This week's Tuesday's Overlooked Film is the 1987 drama Street Smart.
Christopher Reeve stars as once promising newspaper reporter Jonathan Fisher, who is looking for a big story to revitalize his career. Deciding to do an expose on prostitution, he hits the streets to investigate, but no one will talk to him. He therefore fabricates a story about a pimp and a murder, which becomes a big success. Unfortunately for Fisher, his phony story too closely mirrors a case involving a real pimp named Fast Black (Morgan Freeman). Both the police and Fast Black close in on Fisher to find out how he knows what he knows.
Reeve wanted to produce and star in this film for awhile but had trouble acquiring financing, until the opportunity to appear in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace came along. Reeve agreed to do Superman only if the producers also financed Street Smart, to which they agreed. The film, released in March of 1987, several months before Superman IV, went nowhere at the box office, but received good reviews, and Freeman was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
Here is the film's trailer. Thanks!
1 comment:
How memory collapses things, particularly at the periphery...I recalled this as being Not Too Long after THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, rather than a decade+ later, and what really shook up the Freeman "brand"...which it did, after a fashion (nobody messes with Easy Reader).
http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=21797 is a game I think you'll enjoy--sked your own primetime slate of crime drama (and I suspect costumed vigilantes can play)...
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