{"id":43717,"date":"2024-05-03T07:25:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T11:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=43717"},"modified":"2024-05-03T07:33:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T11:33:18","slug":"the-bootleg-files-hot-dogs-for-gauguin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/03\/the-bootleg-files-hot-dogs-for-gauguin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Hot Dogs for Gauguin"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 864:<\/strong> \u201cHot Dogs for Gauguin\u201d (1972 student film short by Martin Brest starring Danny DeVito). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On the OK.ru website. <\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> An obscure film that fell through the cinematic cracks.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: <\/strong>Not likely.<\/p>\n

At the risk of being cruel, it needs to be acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of student films represent a victory of enthusiasm over talent. But that\u2019s not to say the genre lacks gems \u2013 Denis Sanders\u2019 \u201cA Time Out of War\u201d (1954) won the Academy Award, while George Lucas\u2019 career has its roots in his 1967 \u201cElectronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB.\u201d Martin Brest is also credited with hatching one of the best student films of all time, the 1972 \u201cHot Dogs for Gauguin,\u201d which he made while at New York University \u2013 that film wound up on the National Film Registry, one of the very few student films to earn such an honor.
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However, for many years \u201cHot Dogs for Gauguin\u201d was only known by its reputation \u2013 a 3\u00bd-minute version played on \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d on December 13, 1980, but the complete 22-minute film was a mostly elusive commodity that only had occasional screenings at NYU. Somehow, the complete film turned up on Russia\u2019s OK.ru video website in a bootlegged upload \u2013 and in viewing \u201cHot Dogs for Gauguin,\u201d it is easy to see why the National Film Registry included this obscure work.<\/p>\n

Brest had the good fortune to cast a then-unknown Danny DeVito in the starring role of Adrian, a down-on-his luck photographer whose perilous financial problems has brought him to the brink of starvation \u2013 the film\u2019s title refers to the French artist Paul Gauguin, whom Adrian recalls as having starved to death due to his penniless existence. Adrian lives in a shabby lower Manhattan apartment and is visited by Fletcher (William Duff-Griffin), a hirsute and pompous high school English teacher who fancies himself as a potential private eye. <\/p>\n

Adrian shares a plan with Fletcher on how he is going to gain instant fame and fortune \u2013 he planted explosives in the nose of the Statue of Liberty to go off at noon of the following day. He chose that day and time because the statue will be closed to the public and none of the maintenance staff at the venue will be in the structure at that time. Adrian will position himself on the roof of an office building facing the statue and will take a photograph of the statue\u2019s head exploding \u2013 a right-place-at-the-right-time feat that he compares to the photographer who snapped the picture of the Hindenburg exploding at the mooring tower in New Jersey in 1937.<\/p>\n

Fletcher is appalled by Adrian\u2019s scheme, and the following day he tries to stop him. But Adrian tricks Fletcher into getting drunk and taking a ride on the Staten Island ferry, where flirts with a woman while her boyfriend watches in displeasure \u2013 DeVito\u2019s then-girlfriend (and future wife) Rhea Perlman and Brest play the couple in the scene. Adrian tries to lose Fletcher to carry out his plan, while Fletcher takes it upon himself to save the statue from being destroyed.<\/p>\n

What happens? Well, no there are no spoilers here, except to say there is a twist climax followed by a twist denouement \u2013 both being laugh-out-loud funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cHot Dogs for Gauguin\u201d was shot in grimy 16mm black-and-white by Jacques Haitkin, who would later gain fame as the cinematographer on such classics as \u201cA Nightmare on Elm Street\u201d and \u201cThe Hidden.\u201d The film\u2019s harsh visual style matches the scruffy, down-at-heel worlds of the potentially deranged Adrian and his self-important pal Fletcher. Brest further amplifies their dead-end worlds by juxtaposing their desperate antics against Irving Aaronson\u2019s bouncy 1930s rendition of Cole Porter\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Misbehave\u201d on the soundtrack.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how Brest came to cast DeVito, but it was serendipitous \u2013 the diminutive actor fully displays the charismatic crassness that earned him stardom on \u201cTaxi\u201d and in his subsequent comedy movies. Duff-Griffin is a wonderful foil as an impotent voice of reason battling DeVito\u2019s devilish plot \u2013 this might be his best-known screen work, as he would only become an occasional minor presence in film while mostly concentrating on a theatrical career before his early death in 1994.<\/p>\n

Brest, of course, would enjoy a lucrative run of hit films including \u201cBeverly Hills Cop,\u201d \u201cMidnight Run\u201d and \u201cScent of a Woman\u201d before the box office catastrophe of the Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez vehicle \u201cGigli\u201d ended his career in 2003. He would later observe, \u201cI had a good run, and I enjoyed success and freedom, and that was fantastic. I would’ve liked it to go on longer, but everybody likes everything to go on longer.\u201d <\/p>\n

The National Film Registry added \u201cHot Dogs and Gauguin\u201d in 2009, which generated a new wave of awareness for the title. But to date, there has been no commercial home entertainment release. The aforementioned OK.ru posting went online last year, and to date this is the only way we can enjoy this scruffy mini-classic.<\/p>\n