Atlantic City (1980) Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Well let’s get the elephant out the room first. Susan Sarandon plays Sally, she has a strange ritual, she stands in the kitchen, slices a lemon and squeezes the juice into her hands and proceeds to rub said lemony zest all over her body, including her fine, fine puppies. And there isn’t a gin in tonic in sight! Well one thing that is in sight if she would of looked up is the admiring eyes of old man Burt Lancaster. He plays Lou and now he has a glint in his eye.

They are neighbors in the same broken down apartment block in the crumbling dead end city. A place famous for it wooden Boardwalk and colourful characters from yesteryear. Some infamous prohibition era gangsters like Al Capone, Nucky Johnson, Lucky Luciano and Bugsy Siegel all recently brought back to life by the excellent HBO show Boardwalk Empire.

Now old Lou is a small time wheeler and dealer who had grown up in the shadow of bigger men. Name dropping the gangsters above through-out the film. I imagine he would of been a young boy watching the hoods doing their thing but keeping a low profile, happy to reside in the background picking up what he can, keeping out of trouble.

Now he spends time running a few numbers for a local racketeer and mostly caring for the needs of Grace (Kate Reid) a former mob girl but now invalid and annoying chore giver to our poor Lou. What he needs is a distraction!

In walks two extremely irritating and troublesome hippies. Pregnant Chrissie (Hollis McLaren) and Dave (Robert Joy) who has in his procession a big bag of cocaine. He wants to shift it quick for some cash and ropes in Lou who seems only too happy to help. Little does he know that the weasel had stolen it from a drug drop, upsetting two psycho gangsters.

Lou see it as a way to impress and get closer to Sally. Flash some cash and makes some moves. There’s life in the old dog yet? So Lou becomes drug dealer, carer and ladies man. Can he keep the pace?

Filmed by French director Louis Malle, a director I really need to explore. His My Dinner with Andre sounds like a deep watch and is on the watch list.

Can Lou find his old mojo and get some vitality? Will he be able to steer clear of the gangsters? Can Sally escape this dying city and get to follow her dream of travelling to France. And most importantly, why does she clean her fun buddies with lemon juice?

You really need to tune in to find out. Its a super film and I’m very grateful to Mikes Take On The Movies for the tip top recommendation.

Random Wolfy Observations – Apart from the lemon boobs, WTF was that moving car port lift thing? That was crazy and surely way ahead of it’s time. First time I saw one of those had Ethan Hunt fighting on one in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. Also would of loved to have seen Lou team up with his toilet assistant friend Buddy.

Here’s a review by Vincent Canby from 1981 in The New York Times.

Thanks for having a read. All the best from the wolfster.