Movies I Love, Part XIII: Putney Swope

Posted: December 7th, 2008 | Filed under: Cinema, Culture, Features | No Comments »

Anybody ten years or older who has seen a movie recently knows who Robert Downey Jr. is. He’s one of the great actors of our time, a fellow whose charisma blasts from the screen. A flawed human who has struggled with drugs and their attendant problems, but who hopefully has come out the other side of that darkness.

But I’m here to talk about his father, that would be Robert Downey Sr.. And the flawed but seminal film he made in 1969 titled “Putney Swope.”

The premise is simple but was revolutionary at the time. A New York ad agency has a token black member on the Board of Directors. When the chairman dies during a board meeting — his corpse still on the table — those remaining mistakenly elect Putney Swope the new chairperson. Seems the by-laws prevent anybody from voting for himself. Thus Swope is tabbed, since the others can’t vote for themselves and none think any will ever vote for the black man.

Swope immediately fires all the “lilies” except the one whom he finds delectably corrupt. He changes the name of the agency to Truth & Soul Advertising.

What ensues as the brothas and sistahs take over the joint is a mishmash of vignettes, faux commercials and racially inspired but often hilarious outrage. The black and white film is seriously flawed, amateurish really. And it is significantly dated. Many who don’t view it in the context of its time and place in American culture might find its irreverence trite.

It’s important to understand this was a groundbreaker, kids. All those “Airplane” and “Kentucky Fried Movie” and Farrelly Brothers and “American Pie” flicks that came afterward were simply bobbing in the wake of this breakthrough.

There are those movies you hear about of which it is said: If you care about cinema you will see this movie. Despite its dated nature, and its problems, this is one of those flicks. It’s a cockamamie classic.

Arnold Johnson plays Swope. The story is told that the dude couldn’t remember his lines when the movie was being shot. He wears a beard throughout and you can’t see his lips. As the tale is told, Downey Sr. himself dubbed his lines after the fact.

There’s the hipster humor that still resonates for some of us. When I’m runnin’ around with too much to do, I’m still want to say: “I’m stacked up over LaGuardia and I ain’t comin’ down for nobody.” Back in the day, when appropriate to the situation, I was wont to quote: “My johnson knows no discrimination.”

There’s also the faux commercials the agency makes for its clients who must pay a million cash up front, which is then hook-shoted into a large tank by a hipster brother in a cowboy hat.

In one, there’s a black fellow eating a bowl of cereal. The voice over: “Jim Keranga of Watts, California is eating a bowl of Ethereal Cereal, the heavenly breakfast. Jim, did you know that Ethereal has 25% more riboflavin than any other cereal on the market? Ethereal also packs the added punch of .002 ESP units of pectin!”

The mostly toothless Jim responds: “No shit.”

Maybe it seems I’m making much ado about nothing. But seeing that on the silver screen in a movie theater in 1969 was shocking and way too funny.

As Swope says when he seizes control of the agency: “Rockin’ the boat’s a drag. You gotta sink the boat!” That’s what Robert Downey Jr. did for staid humor in 60’s cinema.

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