Director
Fred Barzyk
Cast
Jean Shepherd - Adult Ralph Parker
Peter Kowanko - Young Ralph
Katherine Kamhi - Josephine Cosnowski
George Coe - The Old Man
Barbara Bolton - Mrs. Parker
Jay Ine - Randy
(SPOILERS)
Boy, I really lucked out this Christmas. I didn't receive many gifts, which is alright by me because I asked for little. What I did tear into (literally) on Christmas morning was more than I expected.
I don't know how she did it or where she found it, but my loving wife found a DVD collection of hard-to-find Jean Shepherd films. In fact, the quality of these films suggest they were copied from VHS copies.
As I've stated before, Shepherd is the Norman Rockwell of story telling. His autobiographical character Ralph Parker, made popular by the 1983 holiday staple A Christmas Story (not included in the collection) has been depicted elsewhere on television a few times before the Christmas movie's release, and afterwards.A company called "Onesmedia" compiled this collection of films, television programs, documentaries, narrations, and the like from Shepherd. It even includes the next couple of films I intend to watch and comment on for this unofficial Jean Shepherd movie extravaganza.
Those other movies I've critiqued previously, based on Shepherd's writings, includes The Phantom of the Open Hearth, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters and My Summer Story (aka It Runs in the Family). But I'm not done. There's a few more movies out there centered on Ralphie Parker like this one from 1985.
The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski was the first movie (albeit a made-for-TV movie) about Ralphie to be released after A Christmas Story. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say this is the first sequel, technically speaking. It wasn't advertised as such, but it is the first production about Ralph Parker to be released after A Christmas Story.
My blog readers may have seen my small tirade about the 2012 movie A Christmas Story 2 boasting to be the first official sequel. Despite Christmas being over, I still plan on reviewing that movie hopefully before February 2 - the official day when the Christmas season ends.
The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski aired on PBS's American Playhouse just as The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters. And like these movies, including A Christmas Story, it's narrated by Shepherd playing Ralph as an adult.
The movie centers on Ralph's (played this time by Peter Kowanko) romantic fling with the girl next door, Josephine Cosnowski (Katherine Kamhi).
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| Katherine Kamhi as Josephine Cosnowski |
Directed by Fred Barzyk, who also directed Phantom of the Open Hearth, there's a bit more drama in this than previous productions. It still possesses the same humor and fondness of those small joyous ups and unavoidable downs we still look upon with a certain fondness and bittersweet sentimentality.
These depictions are what makes Shepherd's stories distinct and relatable.
This story in particular is based on Shepherd's collection of stories called Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters.
The audience follows a teenage Ralph at Thanksgiving time - the holiday best known when, as Shepherd narrates, "down the tubes [go] countless diets."
Those hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpus's and their 785 smelly hound dogs (as referenced in A Christmas Story) finally move out of the house next door leaving behind trash in the yard and unpaid rent. The Cosnowskis, a Polish family from East Chicago, move in. Much to the pleasure of Ralph, they have a teenage daughter named Josephine.
Sure, the smell of stuffed cabbage permeates into the Parker house from those Cosnowskis next door. But that doesn't matter for Ralph. Josephine lives so close!
"Polish girls were the stuff of legend in our set," Shepherd narrates. "Exotic. Remote. The line of the alien and foreign is always strong. We used to take Flick's car and ride through the Polish neighborhood just to see the girls on summer nights."
Ol' Ralph frequently makes it a point to walk past Josephine's house on his way home from band practice, hauling his Sousaphone like a marching soldier hoping she spots him from her bedroom window.
He's completely enraptured by her charm, gentleness, simplicity, and beautiful features. And to his luck, Josephine is just as smitten with him.
The two are constantly side by side.
After dating for a while, Josephine asks him to join her family for a Thanksgiving party which happens to be on the same night as the highly anticipated Hohman Highschool basketball game at the Civic Center.
Still, Ralph goes to the party held in the basement of the local Catholic Church.
He's not only introduced to her mom and dad, and two brothers simply referred to as "Killer" and "Buzz" who play football for Notre Dame, he's also introduced to her uncles, aunts, cousins, family, friends, and the parish priest. It's clear to Ralph her family assumes his romance with Josephine is an absolute prelude to marriage.
Earlier in the movie, Ralph, Flick, and Schwartz meet up with their buddy, Howie. Shepherd tells us Howie left a potentially promising future as he was Hohman High School's basketball MVP, to marry young and have a baby. Now, he's forced to work long weeks to make ends meet.
At the party, while Ralph is plating a dish of kielbasa and stuffed cabbage for Josephine, Howie follows him to the food table and warns him to keep his freedom before it's too late.
"She introduced you to the priest! Don't you know how that means? Her relatives! That's how it happened to me. Run for it, man. Now!"
These movies have lines that are just as memorable and quotable as those from A Christmas Story.
Ralphie ditches his food, and makes a break for it. After all, he wanted a date! Not a wife.
Killer and Buzz see him take off and know exactly what he's doing. They chase him down until Ralph makes it to the basketball game were he joins Flick and Schwartz in the stands to catch the last few minutes.
