TILT(director/writer: Rudy Durand; screenwriters: Donald Cammell/story by Rudy Durand; cinematographer: Richard H. Kline; editor: Don Guidice; music: Lee Holdridge; cast: Brooke Shields (Brenda Davenport/Tilt), Charles Durning (The Whale), Gregory Walcott (Mr. Davenport), Helen Boll (Mrs. Davenport), Ken Marshall (Neil Gallagher), Harvey Lewis (Henry Bertolino), John Crawford (Mickey), Karen Lamm (Hype), Lorenzo Lamas (Casey Silverwater); Runtime: 101; MPAA Rating: PG; producer: Rudy Durand; Warner Brothers; 1979)
“A coming-of-age film that is a bomb.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A coming-of-age film that is a bomb. It’s set in LA.
This is the directorial debut of Rudy Durand. Donald Cammell cowrites the script with him.
The title character goes by the nickname Tilt (Brooke Shields). She is a fourteen-year-old pinball whiz-kid. Her friend Mickey (John Crawford) owns a bar and helps her hustle gambling games. In the bar, Tilt meets Texas traveller Neil Gallagher (Ken Marshall), an aspiring country singer. He schemes to get her to hitchhike with him to Texas so he can use her to hustle pinball players and make enough dough so he can make a demo record for music producers. She likes his folk tunes and leaves with him to get away from her overbearing father (Gregory Walcott). Along the way they challenge ‘The Whale (Charles Durning)’, the pinball champ. Neil’s best friend and manager (Harvey Lewis) thinks this hustle thing is a bad idea and walks out on his client.
Even its theme song “Long Rode to Texas” is a stinker.
REVIEWED ON 10/19/2015 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