Smile (1975 film)
| Smile | |
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Original Theatrical Poster
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| Directed by | Michael Ritchie |
| Produced by | Michael Ritchie |
| Screenplay by | Jerry Belson |
| Starring |
Bruce Dern Barbara Feldon Michael Kidd Geoffrey Lewis Eric Shea |
| Music by | Dan Orsborn |
| Cinematography | Conrad L. Hall |
| Edited by | Richard A. Harris |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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117 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Smile is a 1975 DeLuxe Color satirical comedy-drama film directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Jerry Belson about a beauty pageant in Santa Rosa, California.
It stars Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon and introduced a number of young actresses who later went on to larger roles, such as Melanie Griffith. The film satirizes small-town America and its peculiarities, hypocrisies and artifice within and around the pageant.
The film was subsequently adapted into a 1986 Broadway musical with songs by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Ashman.
The plot revolves around the contestants and people involved with the California pageant of the fictional Young American Miss Pageant, held in Santa Rosa, California.
Big Bob Freelander (Bruce Dern), the head judge, is a used car dealer. Brenda DiCarlo (Barbara Feldon), is the pageant's Executive Director, and her husband Andy (Nicholas Pryor) is an alcoholic.
In separate subplots, the film focuses on Andy's unhappiness, as he is about to be inducted into a fraternal society, which requires a humiliating ritual, Little Bob (Eric Shea), Big Bob's son, who conspires with his friends to photograph the contestants in various states of undress, and the activities of the contestants themselves.
Wilson Shears (Geoffrey Lewis), the pageant producer, clashes with a choreographer brought in from Hollywood, Tommy French (Michael Kidd), who is cynical and blunt.
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