BY TIM MCGLYNN
Never
trust a man who says, “Trust me.â€
With
those sage words of advice, 15 year-old Fannie Belle Fleming leaves her home in
the backwoods of West Virginia in 1950 to pursue a career in show business. What happens next is not exactly what the
aspiring country singer had in mind.
Blaze
(1989 Touchstone/Disney), recently released on Blu-ray by Kino-Lorber, is based
upon the true story of the vocalist- turned- stripper who changed her name to
Blaze Starr and became scandalously involved with Governor Earl Long of the
Great State of Louisiana.
Blaze,
played by Lolita Davidovich (Raising Cain, Leap of Faith, Cobb), is persuaded
by sleazy club owner Red Snyder (Robert Wuhl) to try stripping, which he
assures her is a form of dancing. “Trust
me,†he tells her. After a timid start,
Blaze becomes a star on the Burlesque circuit moving from New York to Baltimore
and finally landing in New Orleans in 1959.
It
is there in the Big Easy that Blaze encounters the colorful Earl K. Long,
portrayed in bigger than life fashion by Paul Newman. One night Earl stumbles into a Bourbon Street
establishment where he apparently knows most of the strippers on a first name
basis. Immediately taken with her beauty
and figure, Long asks if he may take Blaze to dinner. Remembering her mother’s words, a sadder- but
-wiser Blaze asks the Governor “Can I trust you?†and is quite pleased when he
answers “Hell no!†Their brief, but
passionate affair was the stuff of legend in a state not unfamiliar with
political shenanigans. While not
addressed in the film, both the Governor and Ms. Starr were married to others at
the time.
Writer-Director
Ron Shelton’s film follows a late ‘80s trend of comedy-dramas from south of the
Mason-Dixon Line, featuring a quotable script and likeable characters who are
anything but the backwoods stereotypes we are accustomed to seeing. Much like Steel Magnolias, Fried Green
Tomatoes and Shelton’s own Bull Durham, this movie gives us another strong
female lead, confident in choosing her path in life without relying on the support
or approval of men. Ms. Davidovich’s
portrayal of Blaze is both comic and intelligent in that she is able to partner
with Governor Long and guide him through his campaign for Congress.
Paul
Newman chews his way through Shelton’s script as a conflicted, progressive
politician caught in a system that still sees women and minorities as
second-class citizens. On the one hand
he supports a civil rights act that will guarantee voting and equal employment
opportunities for blacks in 1960 Louisiana, but at the same time he still holds
some of the racist beliefs of many in his own political party. “We can’t keep sleeping with them at night,
and kicking them during the day†he says during a raucous meeting with state
legislators.