Film Review: Switching Channels (1988)

Most remakes fail, but in some cases it is easy to see why they were looking like seductively good idea. This is most evident with great films of Classic Hollywood era, which look like they could provide basis for much better modern films made with superior technology and lack of censorship. One such attempt was based by His Girl Friday, 1940 classic screwball comedy by Howard Hawks. In 1988 it was remade as Switching Channels, comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff.

Like the original, it is based on The Front Page, popular 1928 Broadway play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, which has been adapted into two other (and more faithful) feature film adaptations in 1931 (by Lewis Milestone) and 1974 (by Billy Wilder). While His Girl Friday strayed from original by switching one of major character’s genders, this version, set in modern times, went further by changing the setting from newspaper milieu to cable television milieu. Protagonist, played by Kathleen Turner, is Christy Colleran, top reporter from Chicago-based SNN television network. Exhausted by her work, she takes a vacation and meets Blaine Bingham (played by Christopher Reeve), sports equipment tycoon with whom she immediately falls in love. Upon return to Chicago, she informs her current boss and former husband John L. “Sully” Sullivan IV (played by Burt Reynolds) that she would quit job and travel to New York where she would marry Blaine. Sully isn’t happy to lose ex wife and best employee, so he uses developing news story as an excuse to keep her a little longer. Man named Ike Roscoe (played by Henry Gibson) is going to be executed for murder of drug dealing policeman responsible for death of his son. Sully sends her to conduct exclusive interview with him, telling that such interview might result in pardon. In the meantime, Sully uses various dirty tricks to prevent Blaine from leaving Chicago and taking Christy with her. Christy’s attempts to save the condemned man are complicated by efforts of politically ambitious state attorney Roy Ridnitz (played by Ned Beatty) and Roscoe’s successful escape.

Canadian director Ted Kotcheff wanted to make quite different film from His Girl Friday, and thus approach worked best in the first part, which featured use of montages and exteriors that had been used in Hawks’ film. Unfortunately, script by Jonathan Reynolds, while trying to change some details (like the characters’ names), slavishly remains faithful to original and dialogues, characters and plot elements are mechanically copied into modern setting, not always convincingly. Large part of the film, like in all other versions, takes place in a single location, making this film look too much like a stage play. Switching Channels could have nevertheless worked if not for terrible miscasting. While Kathleen Turner does an adequate job in the role that uses her comedic abilities, her partners do not. Burt Reynolds isn’t convincing in the role of ruthless television editor and lacks any chemistry with Turner; two actors were constantly clashing on the set and later developed life-long feud. Christopher Reeve, who obviously tried to diversify his repertoire with the role of good-looking but unintelligent tycoon, is at times forced into embarrassing overacting. Henry Gibson, on the other hand, looks too creepy for the little man who is supposed to evoke audience’s sympathy. Unlike previous three films, which provided sharp satirical treatment to ruthlessness of the Fourth Estate, Switching Channels fails to do the same to modern media of television. The film flopped at the box office and it isn’t that likely that we would soon see fifth feature film version of The Front Page.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/26798-switching-channels
Critic: A