Brenda Starr (film)

Brenda Starr
U.S. theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Ellis Miller
Produced by	Myron A. Hyman
Written by	Noreen Stone James D. Buchanan "Jenny Wolkind" (pseud. Delia Ephron) Dale Messick
Starring	Brooke Shields Tony Peck Timothy Dalton Diana Scarwid
Music by	Johnny Mandel
Cinematography	Freddie Francis Peter Stein
Editing by	Mark Melnick
Distributed by	Triumph Releasing Corporation
Release date(s)	May 15, 1989 (France) April 15, 1992 (USA)
Running time	93 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$16,000,000

Brenda Starr is a 1989 adventure film, based on Dale Messick's Brenda Starr comic strip. The film was directed by Robert Ellis Miller, and stars Brooke Shields, Timothy Dalton, and Diana Scarwid.

Plot

Mike is a struggling artist who draws the 'Brenda Starr' comic strip for a newspaper. When Brenda comes to life and sees how unappreciated she is by Mike, she leaves the comic. To return her to her rightful place and keep his job, Mike draws himself into the strip.

Within her fictional world, Brenda Starr is an ace reporter for the New York Flash. She is talented, fearless, smart and a very snappy dresser. The only competition she has is from the rival paper's top reporter, Libby Lipscomb.

Brenda heads to the Amazon jungle, in order to find a scientist with a secret formula, which will create cheap and powerful fuel from ordinary water. There, she must steal the formula from her competition and foreign spies.

Cast

• Brooke Shields as Brenda Starr
• Tony Peck as Mike Randall
• Timothy Dalton as Basil St. John
• Diana Scarwid as Libby Lipscomb
• Nestor Serrano as Jose
• Jeffrey Tambor as Vladimir
• June Gable as Luba
• Charles Durning as Francis I. Livright
• Kathleen Wilhoite as Hank O'Hare
• John Short as Pesky Miller
• Eddie Albert as Police Chief Maloney
• Mark von Holstein as Donovan O'Shea
• Henry Gibson as Professor Gerhardt Von Kreutzer
• Matthew Cowles as Capt. Borg
• Tom Aldredge as Capt. Borg Impostor
• Ed Nelson as President Harry S. Truman

The project originally envisioned Jessica Lange as Brenda Starr. The script later came to Anjelica Huston, then to Melanie Griffith, and finally to Brooke Shields.^{[citation needed]}

Post production & release

The film was shot in 1986, however it was not released for three years, due to lengthy litigation over distribution rights.

When the film was released in the United States in 1992, it bombed at the box office, making US$30,000 in the first week of its release, after opening to mostly empty houses. Negative reviews were blamed for lack of interest, and the film was pulled from theatres shortly after its theatrical distribution.

Reception

The film received mostly negative reviews.

Owen Gleiberman, of Entertainment Weekly, rated the film 'F', stating that Brenda "... comes off as a giggly (if spectacularly elongated) high school princess.", and that "Brenda Starr is so flaccid and cheap-looking, so ineptly pieced together, that it verges on the avant-garde. I suspect they won't even like it in France." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine gave the film an equally negative review, stating "There's been so much negative insider buzz about Brooke's 'Brenda' that you might be harboring a hope that the damned thing turned out all right. Get over it. 'Brenda' is not as bad as the also-rans that Hollywood traditionally dumps on us before Labor Day ... it's a heap worse."

The New York Times' Janet Maslin stated "This would-be comic romp is badly dated in several conspicuous ways. Its cold war villains are embarrassingly outre (even allowing for the film's 1940's look, in keeping with the peak popularity of Brenda Starr as a comic strip heroine)... Most dated of all is Brenda herself, the "girl reporter" who worries chiefly about not running her stockings or breaking her high heels, and who in one scene actually uses a black patent leather handbag as a secret weapon."

Pamela Bruce, of The Austin Chronicle, was highly critical of the film, stating that "After gathering dust for five years, some studio executive decided that there just isn't enough dreck in the world and decided to unleash Brenda Starr upon us poor, unsuspecting mortals."

Home video

The film, rated PG, was released on both VHS and DVD formats.

The DVD version is available for purchase in two variations; one for all regions and another for Region 2. The film is presented in Full Frame, 1.33:1 format, with English Dolby Digital Stereo sound.

External links

• Brenda Starr at the Internet Movie Database