Bagdad Café
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| Bagdad Café | |
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 DVD Cover |
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| Directed by | Percy Adlon |
| Produced by | Eleonore Adlon Percy Adlon Dietrich von Watzdorf |
| Written by | Eleonore Adlon Percy Adlon |
| Starring | Marianne Sägebrecht CCH Pounder Jack Palance |
| Music by | Bob Telson |
| Cinematography | Bernd Heinl |
| Editing by | Norbert Herzner |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | 12 November 1987 |
| Running time | 95:00 |
| Language | English, German |
| IMDb profile | |
Bagdad Café (also known as Out of Rosenheim) is a 1987 film directed by Percy Adlon.
The film is a U.S./German co-production (running 95 minutes in the U.S. and 108 minutes in the German version). It is a somewhat surreal comedy set in a down-at-heel truck-stop café and motel in the Mojave Desert. An ill-assorted cast of characters are assembled, including a plump German tourist (Sägebrecht as Jasmin) who has left her husband after a row in the middle of the desert, the short-tempered owner of the café (Pounder as Brenda) who has just thrown her husband out, Brenda's two children and grandchild, a strange ex-Hollywood set-painter (Palance), and a glamorous tattoo artist (Kaufmann). Through a passion for cleaning and for magic tricks, Jasmin transforms the café and all the people in it.
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[edit] Cast
- Marianne Sägebrecht — Jasmin
- CCH Pounder — Brenda
- Jack Palance — Rudi Cox
- Christine Kaufmann — Debby
- Monica Calhoun — Phyllis
- Darron Flagg — Salomo
- George Aguilar — Cahuenga
- G. Smokey Campbell — Sal
- Hans Stadlbauer — Muenchgstettner
- Alan S. Craig — Eric
- Apesanahkwat — Sheriff Arnie
- Ronald Lee Jarvis — Trucker Ron
- Mark Daneri — Trucker Mark
- Ray Young — Trucker Ray
- Gary Lee Davis — Trucker Gary
[edit] Awards and nominations
- 1988: won Bavarian Film Award Best Screenplay (Eleonore & Percy Adlon)
- 1988: won Ernst Lubitsch Award (Percy Adlon)
- 1989: nominated for the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song (Bob Telson for the song "Calling You")
- 1989: won Amanda Best Foreign Feature Film (Percy Adlon)
- 1989: won Artios Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy (Al Onorato and Jerold Franks)
- 1989: won César Best Foreign Film (Percy Adlon)
[edit] Television series
In 1990 the film was turned into a television series starring James Gammon, Whoopi Goldberg, Cleavon Little, and Jean Stapleton, with Stapleton as Jasmin and Goldberg as Brenda. In the TV version, Jasmin was no longer German. The series was shot in the conventional sitcom format, before a studio audience, and had a very brief run.
[edit] Trivia
- The film was shot at what was then the Sidewinder Cafe in Newberry Springs, California. Since then, the cafe has become something of a tourist destination, and has actually changed its name to the Bagdad Cafe. A small notice board on the cafe wall features snapshots of the film's cast and crew.
- The actual cafe is almost identical to the one in the film, although there is no hotel out back and the water tower was specially built for the film.
- Not long after the film was shot, Flagg and Calhoun became schoolmates at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. While Calhoun still acts, Flagg does not.
- Flagg is actually playing the piano in the film; he and his indentical twin brother, Aaron Flagg, attended the School of the Arts together in the music department and are skilled pianists.
- The original German version runs 20 minutes longer than the US release.
- The soundtrack album has a track where the director narrates the story, including the film's missing scenes.
