Echo Park *** (1986, Susan Dey, Tom Hulce, Michael Bowen) – Classic Movie Review 12,902

The lovely, really rather special 1986 comedy-drama film Echo Park stars Susan Dey, Tom Hulce and Michael Bowen, and follows the lives of Los Angeles aspiring actors, musicians and models.

Director Robert Dornhelm’s 1986 Austria/ US co-production comedy-drama film Echo Park stars Susan Dey, Tom Hulce, Michael Bowen, and Cheech Marin. Set in the Echo Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles, the story follows the lives of some aspiring actors, musicians and models.

Its is a charming little bitter-sweet comedy about three of Los Angeles’s misfits struggling together to realise their dreams. Dey stars as single mom May Greer, an aspiring actress with a young son; Hulce plays a poetic pizza man, the delivery boy Jonathan; and Bowen is especially endearing as the Austrian weightlifter, May’s next-door neighbour, bodybuilder August Reichtenstein.

Echo Park is an underrated film, both funny and sharp, full of good things and fine performances. Director Dornhelm, born in Romania and trained in Vienna, brings his beady European eye to American quirks. It is particularly satisfying to see Hulce with something meaty film-role-wise to get his teeth into.

Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira, has a brief cameo as a secretary. Timothy Carey appears in his final film.

The cast are Susan Dey as May Greer, Tom Hulce as Jonathan, Michael Bowen as August Reichtenstein, Christopher Walker as Henry Greer, Shirley Jo Finney as Gloria, Heinrich Schweiger as Mr. Reichtenstein, Cheech Marin as Syd, John Paragon as Hugo, Cassandra Peterson as Sheri, Timothy Carey as Vinnie, Robert R. Shafer as Commercial Director, Skip O’Brien as Prisoner, and Biff Yeager as Jailer,

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,902

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