''Eddie and the Cruisers'' is a 1983 American

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Martin Davidson Martin Davidson (born November 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, television director. After attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he spent four (five counting tours) years as an actor in Off Broadway shows ...

with the screenplay written by the director and Arlene Davidson, based on the novel by P. F. Kluge. The sequel '' Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!'' followed in 1989.

Plot

A television reporter named Maggie Foley investigates the mysterious disappearance of cult rock star Eddie Wilson. Flashbacks dramatize Eddie's life and the rise and fall of his rock and roll band, Eddie and the Cruisers. The band gets its start at a club in Somers Point, New Jersey named Tony Mart's. Not adept at writing lyrics, Eddie hires Frank Ridgeway aka "Wordman" to be the band's keyboard player and lyricist, over the protests of band manager Doc Robbins and bassist Sal Amato. Rounding out the Cruisers are saxophonist Wendell Newton, background singer and Eddie's girlfriend Joann Carlino, and drummer Kenny Hopkins. The band's first album, ''Tender Years'', becomes a major hit, but recording their next album, "A Season in Hell," turns out to be a nightmare. Inspired by the bleak, fatalistic poetry of

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he starte ...

, Eddie wants something far more ambitious than their previous pop songs and he pushes his bandmates beyond their limits, musically and personally. Eddie wants to be great, but bassist Sal replies, "We ain't great. We're just some guys from Jersey." Eddie makes it clear that if the band cannot be great, there is no reason to ever play music again. ''A Season in Hell'' is rejected by Satin Records on the grounds that it is "dark and strange". In the early morning hours, Eddie's car crashes through the railing and over the Stainton Memorial Causeway. Eddie vanishes without a trace, his body never found. Almost 18 years later, Satin re-releases the band's first album, which charts even higher than it did originally. A television documentary is soon in the works, exploring the mystery of the band's second album, which had disappeared from the vaults of Satin Records the day after Eddie's disappearance. All of the original Cruisers are set to participate in the documentary except Eddie and Wendell Newton, who had died of an overdose (reported as a heart attack) in August 1963 at age 37. The others are now living ordinary lives: Sal Amato fronts a Cruisers tribute band. Ridgeway is a high school English teacher in Vineland, New Jersey. Doc works as a radio disc jockey in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Joann is a stage choreographer in Wildwood, New Jersey, and Hopkins works in a casino in Atlantic City. During the documentary interviews, the band expresses a desire to relive the past, but many of their memories are humiliating. For example, during a concert at Benton College, where Frank was once a student, Eddie ridicules Frank repeatedly by referring to him as "

Toby Tyler ''Toby Tyler or 10 Weeks with a Circus'', also known simply as ''Toby Tyler'', is a 1960 American drama film directed by Charles Barton and starring Kevin Corcoran, Henry Calvin, Gene Sheldon, and Richard Eastham. It was produced by Walt Dis ...

" after seeing him and Joann kissing before the concert. The other Cruisers members share similar stories. Joann is able to complete the one piece of the puzzle that Frank could not: revealing what happened to the band's second album. After storming from the studio, Eddie brought her to the Palace of Depression, a makeshift castle made of garbage and junk that he visited often as a child. She reveals it was in fact she who took the master tapes for the album from Satin Records, hiding them in the Palace of Depression, where she felt they belonged. Frank and Joann go back to the Palace of Depression to retrieve the master tapes. A mystery man driving a blue 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible identical to Eddie's arrives at the house and calls to Joann. But before she can reach the car, Frank unmasks the impostor, revealing him to be Doc, who was after the master tapes all these years. Moved by his story, Frank and Joann give him the master tapes. Doc drives off into the night vowing that the Cruisers will conquer the world this time, and Joann invites Frank into her house. In a surprise reveal at the ending, a bearded, much older looking Eddie is shown alive, watching the multiple televisions in the window of an appliance store, where the ending credits of Foley's documentary tribute to him and the band roll. He smiles serenely, proud to know that his work is finally being heard, and then disappears into the night.

Cast

Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing Jake ...

as Frank Ridgeway *

Michael Paré Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' (1983), ''Streets of Fire'' (1984), and '' The Philadelphia Experiment'' (1984), and on the series ''Starhunt ...

as Eddie Wilson *

Joe Pantoliano Joseph Peter Pantoliano (born September 12, 1951) is an American character actor who has appeared in over 150 films, television and stage productions. After his early roles in the television series ''M*A*S*H'' and the 1983 comedy ''Risky Busin ...

as "Doc" Robbins *

Matthew Laurance Matthew Laurance (born Matthew Dycoff) is an American film and television actor best known for starring as Ben Coleman in the Fox sitcom ''Duet'' and for his recurring role as Mel Silver on ''Beverly Hills, 90210''. Early life, family and edu ...

