| Headless Body in Topless Bar | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | James Bruce |
| Screenplay by | Peter Koper |
| Based on | aNew York Post headline byVincent Musetto |
| Produced by | Rustam Branaman Stephen David Charles Weinberger |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Kevin Morrisey |
| Edited by | Robert Barrere |
| Music by | Charlie Barnett |
Production company | Green Tea Pictures |
| Distributed by | Northern Arts Entertainment |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $400,000 |
Headless Body in Topless Bar is a 1995 Americanblack comedy andpsychological horror film directed by James Bruce and written byPeter Koper. The ensemble cast includesRaymond J. Barry, Rustam Branaman, Jennifer McDonald,Taylor Nichols, andDavid Selby. The film's title is taken from a 1983 headline in theNew York Post written byVincent Musetto, and the plot is loosely based on the events that inspired the headline.
The action unfolds in a shabby New Yorkstrip bar in real time. While a bartender dispenses drinks, a topless dancer moves listlessly on stage for a handful of patrons: a businessman, twohockey fans, and an old man using a wheelchair. A Man enters and announces astick-up. As the bartender reaches for a gun, the Man shoots and kills him.
A night of psychological terror unfolds as the moods of the Man swing unpredictably between the friendly and the murderous. Forcing the group to play a game called "Nazi Truth", he humiliates the hostages as he peels away their inner secrets.
Disrupting the situation, a young woman arrives to pick up her friend, the topless dancer, and is taken hostage along with the others. As the game of "Nazi Truth" continues, the Man reveals his own secret: as a youth he wasraped in jail.
Discovering the young woman is amortician's assistant, the Man suddenly explodes into amanic episode, obsessed with erasing evidence of his crime. Failing to extract the bullet from the bartender's skull, he forces the young woman to sever the bartender's head. He binds the hostages and puts plastic bags on their heads. Satisfied, he takes the head in a box and leaves.
The hostages, suffocating and struggling for breath, are finally able to rip off their plastic hoods. They burst outside, uncertain what to do. Traumatized, they each go their separate ways, never calling the police.
Vincent Musetto's famous headline first inspired writer and co-producer Peter Koper when it appeared in theNew York Post in 1983. Koper, who called headlines the "haikus of our times," developed the screenplay with the headline as its title over the next decade,[1] after first scripting the material for the stage.[2] Notwithstanding the title,Headless Body in Topless Bar is only loosely based on the facts in the original news story. Koper said the one "poetic" fact he gleaned from the news story is that the gunman, having discovered one of his hostages works as a mortician's assistant, forces her to remove the head from his victim's corpse.[1]
Koper had first worked with director James Bruce four years earlier, collaborating on a dozen dramatic crime reenactments forFox Television'sAmerica's Most Wanted, where Koper was a staff writer and producer.[1]
Headless Body in Topless Bar was shot in eighteen days, three of which were spent shooting exteriors on location at the Baby Doll Lounge inLower Manhattan. The remainder of the film was shot on a soundstage inHollywood, California.[1]
Theensemble cast worked for what Bruce and Koper called "hostagescale," earning Barry's pay for the day should they manage to steal the gun from him as per the plot. If they tried and failed, however, they paid their day's wages to Barry. Only Barry earned extra cash.[1]
Bruce said he shot the film on a budget of four hundred thousand dollars.[1]
Headless Body in Topless Bar first appeared at the 48thCannes Film Festival'sMarché du Film in May 1995.[3] The film premiered in the United States the following month, at the 1995Seattle International Film Festival.[4] That fall, the film enjoyed its German premiere at theOldenburg International Film Festival, where it was remembered as one of two "magnificent film highlights" from the festival's second year.[5] On February 16, 1996, the film opened at theQuad Cinema inNew York City.[2][6] It opened on the West Coast in March 1996.[1][7][8]
After previewing the film in Cannes,David Stratton ofVariety called the film "intelligent", crediting "Bruce's fluid direction" and "excellent ensemble performances" for helping film avoid "theatrical tag," but he speculated that the title might deter the film's likely audience, and that "prospects look brighter for video release."[3]
Like Stratton,Stephen Holden of theNew York Times also praised the cast's "fine ensemble acting," compensating for what he considered a long-winded screenplay. Holden singled out Raymond Barry for imbuing the role of the killer with "a lithe, springy intensity, a glint of intelligence, and enough charm to keep the audience emotionally off balance." Holden was also impressed with Jennifer MacDonald's performance as the hard-shelled dancer.[6]
Dave Kehr of theNew York Daily News had no positive reactions to the film; he said the film fell into "the most profoundly depleted formula of the American stage", and compared the audience's experience to "being trapped in a badOff-Broadway show without an intermission."
When the film was released in California, John Anderson of theLos Angeles Times compared it toLifeboat andNo Exit, and shared Kehr's assessment of the audience's experience.[8]
Bob Strauss of theLos Angeles Daily News compared the work to that ofPaul Verhoeven: "a sort of low-rentShowgirls."[7]
German dramatistKlaus Pohl [de] later translated Koper's original stage script intoGerman.Körper ohne Kopf in Oben-ohne-Bar premiered at theDeutsches Schauspielhaus inHamburg,Germany on 11 November 1999.[9][10] One reviewer said the play was "reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's films."[11]