The Idolmaker

It was fall of 1980 and I was listening to NBC Radio ( A.M. ). At the time, that station played great music of the day. I remember calling up a radio contest which said that you could win tickets to the premiere of a new movie called " The Idolmaker " at Radio City Music Hall in New York City ( Manhatten ). I could not believe that I actually got thru and when I did was told that I had won. They wanted my name, address and phone number and told me that I would be receiving tickets to the premiere of the movie. What made matters even more great was the fact that my ex-husband worked for Rockefeller Center, not NBC otherwise we wouldn't have been eligible for winning these tickets. What luck! The premiere of this movie was amazing!!! I loved the acting, and the singing was to die for. After the movie ended, the stars of the show got up on the Radio City stage and spoke a few words thanking everyone who attended. I was privileged to have been seated in the 5th row from front. Peter Gallagher was so handsome in person as was Paul Land. Ray Sharkey ( may he rest in peace ) was at his finest hour. Even though this movie received a bad review and it didn't do too well in the theaters, I believe that many people were not given the opportunity to see what a fine movie this really was. Prince and Michael Jackson are big fans of this movie and for good reason. " You can be anything you want to be " , and that is the motto of this movie. Singer, songwriter, artist-you can make it!

We loved this movie! I loved it years later and special ordered the soundtrack on vinyl. Now I'm trying to get it on cd. Impossible I think. Peter Gallagher was hot as "Fabian" and the music scenes were real, not Hollywood musical crap. This is a very moving film about a man who spends his life making the careers of others only to get left behind as they move up the food chain. Talented himself but didn't have "the look" that sold records. Ray Sharky died of aids yrs later, actually did some work while he had hiv and looked it. This is probably his best work. I have always been a movie buff (still dream of directing) and I can remember the Ebert and Roeper review of this film. It was their sleeper hit of the week. I remember if vividly because that's when I learned about the term "sleeper" referencing films. It was a 2 thumbs up and HBO played it constantly. HBO was limited back then and this was always on and we watched it every chance we could!

I first saw this movie on HBO in 1981. At that time HBO only showed box office flops. The supposedly really good ones would not get on HBO for 3 or 4 years.

I just saw it again tonight, after 23 years, and I still enjoyed it. The music is great, the acting is great, and the plot is great.

What is there not to like about it? I tried watching Chicago in 2002, the academy award winner, and it was a piece of crap. It was a combination Alfred Hitchcock/Showboat/Singing in the Rain movie, that was a total flop in my opinion. I much more enjoyed this movie.

There are a few slow points in the movie, but they don't last for long. There is such energy and vivacity in this movie that it holds your attention as it builds up continually to the next "Idol."

The songs stick in your mind (at least in mine), but they are always "in the wings" of the Ray Sharkey character. For example, the first idol he made, Sharkey is shown off stage mimicking the singer's moves.

Anyway, it is a fun movie to watch, and one of a kind for its time, so I highly recommend it!

I remember going to see this movie when it first came out. It's sort of a formula picture with the struggle to get to the top, the fame/power corrupting, the fall, then the redemption. Two things made this work, first the musical numbers were very good. This is a very difficult thing, making a movie about hit records and having to write original music that sounds like a hit. The movie shows how much work goes into the preparation and planning required to make it. This aspect was surprisingly good.

The main thing that holds your attention though is Ray Sharkey. I just saw it again on Encore. I knew Sharkey was good in the part but looking back now I can see he is very good. It almost seems that Bruce Willis copied Sharkey's style from this movie in several of his own. I could see Sharkey in the "Die Hard" movies. He brings so much energy to the part and is totally believable as wise guy with a quick temper.

When I first saw this movie I thought Sharkey was going to have a great career. I don't know if it was the drugs, a poor choice of parts or both but he really had talent and charisma. If he hadn't gotten hooked on drugs and contracted AIDS he could have been a Joe Pesci if not a Jr Robert DeNiro. If you think I am making this up get a copy of this movie and take a look. He did show flashes of what he could do in some television work but just couldn't keep it together for any length of time.

If you have any interest in the pop music of the late fifties early sixties or just want to watch what a talented actor can do with a formula picture take a look at this.

Tragically, released at a time when United Artists was busy going bankrupt making "Heaven's Gate" (see book FINAL CUT), this film was lost among a number of gems (Rich Kids; Pope of Greenwich Village; TrueRomance), "Idolmaker" is truly in a class by itself. Its acting is uniformly impeccable, direction, cinematography and both writing and song score--by the legendary Jeff Barry--of Barry and Cynthia Weil fame, the film is refreshingly bereft of dead spots,contrived moments and false notes (and I'm not just talking about the music).Ray Sharkey is at his volcanic best. JOE PANTOLIANO is cast against character as (no kidding) Sharkey's milquetoast songwriting partner--and acquits himself magnificently. Olympia Dukakis gives a FINE performance as Sharkey's mother--and Peter Gallagher does his own singing--while delivering the performance of a lifetime as the naive-turned-meglomaniacal Avalon character.Due to his heroin addiction, Sharkey's career floundered in years following this star-making role... lowering him to parts in the likes of "Hellhole" with Marjoe Gortner. He ended up flat broke, living with his mother in NYC.What followed was bittersweet and merits extra attention to a wonderful First Act scene: While watching the movie on TV, he was struck by scene where his mother urges him to swallow his pride and ask his estranged father to finance his start in show business.Seeing That one scene years later restored his self-esteem and inspired him to get clean and sober and get back into the game. He was barely out of rehab when he landed the role of Atlantic City mobster Sonny Steelgrave in TV's"Wiseguy"'s very first story arc. Those episodes remain cult classics,and are available on DVD. Loosely based on the career of Bob Marcucci, and his protégés Fabianand Frankie Avalon, this movie truly has it all: pathos, humor, an unflinching look at the free-for-all pre-Beatles Teen Idol gap that resulted from Elvis' stint in the Army.