Nobody’s Fool(1986)

PG-13
1h 47m

Release Date: Nov 7, 1986 | Limited

A sepia tinted weepie where a niave girl learns about men in more ways than one; a loss of innocence - but full of charm

Note: Distributed by Island Pictures

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Director & Top Cast

Evelyn Purcell
Director

J.J. Hardy
Ralphy

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Mono

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

At the Elk Lounge & Grill in the small town of Buckeye Basin, Arizona, the owner and manager Mr. Fry (Lewis Arquette) reprimands waitress Cassie Stooly (Rosanna Arquette) for being late and orders her to arrive 15 minutes early the following day if she wants her paycheck. He adds that Cassie, with her reputation, is lucky to have a job. Cassie sneaks a drink of whiskey.Pat (Mare Winningham), another waitress and friend, invites Cassie to join her and her boyfriend, Frank (William Steis), at the Red Rock Canyon outdoor theater to see a Shakespearean play. After the performance, Cassie realizes she left her thermos behind and returns to find it. A stagehand named Riley Goode (Eric Roberts) helps her, but when he offers a ride home, she tells him she already has one.Pat and Frank stop at the Canton Cafe, but Cassie decides to walk home because the place has a bad memory for her. At a party there, she told her boyfriend, Billy Downs, she was pregnant, and when Billy claimed he was not ready to be a father and offered to split the cost of an abortion, she stabbed him in the neck with her knife.The next day, as Cassie sits on a bench in town, Riley invites her to lunch, but her mother, Pearl (Louise Fletcher), arrives to pick her up. They drive to the Skull Valley State Hospital to visit cousin Linda (Ann Hearn), a depressive who asks Cassie to bring her some "bend straws."Cassie signs up for an acting workshop with Kirk Stevens (Steven Tobolowsky), an acting teacher and the leader of the Shakespearian company, because she would like to be a person "totally different from me," if only for a short while. Later, Cassie goes to the empty stage, takes a bow, and lies down. Riley Goode greets her from a catwalk above, but Cassie becomes nervous and leaves.Cassie visits her mother at a shirt factory where Pearl works to tell her about the class, but Pearl believes she is wasting her time and should enroll in something practical, like a stenography class at the high school. Her brother, Ralphie, adds that nobody is going to think of her as a movie star because of what she did to Billy at the restaurant.Later, as Cassie gift-wraps a box of flexible straws for Linda, she flashes back to the night she was thrown out of the Canton Café for stabbing Billy, and became so distraught that she tried to kill herself.In acting class, when Kirk Stevens asks her to perform an abstract emotion, Cassie emits a convincing wail of torment. Walking home, she runs into Riley, and again hurries away. When she tells Pat that Riley watches her, Pat reasons that if Riley has not asked for a date, he is not interested.As Cassie begins her shift at the grill, Billy Downs (Jim Youngs) has breakfast and compliments her. As he leaves, she stares longingly, remembering how good it felt to be in his arms.Later, Cassie attends the wedding of a friend and becomes upset that Billy Downs is there with his wife, Prissy Lee. Feeling that other women are gossiping about her, she leaves the reception and takes a sip from a small whiskey bottle in her purse.Cassie goes to the hotel where Riley is staying and taps on his window. Babbling, she attempts to explain that she is through with relationships and insists that he stop staring at her "with those eyes," then runs away. She immediately regrets her confession to Riley, and recalls when her pregnancy began to show: Reading in the newspaper that Billy married a rich local girl, Cassie opened a can of rat poison with the intention of killing herself, but found it was being used as a candy container.In acting class, Kirk gives Cassie pointers to summon the emotion to play Shakespeare's Juliet. Afterward, Riley takes her for a drive. He reveals that he did jail time for juvenile delinquency, but he reformed. He asks her for a date, and Cassie agrees. They picnic at a cemetery, where Cassie points out her father's grave. Riley invites her to watch a play backstage with him.Later, Cassie and her mother visit cousin Linda's family. Linda is home from the sanitarium, but watches television because she is heavily medicated. Alone with Linda, Cassie confesses she feels guilty for giving up her baby for adoption, and cries that she cannot emotionally let go of Billy. Linda blankly gives her a hug.Cassie runs to Billy's house and finds him cooking steaks in the backyard, but he tells her to stay out of sight because his wife and in-laws are there. During the play, Cassie sits above the stage on the catwalk as Riley shows her how to work the lights and special effects. Afterward, he cooks a chili dinner in his hotel room, and asks her to spend the night. He kisses her and they make love.The next day, Cassie learns that she is one of Kirk's three students selected to perform at an upcoming festival at the town hall. When she shares the good news with Riley, they make love again. Later, Billy Downs shows Cassie the tickets he bought to see her perform, and asks to come around and talk some time.A day or two later, Riley asks Cassie to leave Buckeye Basic and live with him in Los Angeles, California, but she fears that he will leave her to fend for herself in a strange city. Riley storms out, gets drunk at a bar, and spends the night with barmaid Shirley Kilpatrick (Gwen Welles). The next day, Riley's mood is somber and they barely talk.At the festival, as Cassie begins to a delivery one of Juliet's soliloquies on stage, an audience member throws fruit at her. She walks off stage, defeated, but steels her and returns to finish convincingly. Billy Downs' wife, Prissy Lee, is clearly unhappy as the audience applauds.Afterward, a lady asks Cassie to repeat her soliloquy for a prominent women's club. Riley compliments her on a great job, and she invites him to a spaghetti dinner, but Billy Downs pulls Cassie aside to tell her he misses her and wants to rekindle their relationship. Afterward, Riley confesses his love for her, but Cassie is too scared to follow him and leave everything behind. Riley writes his Los Angeles address on his shirt with a marker and gives it to her in case she changes her mind.Later, at the Elks Lounge, Cassie takes drink orders from Billy, Prissy Lee, and her parents, and discovers his young wife is pregnant. She throws a tray of drinks in the air, tells Pat she is going to Los Angeles, and hurries home to pack a suitcase. She reaches the hotel just as Riley is driving away, but throws the contents of her suitcase on his hood to stop him. As they leave town together, Cassie wonders if they should get a dog or a cat. Riley suggests they start with something easier, like a goldfish.

Storyline

Cassie has a miserable job in a bar, is lonely and depressed. Her boyfriend left her when she told him that she's pregnant. After several failed suicide attempts, she'd given away her baby for adoption, and regrets it now. When a theater group from Los Angeles comes to the small town of Buckeye, she meets stage technician Riley. Discreetly he starts wooing her. She likes him very much, but still has feelings for her former boyfriend Billy, too. — Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de> Small town girl meets small town boy and discovers that love has many shades. Woman director when there weren't many around and one of the best films of 1986; released alongside Desperately Seeking Susan as one for the girls and not for the boys who were all into spaceships and stuff like that. — daniel smith