The Chosen

We've been watching old TV concert serties shows as our dinner viewing, like Midnight Special (Wolfman Jack Aooo!) One of the things we noticed is how great Teddy Pendergrass is. That made Ms. Spenser think of Choose Me (1984), where he sings the theme song, and quite a bit more.

After a nice title sequence set outside a sleazy nightclub named Eve's, we meet Keith Carradine. He is being released for a mental institution, primarily because they need the room. He heads for Eve's, looking for the Eve. That would owner Leslie Ann Warren - but she's not his Eve. His Eve is dead, and Warren bought the bar because it had her name. Carradine also meets Rae Dawn Chong, who reads him bad, horny poetry and generally acts weird.

Intercut with this is Genevieve Bujold as a radio relationship counselor, Dr. Love. She has a deep, sexy voice, but a detached, rational approach. It turns out that Warren has been calling into the show and talking about how messed up her love life is. 

Bujold is moving in with Warren as a new roommate. Since she works days and Bujold nights, it should work out. But Bujold's call to her psychiatrist (she'll only talk to him on the phone) hint that she may have some kinks that don't show up on her show. 

It turns out that Chong is married to a Euro-trash gangster, and he is sleeping with warren, who also has a fling with her bartender, John Laroquette. Carradine winds up sleeping with Chong, Bujold and Warren. And he always asks a woman to marry him if he kisses her - or as he says, he only kisses women he wants to marry. But he also tells people he was an air force ace, combat photographer, spy, Yale professor of English, etc. So you don't have to believe him. 

And this all takes place in 80s LA. It has a sort of La Ronde feel, with everyone making love in many combinations. Dr. Love is everywhere on the airwaves, and all the women love to listen to her, and imagine what she is like. And all women fall for Carradine, because he seems to be a terrible liar and the only honest man. 

He is a lot of fun in this. He goes through the movie with a lopsided Jack Nicholson grin (or maybe a cuter Steve Buscemi). He wanted to find his last great love, but has a plan to go back to Las Vegas, gamble up a stake and move on from there. Will he be able to find a woman to share this plan with?

We saw this back in the 80s, on VHS, not in theater. The delirious, love-and-neon drenched atmosphere was intoxicating then. Now, 40 years later. it still delivers.

The movie was directed by Alan Rudolph (Love at Large). Super-agent Shep Gordon (Supermensch) wanted him to direct a music video for Pendergrass, who had just been paralyzed in a car crash and needed money. Rudolph told him that for a few more dollars, he'd make it a feature. Rudolph even took a directing job no one else wanted so he could pay for a few more Pendergrass songs that Gordon didn't control. I hope it worked out well for them.