Frankie and Johnny (1991)

Manhattan

The title of the film is taken from the song “Frankie and Johnny” originally sung by Sam Cooke. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Frankie, a downtrodden diner waitress who meets a man named Johnny, played by Al Pacino. Johhny gets a job as a cook at the diner she works at after getting out of prison. Al Pacino is Al Pacino at his finest. The most New York, the most Italian. Their relationship is frustrating and sexy and they’re no good for each other but intertwined regardless. It’s a bit long for a romance but the film sort of lets you walk around their world. Johnny brings up the kismet nature of their names being the same as the famous song more than once. The romance between Frankie and Johnny follows this kind of dramatically doomed love story often sung about in songs from the 60s. In the song, Frankie ends up shooting Johnny and their whole relationship in the film follows this premise that men are no good deep down but there’s an irresistible charm to them. An unapologetically messed up film indicative of its time and place. The film shows New York City at the very beginning of the 1990s but feels quite old-fashioned and pays homage to many romances of a different era. This film is also the return of the acting duo who lead the film Scarface (1983), almost a decade earlier.

Filmmaker Garry Marshall is obviously most famous for directing Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman (1990), which he made the year before Frankie and Johnny. Some other notable films by Marshall are The Flamingo Kid (1984) starring Matt Dillon, Overboard (1987) starring future husband and wife Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Beaches (1988), Runaway Bride (1999), another Julia Roberts and Richard Gere film, The Princesse Diaries (one and two), Raising Helen (2004) and Georgia Rule (2007). Marshall is in many respects one of the kings of the mainstream romance film. Giving us the iconic pairing of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is alone enough for me to say that.

The play version of Frankie and Johnny by Terrence McNally was resurrected in 2019 starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon. Kathy Bates and F. Murray Abraham starred in the first production of the off-Broadway play in 1987.

Al Pacino is best known for his roles of Bobby in The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974), Serpico in Serpico (1973), Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Tony Montana in Scarface (1983).

Michelle Pfeiffer is best known for playing Elvira in Scarface (1983), Sukie Ridgemont in The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Ellen Olenska in The Age of Innocence (1993), Melanie Parker in One Fine Day (1996), and Rita in I Am Sam (2001).

Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Johnny (Al Pacino)