My Best Friend's Birthday
| My Best Friend's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Clarence (Quentin Tarantino) meets Misty (Crystal Shaw) | |
| Directed by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Distributed by | Super Happy Fun |
Release date |
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Running time | 70 minutes (original version) 36 minutes (remaining version) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000 (estimated)[1] |
My Best Friend's Birthday is a partially lost black-and-white amateur film directed, edited, co-written, co-produced and starring Quentin Tarantino.[2][3][4] The 36 minute amateur film could be found and watched on YouTube. The films’s plot is similar to the 1993 film True Romance, which Tarantino wrote. True Romance was directed by Tony Scott.
Plot
A young man continually tries to do something nice for his friend's birthday, only to have his efforts backfire.
Cast
- Quentin Tarantino as Clarence Poole
- Craig Hamann as Mickey Burnett
- Crystal Shaw as Misty
- Allen Garfield as entertainment magnate
- Al Harrell as Clifford
- Brenda Hillhouse as wife
- Linda Kaye as Pandora
- Stevo Polyi as DJ
- Alan Sanborn as Nutmeg
- Rich Turner as Brandon Turner
- Rowland Wafford as Lenny Otis
Production
The film was made while Tarantino was working at the Video Archives, now closed, in Manhattan Beach, California.[4] The project started in 1984, when Hamann wrote a short 30- to 40-page script.
Tarantino became attached to the project as co-writer and director, and he and Hamann expanded the script to 80 pages. On an estimated budget of $5,000, the film was originally planned in a Super 8mm format. However, when Tarantino was able to borrow a 16mm camera from film director Fred Olen Ray, the film was shot in 16mm over the course of the next four years.[5] Hamann and Tarantino starred in the film, along with several video store and acting class buddies, and worked on the crew, which included fellow Video Archives employees Rand Vossler and Roger Avary. It is the most overtly comedic film that Tarantino has made. In an interview with Charlie Rose (available on the Region 1 Collector's Edition DVD of Pulp Fiction), he referred to it as a "Martin and Lewis kind of thing."
The original cut was about 70 minutes long, but due to a film lab fire, only 36 minutes of the film still exist.[unreliable source?] [3] The surviving footage has been edited together and shown at several film festivals.[1] Several of the actors appeared in Tarantino's later films Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill.
In 2019, a book titled My Best Friend's Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film, written by Andrew J. Rausch, was published by BearManor Media. The book features interviews with all of the film's principal personnel, including Quentin Tarantino, Craig Hamann, and Roger Avary.
See also
References
- ^ a b O'Connor, Roision (October 21, 2016). "Quentin Tarantino: Director's first film My Best Friend's Birthday on YouTube". The Independent. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
- ^ "My Best Friend's Birthday". Free Movies Cinema. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)[permanent dead link] - ^ a b Ferrari, Alex (October 14, 2015). "Quentin Tarantino's Unreleased Feature Film: My Best Friend's Birthday". Indie Film Hustle.
- ^ a b Wild, David (November 3, 1994). "Quentin Tarantino: The Madman of Movie Mayhem". Rolling Stone.
- ^ Gaydos, Steve (14 March 2007). "Q&A with Tarantino…when he was Mr. Green". Variety. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
External links
- 1987 films
- Films directed by Quentin Tarantino
- Films with screenplays by Quentin Tarantino
- Films produced by Quentin Tarantino
- American short films
- American films
- American comedy films
- 1987 comedy films
- American black-and-white films
- Lost American films
- Unreleased films
- English-language films
- American independent films
- Comedy short films
- Films about prostitution in the United States