Cold Turkey Reviews

Horton is a tobacco king who offers $25 million to any town that can quit smoking. Van Dyke is a hick-town parson takes up the challenge. His motivations are strictly selfish. Stapleton is the wife of mayor Gardenia, who begins eating furiously and gains weight as we watch. Lowry is a little old lady out hunting commie rats with a pistol. Poston is the town cad. While the ending is a copout, there's a lot of solid laughter from the excellent cast. Lear wears too many hats in this production and drops the ball more than once as he overindulges us with jokes rather than character humor. This was made before he became CBS's savior with "All In The Family" and several other comedy hits. Lear is definitely more at home on the small screen where flaws are not so easily spotted and stories need run only twenty-four minutes and twenty-five seconds. When he attempts to work on the big screen (NEVER TOO LATE; DIVORCE, AMERICAN STYLE, etc.), his shortcomings are evident. This was his best film to date. Horton gave his last performance in COLD TURKEY and didn't say a word. His eloquence was appreciated. Stapleton had a small role and was cast for "All In The Family" after working with Lear on this film. The best thing about the movie was the appearance of Bob and Ray as TV personality newscasters.