Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Natica Jackson (1987)

Wow! Such a good movie.

A Masterpiece!

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

While it has a a very good cast (Michelle Pfeiffer and Hector Elizondo, especially), it just doesn't seem to go anywhere. The center is the young actress who is jealous of her high school friends who are married. She never had that chance. She finds herself in a doomed relationship, but is at the beck and call of the studio. There is a lot of driving around in some pretty fancy classic cars. There is some interesting inside cinema from the period. The story is an old one and doesn't offer much that is new. There is a great deal of pain inflicted. The subplot is a group of vulturous has beens who are trying to recoup their careers through the big producer (Darren McGavin). A fly hits the ointment. Unfortunately, it's a big fly and it pretty much decimates this subplot. Without ruining anything, everything is heading for a tragedy. Pfeiffer's acting is very good. She was certainly heading for stardom. But low budget and empty script can only combine to detract from performance. Not a very substantial effort.

I wouldn't give this movie a rating, it's not worthy. I watched it only because I'm a Pfieffer fan. I love her and would watch anything she made. Even in this dud, she didn't disappoint. Every scene with her in it, kept the viewer watching...waiting...for something to happen but nothing ever did. It had some good story lines but they ended abruptly as soon as it started. Some of the other characters had potential but nothing became of it.Pfieffer was 29 when she made this film and at her most lovely. The wardrobe and set was surprisingly good. I can watch mostly anything and rarely come across a movie I can't find something to like about it, but this was a dud. I don't understand. The worst thing about it all, it had a big cliff hanger at the end. It had an ending scene that woke you up and say wow, this film is finally going some place, then the credits roll. Good grief. I agree with the review that said .99 would have bought 3 cans of cat food and watching my cat eat would have been more exciting. Well said. Actually, that comment was more entertaining than the film because it sums it up so well. I too wasted .99 cents on this dud.dud.dud.

The original version "Naticia Jackson" was part of the series "Tales from the Hollywood Hills" and runs 56 minutes. The home video edition called "Power, Passion and Murders" combined two episodes from the series (the other episode is "A Table at Ciro's"). The problem is, that they inter-cut both stories instead to show just one after the other, which is pretty confusing. Try to watch the original, which is an excellent piece about the classic days of Hollywood in the 30's. Michelle Pfeiffer is unbelievable good as the screen goddess Natica Jackson (reminescent of Veronica Lake, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth and all the others).

So the other night I decided to watch Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Natica Jackson. Or Power, Passion, Murder as it is called in Holland. When I bought the film I noticed that Michelle Pfeiffer was starring in it and I thought that had to say something about the quality. Unfortunately, it didn't.1) The plot of the film is really confusing. There are two story lines running simultaneously during the film. Only they have nothing in common. Throughout the entire movie I was waiting for the moment these two story lines would come together so the plot would be clear to me. But it still hasn't.2) The title of the film says the film will be about Natica Jackson. Well it is, sometimes. Like said the film covers two different stories and the part about Natica Jackson is the shortest. So another title for this movie would not be a wrong choice.To conclude my story, I really recommend that you leave this movie where it belongs, on the shelf in the store on a place nobody can see it. By doing this you won't waste 90 minutes of your life, as I did.