Nuts **** (1987, Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton) – Classic Movie Review 2274

Director Martin Ritt’s 1987 drama stars Barbra Streisand, who works her fingernails to the bone for credibility as a parentally abused high-class call girl, Claudia Draper, who has killed one of her clients called Allen Green in self defence.  

The court and her mother Rose Kirk (Maureen Stapleton) and stepfather Arthur (Karl Malden) attempt to have her declared mentally incompetent by Dr Herbert Morrison (Eli Wallach) to avoid a public scandal. But the strong-willed Claudia realises that if her parents succeed she will be remanded to a psychiatric facility for an indefinite time, so she is determined to battle for the right prove she is sane enough to stand trial for manslaughter.

The story, developed in a screenplay by Tom Topor, Darryl Ponicsan and Alvin Sargent, based on Topor’s 1979 play, is thoughtful, intelligent and extremely moving.

Streisand is so touching and lovely in this hooker part that you can forgive the basic miscasting. She makes you want to believe in her characterisation and, with the skill and appeal of her performance, that’s enough. Richard Dreyfuss, on the other hand, is ideally cast and effortlessly convincing as Aaron Levinsky,  the public defender the court appoints to handle her case when the attorney her parents hire to defend her quits after she assaults him.

Ritt handles it all impeccably, while it is especially gratifying to have revered old stalwarts Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach aboard too to help out in the acting department. Also in the cast are Robert Webber, James Whitmore, Leslie Nielsen, William Prince, Dakin Matthews, Paul Benjamin, Warren Manzi, Elizabeth Hoffman, Castulo Guerra, Stacy Bergman, Hayley Taylor-Block, Matt Rivald, John Wesley and Tony Rokin. It proved Malden’s final film before his death in 2009 and Nielsen’s last non-comedic film.

The music is also from Streisand, who produced too. Streisand researched her role by studying schizophrenic patients in a mental ward and interviewing prostitutes at a Los Angeles brothel, and worked on her own draft of the screenplay. Although she received no screen credit, the studio later publicly acknowledged her contribution.

Apart from a few days of exterior shooting in Manhattan, the $25million budgeted film was made in Los Angeles. It had mixed reviews and performed very modestly, taking $30million at the box office, including only $8million in the US.

Eli Wallach, best known for his role as the villainous Tuco in The Good the Bad and the Ugly, died in New York City on 24 June 2014 at the age of 98.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2274

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