as Sal Amato *

Helen Schneider Helen Schneider (born December 23, 1952) is an American singer and actress working mainly in Germany. Life and career Helen Leslie Schneider was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of Dvora and Abraham Schneider. Schneider studi ...

as Joann Carlino * David Wilson as Kenny Hopkins * Michael "Tunes" Antunes as Wendell Newton *

Ellen Barkin Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an American actress and a producer. Her breakthrough role was in the 1982 film '' Diner'', and in the following years, she had starring roles in films such as ''Tender Mercies'' (1983), ''Eddie and the ...

as Maggie Foley (uncredited) In addition, the music producer/supervisor for the film,

Kenny Vance Kenny Vance (born Kenneth Rosenberg, December 9, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, and music producer who was a founding member of Jay and the Americans. His career spans from the 1950s to today, with projects ranging from starting doo-wo ...

, appears on screen as Lew Eisen, the 1964 record company executive who refuses to accept the band's second album. In September 2018,

Tommy Marz Tommy Marz is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and founder of the Tommy Marz Band. Born and raised in the city of Detroit, Michigan, He optioned P.F. Kluge's novel with his own money and at great financial risk.Muir 2007, p. 84. He wrote the screenplay with Arlene Davidson and decided to use a ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...

''-style story structure. He remembered, "That was in my head: ''the search.''"Muir 2007, p. 86. Davidson made a deal with Time-Life, a company that was going into the movie-making business. However, it quickly left the business after making two films that were not financially successful. He was understandably upset and a couple of days later he went out to dinner and met a secretary who had worked on his first film. He told her what had happened to his film, and she gave his script for ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' to her business partners. In a relatively short time, a deal was struck with Aurora and Davidson was given a $6 million budget.

Shooting

In order to get a credible looking and sounding band for the film, Davidson hired

, one of the original members of

Jay and the Americans Jay and the Americans are an American rock group who formed in the late 1950s. Their initial line-up consisted of John "Jay" Traynor, Howard Kane (born Howard Kirschenbaum), Kenny Vance (born Kenneth Rosenberg) and Sandy Deanne (born Sandy Ya ...

. He showed Davidson his scrapbook, the places the band performed, the car they drove, and how they transported their instruments. Vance also told Davidson stories about the band, some of which he incorporated into the script. Tom Berenger has said that he did not try to learn piano for the film but did practice keyboards for hours in his trailer. Matthew Laurance actually learned how to play the bass through rehearsals. Michael Paré was discovered in a New York City restaurant working as a chef. He said of his role in the film that it was "a thrill I've never experienced. It's a really weird high. For a few moments, you feel like a king, a god. It's scary, a dangerous feeling. If you take it too seriously." Davidson had the actors who played in Eddie's band rehearse as if they were getting ready for a real concert. Pare remembers, "The first time we played together - as a band - was a college concert. An odd thing happened. At first, the extras simply did what they were told. Then, as the music heated up, so did the audience. They weren't play-acting anymore. The screaming, stomping and applause became spontaneous." Davidson recalls, "One by one, kids began standing up in their seats, screaming and raising their hands in rhythmic applause. A few girls made a dash for the stage, tearing at Michael's shirt. We certainly hadn't told them to do that. But we kept the cameras rolling." Additionally, New Jersey musician

Southside Johnny John Lyon (born December 4, 1948), better known by his stage name Southside Johnny, is an American singer-songwriter who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Southside Johnny has long been considered the Grandfather of ...

was hired as a technical advisor for the film.

, who has the small role of the television reporter, Maggie Foley, later said that she "hated" making the film:

That was what we liked to call a "pay the rent" job. It wasn't a script I liked, but I remember my agent at the time saying, "Look, you only have to work two weeks, and they're going to pay you a lot of money. We'll just say it was your first movie and they just didn't release it." I think people were all fucked up on drugs. I don't know. I was a little removed, because I wasn't on the movie the whole time, but it seemed like it was just a mess. Like, when I'd go, I'd think—I like to make a movie where I know who the boss is. I like a big boss. I like a real director. And it seemed like it was just, "Who's driving the ship here? What's going on?"

According to Davidson, when he completed the film, three different studios wanted to distribute it, and he went with

Embassy Pictures Embassy Pictures Corporation (also and later known as Avco Embassy Pictures as well as Embassy Films Associates) was an American independent film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution studio responsible for such fil ...

because they offered him the most money. However, they had no prior experience in distribution and were unable to properly release it in theaters. Davidson remembered, "And six months later, somebody said, 'Your picture is appearing on HBO this weekend,' and I didn't even know."

Soundtrack

Vance asked Davidson to describe his fictitious band and their music. Initially, Davidson said that the Cruisers sounded like

Dion and the Belmonts Dion and the Belmonts were an American vocal trio prominent throughout the 1950s. All of its members were from the Bronx, New York City. In 1957, Dion DiMucci joined the vocal group the Belmonts. The established trio of Angelo D'Aleo, Carlo M ...

