| The Linguini Incident | |
| Director: | Richard Shepard |
| Producer: | Sarah Jackson Arnold Orgolini |
| Starring: | Rosanna Arquette David Bowie Eszter Balint Marlee Matlin Buck Henry Viveca Lindfors |
| Music: | Thomas Newman |
| Cinematography: | Robert Yeoman |
| Editing: | Sonya Polonsky |
| Distributor: | Academy Entertainment |
| Runtime: | 98 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
The Linguini Incident (also released on home video as Houdini and Company, The Robbery, Shag-O-Rama) is a 1991 American crime comedy film set in New York starring Rosanna Arquette and David Bowie. The film was directed by Richard Shepard, who co-wrote the script with Tamar Brott. The title refers to linguini, a type of pasta.
A British bartender, Monte (David Bowie), wishes to marry a waitress at the restaurant he works, ostensibly so he can obtain his green card. Waitress and aspiring escape artist, Lucy (Rosanna Arquette), and hopeful lingerie designer Vivian (Eszter Balint), wish to rob Monte's and Lucy's employer in order to fund their ambitions. Monte agrees to help the duo rob the restaurant so long as Lucy marries him. While the robbery does not go precisely according to plan, the trio are successful. However, Lucy accidentally leaves Monte at the altar, causing him to lose a two million dollar bet with the restaurant owners that he could marry a waitress in a week. In a double or nothing scenario, Monte wagers Lucy's skills as an escape artist. He tricks the women into playing along, claiming that the bosses found out about the robbery. The women appear to forgive him for lying about the circumstances of the escape performance. The two women rob the restaurant a second time. The relationship of the women and Monte remains ambiguous in the end.
Iman and Julian Lennon have cameos[1]
The movie was shot in late 1990, after Bowie had completed his Sound+Vision Tour. It was co-funded by Bowie's own production company, Isolar. The film was released in America on the weekend of the Rodney King riot. In Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Times had called the film "an off the wall treat" there was a curfew so box office was obviously disappointing despite the fact that The New York Times called the film a "cheerfully bizarre comedy". It was released on VHS in 1992, and again in January 2000 on DVD with the name Shag-O-Rama, The Robbery, and Houdini and Company.
While reviews were mixed, many critics praised the film for its humor and avant-garde surrealism. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film "trumpets its eccentricity with its title and casting, as well as in every other way it can".[2] Similarly, Los Angeles Times staff writer Kevin Thomas called the film "a rarity, a contemporary screwball comedy that actually works".[3] In contrast, Empire magazine gave the movie 1 star out of 5, calling it "an unbearably protracted dud",[4] while TV Guide gave the movie 2 stars out of 5.[5] Variety magazine called the movie an "uninspired, poverty row production" and lamented the miscasting of Bowie in the lead role. Bowie biographer Nicholas Pegg called the movie "harmless but negligible", with a "misconceived script and turgid direction."
Since its initial release, the film has garnered a cult following of fans who have come to appreciate its bizarre humor, surreal tone, and relative obscurity. On October 4, 2022, Collider called it "a hidden gem in Bowie's filmography" and "the best kind of cinematic comfort food".[6] In March of 2020, film reviewer Virginie Pronovost wrote "it keeps you entertained from the beginning until the end with its humour, its peripeties and the overall aura of excitement".[7] Affirming fan appreciation for the film's obscurity, one 2013 review from Mutant Reviewers says "here on my Island of Misfit Movies, The Linguini Incident lives on in a special place of honor".[8]
On August 8, 2023, director Richard Shepard announced on his Twitter account that he had recovered the rights to the film and remastered it in 4K with a never-before-seen director's cut. The recut premiered at Vidiots on May 9, 2024[9] and the BluRay release is scheduled for 2024. [10]