Not unlike an attentive bird who spots a smidgen of sustenance in a pile of cattle dung, director George Gallo and co-scripter Josh Postner’s new comedy retrieves a viable comic premise in the deservedly obscure and irredeemably wretched 1982 comedy “The Comeback Trail.” Unfortunately, their hugely enjoyable remake, in name only, was stuck in distribution limbo for the better part of five years, despite a stellar cast that includes Oscar winners Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman. At long last, the movie recently received an extremely limited U.S. theatrical run and is now available on digital platforms.
Speaking as someone who viewed a screener of the new and improved “Comeback Trail” back in 2020, and has puzzled over why it remained more or less shelved ever since, I am happy to report after a second viewing that the indie production is every bit as funny as I remembered — even as I concede that it may be an acquired taste. Some people just don’t have the patience for lead performances that are as broad as a “Yellowstone” barn, and as hammy as a butcher shop specialty. I laughed unashamedly throughout the entire film. But your mileage may vary.
The original “Comeback Trail” showcased, in want of a better term, the late, great Buster Crabbe as an aged Western star, hired by shady Z-movie producers to star in their new project. But the producers — irritatingly overplayed by Chuck McCann and Robert Staats, who regrettably seize the vast majority of screen time — aren’t really hoping to make a killing. Rather, they hope to kill their star during production, and claim a hefty insurance payment for his “accidental” death.
Henny Youngman, Irwin Corey, Monti Rock and, no kidding, Hugh Hefner are among the notables cast in cameo roles, to no comic avail If you’re at all curious about the crumminess of this fiasco written, produced and directed by Harry Hurwitz (“The Projectionist”), the shabby print is easily available on YouTube. But don’t say you weren’t warned.
In the new “Comeback Trail,” set in 1974 Hollywood, De Niro plays Max Barber, a disreputable producer of schlock cinema who’s driven by glaringly misplaced self-confidence, cranking out low-budgeters with such titles as “Cows From Beyond” and “Bigfoot Was My Lover” for his Miracle Pictures studio. Alas, the latest in his long line of flops, “Killer Nuns,” has just bombed at the box office.
Reading from a typical review, Walter Creason (Zach Braff), Max’s young nephew and business partner quotes the merciless thumb’s-down: “Truly, the best thing about this film is, after 90 minutes, it’s over.” Max, as implacably optimistic as Johnny Depp’s Ed Wood, responds: “That is a good review. They liked the end.”
But mobster Reggie Fontaine (Freeman), who’s been bankrolling Max’s dubious projects, is not at all amused. A diehard movie buff, Fontaine is prone to peppering his threats with allusions to his favorite flicks. If Max can’t repay his enormous debt, soon, the mobster will stab him “like Anthony Perkins in ‘Psycho’” — thereby prompting a profanely funny comment from an underling (Eddie Griffin) about Norman Bates’ love for his mother.
Max actually has a way to avoid a grisly quietus: He could sell the script for “Paradise,” a long-cherished dream project he hopes will elevate him to legitimacy, to James Moore (Emile Hirsch), a former friend and ginormously more successful producer, for a cool million. But Max stubbornly holds on to his property — mostly, but not entirely, because Moore wants to cast in the lead role an actor he detests: Frank Pierce (Patrick Muldoon), a preening superstar who insists on always doing his own stunts.
When Pierce meets an untimely end while doing one of those stunts, Max has an inspiration: If Moore can collect on a multi-million insurance policy he had taken out on the actor, why can’t Max do something similar by arranging a fatal “accident” for one of his own stars?
That’s where aging cowboy star Duke Montana (Jones) comes into the picture. Reduced to occasionally doing commercials for used cars, and spending most of his days drinking, despairing, and sporadically playing Russian roulette in a retirement home for actors, the curmudgeonly Montana has a death wish that only sheer luck has kept him from fulfilling. Max, with the approval of Fontaine, intends to make his dreams come through in a new Miracle Pictures production, “The Oldest Gun in the West.”
Trouble is, once the unsuspecting Duke is literally back in the saddle and on location, he proves to be remarkably resilient, surviving all of Max’s attempts at sabotage — miscuing a stunt horse, tinkering with a rope bridge, etc. — and regaining, if not a lust for life, a long-dormant joy for making movies. Max grows ever more anxious, Fontaine becomes increasingly impatient and the unwitting Walter starts to suspect that something shady is going on.
Freeman, Jones and especially De Niro repeatedly dial it up to 11 throughout “The Comeback Trail,” with De Niro hovering near 13 or 14 every time anyone questions Max’s honesty and integrity. (Never mind that the producer has a short supply of both.) Perhaps worried that he might also get nibbled upon while those three guys chew up the scenery, Braff plays it relatively straight — which only enhances the satisfaction provided by a deus ex machina ending that involves the potency of star power, and the convenient location of an abandoned drive-in.
And Kate Katzman deserves a few kudos of her own for deftly balancing comedy and sincerity as Megan Albert, the eager newbie who’s hired as director of “The Oldest Gun in the West” with Duke’s approval and defies ’70s-era sexist assumptions about her unsuitability for the job.
Special mention also must be made of Matthew Lee Christmas, the credited stunt double for Tommy Lee Jones. Granted. There are more than a few scenes here where the substitution of stuntman for star is obvious. But, hey, what else would you expect from a movie purportedly produced by Miracle Pictures?