, but when they meet Frank, they have elements of

Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredicta ...

and

The Doors The Doors were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential ro ...

. However, Davidson did not want to lose sight of the fact that the Cruisers were essentially a Jersey bar band, and he thought of

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

and the

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band, and has been musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing caree ...

. The filmmaker told Vance to find him someone that could produce music that contained elements of these three bands. Davidson was getting close to rehearsals when Vance called him and said that he had found the band—

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band is an American rock band from Rhode Island which began its career in 1972, and achieved mainstream success in the 1980s. Originally known as simply Beaver Brown, they got their name from a paint can. The clas ...

from

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. Davidson met the band and realized that they closely resembled the band as described in the script, right down to a Cape Verdean saxophone player, whom he cast in the film.Muir 2007, p. 87. Initially, Cafferty was only hired to write a few songs for the film, but he did such a good job of capturing the feeling of the 1960s and 1980s that Davidson asked him to score the entire film. After successful screenings on HBO in 1984, the album suddenly climbed the charts, going quadruple platinum. The studio re-released the soundtrack in the fall of 1984. Nine months after the film was released in theaters, the main song in the film, "

On the Dark Side "On the Dark Side" is a song by fictional American rock band Eddie and the Cruisers, released as a tie-in to the 1983 film of the same name. When initially released in September 1983, the song peaked at No. 64 on the ''Billboard'', while the fi ...

", was the number one song in the country on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''s Mainstream, Rock, and Heatseeker charts;Muir 2007, p. 88. and #7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Another single from the film, "Tender Years," peaked at #31 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Reaction

''Eddie and the Cruisers'' was originally intended to open during the summer, but a scheduling error resulted in a September release, when its target audience - teenagers - were back in school. The film had its world premiere at

Deauville Deauville () is a commune in the Calvados department, Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its harbour, race course, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino, and sumptuous hotels. The first Deauville Asian Film Fes ...

. Embassy Pictures threw a promotional party for the film at a dance club in West Hollywood in September, 1983, where Cafferty and his band played. The film was a box office flop, receiving many negative to mixed reviews from critics. The film was released in theaters on September 23, 1983, and grossed $1.4 million on its opening weekend. It would go on to make $4.7 million in North America. The film was pulled from theaters after three weeks and all of the promotional ads pulled after one week. In the fall of 1984, the single "On the Dark Side" from the soundtrack album suddenly climbed the charts, as the film was rediscovered on cable television and home video, prompting the studio to briefly re-release the album.

Critical reception

''Eddie and the Cruisers'' was not well received by critics. Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars. He wrote, despite a good cast, "terrific" music and an intriguing concept, "the ending is so frustrating, so dumb, so unsatisfactory, that it gives a bad reputation to the whole movie." In her review for ''The New York Times'', Janet Maslin wrote, "Some of the details ring uncannily true, like the slick oldies nightclub act that one of the Cruisers is still doing nearly 20 years after Eddie's supposed death. Other aspects of the film are inexplicably wrong. Eddie's music sounds good, but it also sounds a lot like

's, and it would not have been the rage in 1963." However, she did praise Paré's performance: "Mr. Paré makes a fine debut; he captures the manner of a hot-blooded young rocker with great conviction, and his lip-synching is almost perfect." Gary Arnold for ''The Washington Post'' wrote, "At any rate, it seemed to me that what ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' aspired to do was certainly worth doing. The problem is that it finally lacks the storytelling resources to tell enough of an intriguing story about a musical mystery man." As of October 2018, the film holds a rating of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 16 reviews.

Re-release

In 1984, ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' was discovered by additional audiences during its first pay cable run on HBO. Embassy Pictures re-released the film for one week based on successful summer cable screenings and a popular radio single, but it once again failed to perform at the box office. Looking back, Davidson said, "that picture should have been a theatrical success. There was an audience for it. People still watch it and still tell me about it." Davidson was offered the job of directing a sequel to the film, but he was not keen on the idea and wanted no participation. The eventual project, which had no link to the Kluge source novel, was released as '' Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!'' in 1989.

Home media

In 1984, "Eddie and the Cruisers" was released on VHS

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette ...

, CED and Laser

videodisc Videodisc (or video disc) is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access disc that contains both audio and analog video signals recorded in an analog form. Typically, it is a reference to any such media that predates the mainstrea ...

Embassy Home Entertainment A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

References

Bibliography

* Muir, John Kenneth. ''The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia.'' Applause Books, 2007.

External links

* * * * {{Martin Davidson 1983 films 1983 drama films 1980s musical drama films American independent films American musical drama films American mystery films American rock music films Aurora Productions films Embassy Pictures films 1980s English-language films Fictional musical groups Films based on American novels Films directed by Martin Davidson Films set in New Jersey Films set in the 1960s Films shot in New Jersey 1980s American films