The Films of Jonathan Lynn: My Cousin Vinny

Compulsory Fan-art: Fred Gwynne as Judge Haller.

My Cousin Vinny – Released 1992 by Twentieth Century Fox Written by Dale Launer. Two touring New Yorkers are accused of murder while passing through Alabama. They’re only hope lies with Vinny Gambini, possibly the world’s worst lawyer.

Launer’s script starts out with a strong inciting incident: College kids Stan and Bill are arrested and booked for murder. The stakes start high and get higher. Every dramatic device is clear and strongly stated: Vinny’s dramatic need, the obstacles to that end , rising stakes and an ending climax that reincorporates both plot and character. My Cousin Vinny could very well be re-titled “Hollywood Screenwriting 101”. Whether that's a jibe or compliment (hint: it's a compliment) depends on one's tastes as a moviegoer, I suppose.

However, the subplot where Vinny’s harassed by a local itching to start a fight slows things down. In the movie, Vinny’s finance’, Lisa (Marisa Tomei) takes Vinny to a bar to settle a pool debt. A local good ‘ol boy refuses to pay up, and Vinny negotiates the terms of ass-kicking and payment. The scene shows Vinny being competent, so as not to lose all credibility with the audience. And it would be great if the scene ended there. But the pool shark is made into a running gag and periodically pops up to annoy Vinny (and the audience). The movie has pretty deliberate pacing as is, with repetitive legal proceedings determining the structure, and the pool shark sub plot distracts and just slows things down even more.

Overall, “My Cousin Vinny” is an excellent film due to its fantastic casting! Everybody from Joe Pesci as Vinny to Austin Pendleton as the one-scene-wonder Public Defender deliver top-notch performances, but I really have to stop and just spew some admiration for Fred Gwynne as Judge Haller. Gwynne’s damn intimidating, which is a little weird coming from a guy best known as Herman Munster. Gwynne’s choices, from his deliberate, high-status movement to the way he rests his head on his hand, make him seem every inch the terrifying first grade school teacher, if that school teacher had the power to throw you in jail and sentence you to death.

“My Cousin Vinny” is probably Jonathan Lynn’s first qualified US success. Produced in the US (As opposed to "Nuns" produced in Great Britian by none other than George Harrison), "Vinny" made back it’s budget in the first theatrical run (Approximately $53,000,000 gross over a $11,000,000 budget), and nabbing a supporting Actress Award for Marisa Tomei.

By the way, did you notice that this is, like, the third light comedy this guy's made that opens with a violent death? What's with that?

The Films of Jonathan Lynn: Nuns on the Run

Since the internet can't produce any SFW pictures of
"young Camille Corduri" here is some compulsory fan art.

Nuns on the Run, released 1990 by 20th Century Fox, produced by Handmade Films, Written by Jonathan Lynn.

Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane dress as brides of Christ in a scenario largely reminiscent of “Some Like It Hot” in a movie released a full two years before “Sister Act” with a small amount of “Blues Brothers” thrown in with at least one direct shout out to “Charlie’s Aunt”.

Most guys will recognize that dude from Monty Python and Hagrid straight off the bat, but the third lead is none other than Jackie Tyler herself, Camille Coduri. I’d surmise that it’s very hard to combine sexy and comical, so that a comedienne you can spank to is a valuable and rare find, but It’s probably because I’m really into hot chicks who tell jokes. Either way, Corduri really is this movie’s hidden treasure. Her character, Faith, plays very much like Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot: the bombshell love interest. But unlike Monroe’s “Sugar Kane”, Faith is comically near sighted (making her “blind faith”, a visual punning gag used nine years before Shannon Elizabeth’s character Justice in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”). When she isn’t naively and appealingly falling in love with a guy twice her age, she’s taking pratfalls and gunshot wounds, making her a true participant in the farce, rather than a detached outside observer.


