Moonstruck ***** (1987, Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia, Feodor Chaliapin Jr, John Mahoney) – Classic Movie Review 2,724

Dean Martin warbles ‘When the moon hits your eye like a great pizza pie, that’s amore,’ over the opening titles and then we are off on producer-director Norman Jewison’s wonderfully warm, deliciously romantic 1987 hit comedy Moonstruck. It won three Oscars, grossed $80 million and was rated number eight on the American Film Institute’s list of the 10 greatest romantic comedies.

Cher stars and won a Best Actress Oscar as free-spirited Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini, a book keeper from Brooklyn, who is engaged to older Italian charmer Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), but is romanced by his cute and wacky younger brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage). Just to complicate matters, Johnny is the best friend of her late husband, who died seven years previously. Loretta is in a difficult situation.

Moonstruck is propelled by the cast’s all round heartfelt performances, but particularly from an exuberant, stunning-looking Cher and Olympia Dukakis as her tough, but warm-hearted mom who took well deserved Oscars, as did writer John Patrick Shanley for his best original screenplay. But Cage, Vincent Gardenia as dad and Feodor Chaliapin Jr as granddad are just as deserving and, in a fairer world, would have won Oscars too.

Director Jewison handles it all with perfect pace and great brio, and all the elements come together perfectly in a spirited, delightful, carefree movie. There is hardly an Italian in the whole cast, by the way, with Cher half-Cherokee, Dukakis of Greek origin and Chaliapin of Russian ancestry, though happily Cage (aka Coppola), Aiello and Gardenia (aka Vincenzo Scognamiglio) are of course the real deal.

Also in the cast are John Mahoney, Julie Bovasso, Anita Gillette, Louis Guss, Leonardo Cimino, Paula Trueman, Nada Despotovich, Joe Grifasi, and Gina DeAngeles.

The film was originally written for Sally Field and featured a Jewish family, but the MGM studio insisted on the ethnic change.

Vincent Gardenia, who died on 9 December 1992, aged 72, was one of the all-time great character actors and is sorely missed.

Feodor Chaliapin Jr died on 17 September 1992, aged 86.

John Mahoney died on 4 February 2018, aged 77.

Another all-time great character actor who made many fine movies, Danny Aiello, star of Do the Right Thing, Léon, Hudson Hawk and Moonstruck, died on 12 December 2019 at 86.

Canadian film director Norman Jewison (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was nominated for the Best Director Oscar three times in separate decades for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Moonstruck (1987).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,724

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