"Boy, it was good to be a kid again," Shepherd says.
Ralph has his first face-to-face encounter with adulthood. It's certainly not watered down. Encounters with adulthood never are.
Adulthood grabs him by the collar as if it's giving him an ultimatum. If he wants to be with his girl for life, he's going to have to pay for it with a load of responsibility. Or, he can sacrifice it for a few more years of childhood freedom. "Well, kid... what's it gonna be?"
Meanwhile, for Ralph's Old Man, it's hunting season for a new car.
As we learned from watching A Christmas Story, the old man "loved bargaining as much as an Arab trader, and he was twice as shrewd."
He takes his business to "Friendly Fred's" auto dealership, a place he's patronized many times before.
I have the impression Fred is a caricature of Groucho Marx - a poor man's Groucho. I found him too cartoonish for the movie.
Of course, as the story takes place in the 1950s, this was the era of Groucho and his weekly quiz show, You Bet Your Life, sponsored by DeSoto Plymouth.
"Go down and visit your DeSoto Plymouth dealer today. And when ya do, tell 'em Groucho sent ya," he'd close his show with.
The comedy in this production is slightly overtaken with drama, especially in the first half when compared to those previous movies I've mentioned. This time the best of the comedy is saved up for the second half.
Shepherd's humor can be described by the phrase, "isn't it funny that..."
The humor here is in teenage romance. For any teenager, current or former, romance is a serious time. But years down the road when we have the vantage of seeing it from the outside looking in without the optimism seen through jade-tinted specs, the humor stands out on its own.
The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski seems to struggle a bit for content to fill the time frame. But it does pay off by the last act. That's when I found myself laughing the most, and nodding my head as I muttered "Yep...so true" to myself.
We can only imagine what happens to Ralph and Josephine after the final scene. That's left to our imagination.
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| (L to R) William Lampley as Flick, Jeff Yonis as Schwartz and Peter Kowanko as Ralph |
The Old Man refuses to go back and get his Olds back.
"You can't do that," he tells Mrs. Parker, who insists on returning their car, getting their trade-in and their money back.
But go back they do, and Mrs. Parker comes out of Friendly Fred's office with their money and the keys to the Oldsmobile.
Also, Ralph's kid brother, Randy (Jay Ine), has to play a turkey in the school pageant about the first Thanksgiving. It's a role he's stuck with, much to his chagrin.
But Mrs. Parker, along with the help of her Bridge playing friends, is able to make a costume for him. Despite his huge displeasure for being cast as the bird thanks to his teacher, Ms. Shields's alphabetically ordered casting decisions, his performance receives a standing ovation. It becomes his greatest accomplishment ever.
Ine's performance is nothing to praise. Children can certainly be great actors, but Ine just seems like he was cast at the last minute. He couldn't even produce a convincing scene when Randy starts balling to his mother about his role in the school play. It's pretend time rather than acting.
This movie helps make the characters we've seen in previous productions more well-rounded. Even in Randy's case, we have more insight into their mannerisms and reactions to the world around them.
Barbara Bolton returns from the previous American Playhouse productions from Shepherd, as well as Jay Ine. William Lampley returns as Flick, and Jeff Yonis as Schwartz.
George Coe replaces James Broderick as the Old Man.
Broderick sadly passed away in 1982 shortly after The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters.
The Old Man is famously played by Darren McGavin in A Christmas Story - a portrayal which has been branded in my head so permanently that it's difficult for me to see anyone else in the role.
While both Coe and Broderick are enjoyable as Ralph's Old Man, I'm rather bias as his dad is my favorite in A Christmas Story.
McGavin plays him so naturally and fittingly. And watching the movie at least once a year for the past 35 or so years of course would leave such a bias.
Still, I did enjoy Coe's performance which was just as gruff, stubborn and above all, genuine as audiences know the character to be thanks to McGavin.
And speaking of further insight, Ralph as an ambitious teen in the realm of romance, skidding too close to adulthood only to cling to kid-dom for safety while its still there to be clung to is funny to watch. Who hasn't contemplated their teenage ways of gaining love, only to inwardly cower in embarrassment when they think about the things they did to at least acquire a crush's attention? It's well played here.
We don't get much dialogue from young Ralph as Shepherd does it all through his narration. I don't know if it's intentional, but it makes young Ralph appear dopey. Of course, "dopey" fits well with a love struck teen, so it works.
Regardless, it's another fun watch especially in the second half. Shepherd's humor and brilliance for story telling is what kept me interested along with relatable scenarios such as Ralph's walks past Josephine's hoping she'll see him. Why? Just to notice he exists!
Sadly, we're not treated to any initial meeting. One moment, Ralph is in love. The next, they're a hot item. It's not necessarily crucial, but it may have been a great opportunity to see Ralph stumble over himself over the girl of his dreams.
The movie keeps the Shepherd banter and cleverness throughout. And it's another movie that deserves more attention, especially among A Christmas Story fans.
Despite Christmas day having come and gone, we are still in the Christmas season (a perk of being a Catholic). I still have A Christmas Story 2 to watch as well as Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. Those are on their way.
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