More than any other decade in American film history, the 1970’s are filled with colorful, offbeat and quirky character studies. None fit that order more than one of the inaugural films of the decade, 1970’s QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX. While this odd and touching little film did in fact garner much praise upon its initial release, it is typically left out of discussions involving the more interesting works of the period.
QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX was the first screenplay credited to actor Gabriel Walsh, best known for some television work in the sixties and seventies. Walsh sold his strangely moving little script, concerning a lonely young Dublin man who helps support his family by picking up horse dung off the street and selling it as fertilizer, to the independent Scotia-Barber productions in 1968. The wheels were quickly set in motion to make Walsh’s touching little script a reality and director Waris Hussein signed on to helm the low budget project in late 1969.
Hussein was born in 1938 and had begun directing television productions in the early part of the sixties. After helming his debut theatrical feature, 1969’s A TOUCH OF LOVE, Hussein quickly began prep work on QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX in 1969. Key to the film’s success and resonance was the casting of the title role in the film, a part that would demand someone not only talented but also an actor with just the right amount of eccentricity to sell such an odd role.
The complex role of Quackser instantaneously fascinated legendary comedian Gene Wilder when he got the script in 1969, and he signed on to play the part immediately despite the film’s budgetary restrictions. The Milwaukee born Wilder had been on a role since his small role in BONNIE AND CLYDE three years earlier and films like THE PRODUCERS (1968) and START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME (1969) had cemented his status as one of the brightest and best young American actors in the world. He would give arguably his best and most moving performance in QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX, although he has never gotten his full due for it.
Cast opposite Wilder in the important role of Zazel, the pretty American college student who steals and breaks Quackser’s heart, was a charming young actress who had only appeared in one theatrical film before being given the part. Margot Kidder was just twenty-one when she stepped on the set to work opposite Gene Wilder, but her relative inexperience was unnoticeable as she matched him every step of the way. She gives a moving and multi-layered performance as a young girl still trying to figure out who exactly she is and it remains among the most finely crafted roles of her distinguished career.
With his cast in place, Hussein took the filming to Ireland and shot nearly all of it on location in and around Dublin. There were reports of problems mostly centering around budgetary issues and personality clashes, but none of that affected the film. QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX is one of the oddest and most oddly moving films of the seventies, and its virtually anonymity since is most unfortunate.
What makes Hussein’s film so incredible good, outside of the inspired casting of Wilder and Kidder, is that it is simply a story we have not seen before. There is something so lovably tragic about this poor small town man who travels the streets each day with a shovel and a wagon, literally collecting something that is by its very nature, waste. Wilder is astonishing in the film, and he injects the role with so much humanity and tenderness that it is impossible to think of another actor who could have played it. Kidder is equally rewarding, and the young beauty manages the near impossible task of creating a character simultaneously overwhelmingly inconsiderate and yet still loving towards our poor hero.
The supporting cast is splendid, and is made up of a cross section of American actors and Irish locals, with special note going to Mary Ollis and Seamus Forde for their performances as Quackser’s parents. The film’s strikingly dingy look is courtesy of famed Roman Polanski cinematographer, Gilbert Taylor, and his low-key approach fits the films tragi-comic atmosphere perfectly.
In the director’s chair, Hussein fills the role very nicely. None other than Jean Renoir was approached at one point to helm the film, so Hussein had some fairly large shoes to fill. It remains, sadly, one of the only notable films the clearly talented Hussein ever helmed, as he would return mostly to television after.
QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX opened in the summer of 1970 to so-so business but a strong critical backing. Walsh would receive a Writer’s Guild nomination for his lovely and original script but would end up not taking the coveted prize home.
Distribution problems plagued the film immediately and these continued up into the mid seventies when it gradually made its way across Europe, under the title FUN LOVING. It was released on VHS in the early eighties and then fell off the map completely before
VCI issued a solid
widescreen DVD of it in 2003. It is thankfully still available and can usually be found for under ten dollars.
While rarely mentioned among the best American films of the seventies, QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX is without a doubt one of the most original. Both Margot Kidder and the much missed Gene Wilder would go onto many more popular and well known roles in their long careers, but QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX remains one of the definitive works by both of them. It is one of the great under seen American films of the period, and a reappraisal is due.
