Carbon Copy (film)

Carbon Copy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Schultz
Produced by	Stanley Shapiro Carter DeHaven
Written by	Stanley Shapiro
Starring	George Segal Denzel Washington
Music by	Bill Conti
Studio	First City - Hemdale - RKO Pictures
Distributed by	Avco Embassy Pictures Current Metro Goldwyn Mayer release date=September 25, 1981
Running time	92 min.
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English

Carbon Copy is a 1981 British-American comedy film, directed by Michael Schultz. The film stars George Segal, and features Denzel Washington.

This movie is the first feature film produced by RKO Pictures after a break of many years, though they were only co-distributor with Avco/Embassy Pictures and Hemdale Film Corpration.

Plot

Roger Porter (Washington) is the long-lost black son of Walter Whitney (Segal), a respectable businessman who lives in the all-white community of San Marino, California.

Once Roger turns up at Walter's office, it turns out that he is the result of Walter's relationship with a black woman, who is now dead. Walter's father-in-law had warned him that the relationship would be harmful to his career, so he broke it off.

Walter attempts to help Roger by telling his wife Vivian (Saint James) that he wants to adopt him. She accepts, but soon regrets the decision and ends up kicking Walter out. Her father also fires him, taking his car and benefits in the process. Penniless, he and Roger check into a motel, and later move into an apartment. Walter ends up as a manual labourer, shovelling horse manure.

The final ten minutes makes the transition from comedy to drama, where Walter has to either accept that Roger is his son, or alienate him in order to salvage his position in society.

Main cast

• George Segal — Walter Whitney
• Susan Saint James — Vivian Whitney
• Jack Warden — Nelson Longhurst
• Dick Martin — Victor Bard
• Denzel Washington — Roger Porter
• Paul Winfield — Bob Garvey
• Macon McCalman — Tubby Wederholt
• Vicky Dawson — Mary Ann (Vivian's daughter)

Home video releases and TV broadcasts

This film is hardly shown on television due to its racial themes, though it did premiere on ABC in March 1983 only once and does sometimes appear on premium movie channels, along with the most recent airing on Comedy Central in 2011 (though the print used was from the 1980s TV airing, meaning less-than-stellar film quality and had moderate edits).

The film was released on VHS in 1983, 1989, 1994, and 1999. It was released on laserdisc only once in 1984, and copies are extremely hard to obtain due to being far less common than the VHS releases.

The film was released to DVD in 2004 from MGM-DVD, but the film was presented in full screen and the film master is from the laserdisc release, being low resolution and often has various shifts in quality and color balance.

A remastered, uncut high-quality print in HD 1080i is sometimes broadcast on the MGM-HD Channel.

External links

• Carbon Copy at the Internet Movie Database