On the whole, ‘Nuns on the Run’ is a better film than Clue in many ways: better ADR and continuity for instance, but it’s got crap villains. Brian Hope (Idle) and Charlie Mc Manus(Coltrane) dress in drag to hide from the mob. But the gangsters just aren’t that threatening. The main antagonist, Casey the gangleader (played by ), always accompanied by an “evil” guitar riff, fails to intimidate or believably come across as a guy who could head up a London gang. The rival gang, the Triads, come a across as little more than “evil asian” stereotypes. I wouldn’t call the stereotypes hateful, or intentionally offensive, but there’s no believability in the possibility these thinly drawn bad guys might win, killing a great deal of the tension in the film.

Oh yeah, and God’s pretty much an active character. Like in John Landis’s “The Blues Brothers”, the characters make mention and even supposition of divine intervention. But while Jake and Ellwood Blues were protected by a diety who would send literal illumination from above. God works differently with Brian and Charlie. Pretty much every coincidence in the movie can be interpreted as an act of God, from Brian and Charlie’s getaway car randomly running out of fuel to (SPOILER), the nuns of the Training school getting a suitcase full of much needed money for their drug rehabilitation clinic, Jonathan Lynn’s version of God works in strange ways. My favorite gag in the movie is when Casey has the heroes dead-to-rights at gunpoint in a hospital. When he’s about to pull the trigger, he’s smacked into by a crash-cart team. Deus Ex Machina, with a real machine no less!

Sure, 'Nuns' may not have the best jokes or comedic setpieces that hit the highs I mentioned in 'Clue', but it's got a solid plot construction, charming and likeable actors (important for light comedy), and served as enough of a commercial and artistic success to get Jonathan Lynn his next directing project with Fox, "My Cousin Vinny".

The Films of Jonathan Lynn: Clue

So here's the first in my own little mini series, a profile and reviews of the films of Jonathan Lynn, known in the UK for the series "Yes Minister", sadly unappreciated in the United States despite his two decades of film directing, hopefully, this will make more sense as I go along. First up, is Clue.

Here's some obligatory fan art of Lesley Ann Warren.

Released 1985 by Paramount pictures, Screenplay by Jonathan Lynn and John Landis, based on the board game.

Six blackmail victims are given color-coded pseudonyms and collected at a New England mansion for an intervention by Wadsworth , a Butler, then people die. The movie was released with multiple endings so that, like the board game, the culprits are interchangeable, also notable is the all-star cast which includes Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd and freaking Tim Curry at what may be the height of their comedic prowess.

Clue has great rising action. The first fifteen minutes are deliberate, complete with awkward- pause gags. By the end of the film, the pacing is frenetic with everyone running at full speed around the mansion as Wadsworth explains the whole damn movie at fever pitch.

However, the different endings screw everything up. Only the third ending is satisfactory and logical: every murder is committed by a different guest, Wadsworth is really Mr. Boddy, and Mr. Green is a government agent. In the other versions, the rest of the cast goes sadly unused as the plot hones in on a single murderer. The VHS release and TV cut of the film play all three endings in succession, extending the finale longer than it should (and screwing up the pacing). Though the film seems to make some solid observations about the nature of reconciling a private and political life, the whole point of the film gets lost in the conflicting resolutions.

.

By the way, Michael Kaplan’s costumes kick ass! Everybody’s wardrobe reveals information about their character, from the obvious (Mrs. White is in mourning) to the subtle (Col. Mustard wears a tailored suit, indicating undeclared income). Kaplan works the character’s namesakes into their appearance without being over-the-top; Professor Plum’s vest, for instance. The only character unlike his game piece is Mr. Green, who dresses in navy blue. Going by the third ending, this is positively brilliant: he’s not really Mr. Green.

Though Clue didn’t make a domestic profit in it’s initial release, the movie has since developed a fan following, and remains popular enough to warrant never-ceasing rumors of a remake. Clue is smart and hilarious, but will never be remembered as a “classic” since the multi-endings confuse the hell out of everybody.

But this movie rocks, anyway.