Under the Rainbow
| Under the Rainbow | |
|---|---|
Film poster.
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| Directed by | Steve Rash |
| Produced by | Fred Bauer |
| Screenplay by | Pat McCormick Harry Hurwitz Martin Smith Fred Bauer Pat Bradley |
| Story by | Fred Bauer Pat Bradley |
| Starring |
Chevy Chase Carrie Fisher |
| Music by | Joe Renzetti |
| Cinematography | Frank Stanley |
| Edited by | David Blewitt |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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July 31, 1981 |
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Running time
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97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $18,826,490 |
Under the Rainbow is a 1981 American comedy film starring Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, Eve Arden, and Billy Barty.
The plot is loosely based on the gathering of little people in a Hollywood hotel, to audition for roles as Munchkins in the movie The Wizard of Oz. The movie also has nobility, assassins, spies, and tourists. Jerry Maren, who played the small role of Smokey in this film, previously played a member of the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz.
The movie was nominated for Razzie Awards for Worst Musical Score by Joe Renzetti, and Worst Supporting Actor (Billy Barty). It received extremely negative reviews, many of which condemned the various sight gags involving the little people.
The film marked the first acting role of dwarf actor Phil Fondacaro, as well as his brother Sal Fondacaro.
It was partially filmed on location at the Culver Hotel, where the "Munchkins" actually stayed during the production of Oz.
It is 1938, and the USA is still gripped by the Great Depression. A corrugated iron barn somewhere in Kansas is serving as a refuge and hostel for a community of the destitute, homeless and unemployed, as well as a post office and bus station.
Diminutive Rollo Sweet (Cork Hubbert) enters the barn and asks the Mail Clerk (Bill Lytle) whether anything came for him. He says if he doesn't get an offer from Hollywood with bus fare to California, he'll mail himself there if he has to. A crowd of other residents crowds around a skeletal wireless receiver, but reception is poor. Rollo climbs up to the roof of the barn to fix the antenna, then slips and falls from the roof.
Just then, the announcer introduces a broadcast by the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It speaks of Hitler's invasion of Germany's neighbors and the scene cuts to the Führer (Theodore Lehmann) who is instructing his diminutive but aggressive secret agent Otto Kriegling (Billy Barty) on his latest mission. Otto is to go to California, to a certain hotel, to meet up with an agent of the Emperor from Tokyo, whom he will recognize because he will be Japanese and wearing a white suit. The latter will recognize Otto because of his height – he is 3 feet 9 inches (1.14 metres) tall. In addition, the Japanese agent will utter to Otto as a secret password "The pearl is in the river", which will prove he is the man to whom Otto must hand over a secret map of America's military defense system. Otto departs, confident that nothing can go wrong with these arrangements.
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Wikipedia