Rhinestone

With my look back at the forgotten films of director Bob Clark, I'm wrapping it up with a movie that might be even more hated than Superbabies, 1984's Rhinestone.

Loosely based off the Glenn Campbell song Rhinestone Cowboy, the film stars Dolly Parton as Jake Farris, a New York based country singer who desperately wants out of her contract with her sleazy manager, Ron Leibman. The two make a wager that she can turn anybody into a country singer. If she wins, she's out of her contract. If he wins she has to sleep with him. Just as they agree upon the bet, up drives Nick Martenelli, Sylvester Stallone, a meatheaded cabbie with a hatred of country music. Jake has two weeks, so she takes Nick to her hometown in Tennessee in hopes that the country lifestyle will rub off on him. She quickly realizes that she's got her work cut out for her.

This is a pretty painful one to sit through, even though it has a great cast that also includes Richard Farnsworth and Tim Thomerson. And everyone is good in it, it's just the material is weak. The film seems to focus more on the stereotypes of country folk and big city people making everyone come off more as caricatures instead of characters.

Phil Alden Robinson, who wrote classics like Fletch and All Of Me, wrote the first draft of the screenplay. But when Stallone was brought on, he came in and rewrote most of it. Robinson was so upset that he almost had his named removed. Stallone's vision, which was a lot darker, was originally going to be directed by Mike Nichols. He even had Dolly doing songs with Whitesnake. Then the studio replaced him with Clark, who Stallone said made the film corny. Stallone say's that he regrets making this movie but had a great time working with Parton. Parton has stated that she thinks that some of her best songs were featured in this.

This is a pretty lousy movie even though the cast tries it's hardest to try and make it entertaining.

It's available on dvd.