Star Spangled Girl

Two journalist-radicals find themselves attracted to a patriotic Olympic hopeful. Sparks fly as they find themselves sparring with her on political subjects, while trying to win her over romantically. Naturally the politics get in the way, but in the end everybody comes to their own philosophical accommodations and try to get along. Aww.

The movie looks quite good despite a modest budget, but part of the reason for this is that it is just another filmed play, with limited cinematic ambitions beyond creating a credible scenic background for the dialogue. This is true of so many adaptations of stage plays: they tend to be no more visually sophisticated than the average sit-com. SSG is well cast, with Tony Roberts especially good in one of his trademark fast-talking roles as one of the radicals. Sandy Duncan looks cute and holds her own as the stubborn, clean-cut object of his romantic attention and political exasperation. Known for family friendly TV projects mostly, Sandy nevertheless could reach down and give her end of the dialog a little spitfire bite where necessary. Go girl!

The script itself reads a bit 'lite' as an exercise in political head- banging though. The Vietnam period was ALL about politics and revolution and youth culture and the 'radicals' seem rather tame and naive in that context. Neil Simon could have found stronger stuff in ANY underground newspaper around at that time than he put into the script, and this tends to weaken the credibility of everything. The movie is clearly aimed at a middle American audience and tries not to be too frightening or threatening on the subject of political strife. That wouldn't play in Kansas City, as the movie moguls used to say.

Worth a watch.