant we most identify with, decent, but slowly being corrupted as the urge to win overtakes her, and Michael Kidd is the semi-big-time choreographer who at first seems callous and unlikable but turns out to be merely seeing, and telling, it like it is. There's some too-easy comedy as we view the contestants' terrible talent competition entries, but at the end we've seen a remarkably thorough put-down of American values circa 1975. (Maybe it didn't get more attention because its utter honesty and accuracy about the American way of winning, a pet theme of the director's, made people uncomfortable.) The final scene, in the police car, is just a perfect wrap-up.
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