In addition to the franchises ‘Rocky’ and ‘Rambo’ and other hits such as ‘The City Cobra’ or ‘Demolition Man’, there are also lesser-known entries in the filmography of Sylvester Stallone with which the 77-year-old draws inspiration from his action Comfortzone: Did you know for example, that he directed John Travolta’s dance film “Staying Alive” in 1983?
There’s also music in another Stallone film, which like other comedic outings from the star of “The Expendables” (from “Oscar” to “Stop! Or my mommy will shoot”) flopped badly at the box office: “The whiz kid“ from 1984, a musical comedy in which Stallone and singer Dolly Parton play the leading roles. With a budget of $28 million, the film could only gross $21 million at the box office, and the trade press also harshly criticized the flop: according to the review collection site For example, only 20 percent of critics are convinced by ‘The Vertical Starter’.
That’s what ‘The whiz kid’ is about
In the film directed by cult director Bob Clark (“Porky’s”, “Merry Christmas”), Dolly Parton plays the country singer Farris, who makes a bet with her manager to finally get out of her contract: she claims she can beat the next person who she meets become a country star – and of all people she meets cab driver Nick (Stallone), who can’t hit a single note and, to make matters worse, is a country hater. Nevertheless, Farris accepts the challenge and takes Nick to her hometown in Tennessee, where she tries to train him as a singer.
As part of one of the American entertainment websites During the question and answer session, Stallone talked about what he thinks about the almost forgotten film today – and expressed himself surprisingly positively in parts: “The most fun I ever had in a movie was with Dolly Parton in The Whiz.”said the actor. “The director was originally going to be Mike Nichols [u.a. „Die Reifeprüfung“, Anm. d. Red.] and the film would be shot in New York, with Dolly and I acting as two antagonists brought together by fate.
But The production was extremely chaotic, in which Stallone certainly had his share: So the star fell out with Don Zimmerman, who had to direct before Nichols was in talks and Clark took over, and he rewrote Phil Alden Robinson’s script (“Field of Dreams”) several times on his own initiative – obviously not in his benefit Movies. Stallone himself later saw this: “Silly comedies didn’t work for me,” the actor admitted. “I mean, would anyone pay to see John Wayne in a bizarre farce? Probably not.”
Unlike many of the others involved, he was at least able to enjoy filmmaking – and after two more flops, he stayed away from the comedy genre to this day.