Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 29, 1993 TAG: 9310290094
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BARRY KOLTNOW ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD LENGTH: Medium
Reiner, host of the annual event, was running across the stage, trying to coax a $5,000 bid from the audience for a baton used by Henry Mancini to lead an orchestra, when he tripped over a speaker and seriously injured his leg.
The audience gasped as Reiner lay prone on the stage, writhing in pain. A doctor ran down the aisle to help him. Someone called paramedics. Reiner motioned for a microphone.
"I usually get $5,000 for this item," the laid-out entertainer said between moans, "but since I just broke my leg, I expect a lot more."
The laughs keep coming in "Fatal Instinct," a Reiner-directed spoof of film noir movies. The film, which opens today, stars Armand Assante as a police officer/attorney who believes that there is a lot of scum out on the streets who not only need to be apprehended but deserve a fair and costly trial.
Kate Nelligan co-stars as Assante's scheming wife, who plots his demise. Sherilyn Fenn plays the devoted secretary who is desperately in love with him. And Sean Young is the alluring seductress who would like to either make love to Assante or murder him, whichever is more convenient at the moment.
"I don't like to do spoofs anymore, but this one really tickled me," Reiner said at his Beverly Hills home, where he is recovering from his injury. His leg is in a cast and he still experiences pain when he moves too quickly.
"It had cute writing and four wonderful parts. How many scripts do you see these days with three great parts for women? Besides, I had just finished a book, which is a solitary experience, and I wanted to get back on a set and have some fun. This one had real potential for fun."
Reiner, 71, knows more about movie spoofs than almost anyone on the planet.
He was Sid Caesar's sidekick during the pioneering "Your Show of Shows" program in the early 1950s. Caesar, Reiner and the greatest comedy-writing staff ever assembled - Woody Allen was a minor player in a group that included Neil Simon, Mel Brooks and Larry Gelbart - invented the movie spoof.
This was a decade before Reiner created the classic "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and three decades before Reiner directed Steve Martin in an early sendup of film noir movies, "The Man With Two Brains."
"It's true that spoofs have been done to death at this point and that I had already done my vision of this kind of spoof in `The Man With Two Brains,' but I thought there was room for one more funny one," Reiner said. "This one made me laugh."
Reiner said movie spoofs are so popular these days because they're easy to make, profitable, and audiences enjoy making fun of movies that take themselves too seriously.
"It's a way of pulling something down to our own size," the director said. "And writers keep writing these spoofs because that's their nature. These are the people who made fun of the teacher behind her back. They're still making fun of people, only this time it's serious actors in serious films."
According to Reiner, Assante had trouble with the genre at first. He is a serious actor who was unsure that he could pull off the comedy.
"He studied and studied about comedy, and he was worried sick," Reiner said. "I told him to relax and stop analyzing comedy. I told him that the only way to approach comedy is by the seat of your pants."
by CNB