***This is a slightly revamped version of my article that appeared in The Amplifier a while back.
The original version can be viewed here. This particular article will always be special to me as it is the first one that ever appeared in actual print. I hope it proves enjoyable for Moon In The Gutter readers who haven't read it already.***
I quite like Columbus’ script for GREMLINS with its strong odes to everything from IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, THE WIZARD OF OZ and even old CHARLIE CHAN serials. Still, it is Dante’s direction, the beautiful photography of John Hora, the wonderful special effects and the talented cast that really makes GREMLINS special. Add on a spirited score by the great Jerry Goldsmith as a cherry on top and GREMLINS is one of the most alive and inventive films of the eighties.
As previously mentioned, Goldsmith’s score is a charmer and the main theme is among his most memorable. The photography of Hora is really gorgeous and, even at its most artifical looking, the film still manages to maintain a level of realism thanks to his inventive lighting during the many nighttime scenes. 
Brach was born in the summer of 1927 in France. A voracious reader growing up, Brach became interested in both writing and film as a young man. He began submitting French scripts in the early part of the sixties and his first paying job came as the dialogue writer on Jean Leon’s DO YOU LIKE WOMEN in 1964. Soon after he met up with a young Polish director named Roman Polanski, who had just scored a major critical hit with the powerful KNIFE IN THE WATER (1962). Polanksi liked Brach (he recalled they were immediately ‘inseparable’ in his essential autobiography ROMAN) and brought him on board to write his segment for an upcoming anthology film known as THE BEAUTIFUL SWINDLERS (1964). This would set off one of the most fruitful cinematic collaborations in film history. 
The third episode of THE MOD SQUAD, entitled MY WHAT A PRETTY BUS, wisely adapts the more cinematic style of the pilot and corrects many of the stylistic and scripting mistakes the second one made. 
Guest star Henry Jones is excellent as the backstabbing aging con Mills. Jones had an astonishing career in television and film that lasted well over four decades until his death at the age of 86 in 1999. His film credits include everything from VERTIGO (1958) to DICK TRACY (1990) and television fans will surely recognize him from guest roles in BEWICHED and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. His role here in MY WHAT A PRETTY BUS is really large and he is great as the crafty old thief who always seems to have another trick up his sleeve. 
Aaron Spelling bravely refused to buckle in his vision of the show as a celebration of friendship between different sexes and races. 
Cast opposite Wilder in the important role of Zazel, the pretty American college student who steals and breaks Quackser’s heart, was a charming young actress who had only appeared in one theatrical film before being given the part. Margot Kidder was just twenty-one when she stepped on the set to work opposite Gene Wilder, but her relative inexperience was unnoticeable as she matched him every step of the way. She gives a moving and multi-layered performance as a young girl still trying to figure out who exactly she is and it remains among the most finely crafted roles of her distinguished career.
While rarely mentioned among the best American films of the seventies, QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX is without a doubt one of the most original. Both Margot Kidder and the much missed Gene Wilder would go onto many more popular and well known roles in their long careers, but QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX remains one of the definitive works by both of them. It is one of the great under seen American films of the period, and a reappraisal is due. 
She would quickly become one of the early eighties most interesting young stars with just her second film, Amy Heckerling’s legendary FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (also from 1982). This Cameron Crowe scripted work remains one of the best high school themed films ever shot and it introduced many film lovers to not only Cates but also Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Eric Stoltz,, and Forest Whitaker among others. Cates is delightfully moving in the picture and her scene arising out of the swimming pool in Reinhold’s fantasy is a moment frozen in many film lovers’ dreams. It’s an iconic moment that ranks, for people who grew up with it, with Marlon Brando stripping off his shirt in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE or Marilyn Monroe’s dress blowing up in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. 
Phoebe Cates retired from the screen after starring in PRINCESS CARABOO just past the age of thirty to raise her children. She has appeared just once since in a film, 2001’s THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY for her old friend and FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH survivor Jennifer Jason Leigh. Nearing forty in the film, Cates is still breathtaking and for people who grew up with her and Leigh it is something special to see them together again. THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY is a fitting farewell to Cates, it’s a strong and personal film from first time director Leigh and Phoebe delivers a nice low key performance for her. 
