#679) Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972)

#679) Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972)

OR “Blowup”
Directed & Written by Martin Brest

Class of 2009

One of the more elusive NFR entries in my seven years of doing this blog, the full original version of “Hot Dogs for Gauguin” has finally started showing up online. My thanks as always to filmregistry.net for helping me find this movie.

The Plot: Young photographer Adrian (Danny DeVito) is fed up with the “starving artist” lifestyle. He dreams of taking a once-in-a-lifetime photo that will financially set him for life, like Sam Shere’s famous photo of the Hindenburg crash. Adrian confides in his friend Fletcher (William Duff-Griffin) his plan to blow up the Statue of Liberty at noon the next day while capturing the moment with his camera. Fletcher tries to talk him out of it, and a chase to the ferry ensues. “Hot Dogs for Gauguin” is a comic film that highlights the burgeoning talent of its leading man, as well as its student director Martin Brest.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives a rundown of Martin Brest’s filmography and the plot of the movie, with its only film-specific superlative being “hilarious”.

But Does It Really?: I enjoyed watching “Hot Dogs for Gauguin”, but I was left with one burning question: Why is it on the NFR? I can’t stress enough that this is not a knock on the film itself, which clearly shows the promise that Martin Brest and Danny DeVito have delivered on in their respective filmographies, but it’s not what I would consider an essential or important American film. The NFR write-up is totally unhelpful in justifying its inclusion, so I’m left scratching my head. If they wanted to induct a film by Martin Brest, why not “Beverly Hills Cop” or “Midnight Run”? I’m glad that “Hot Dogs” is finally starting to pop up online, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Martin Brest, but I still question this movie’s NFR standing.

Everybody Gets One: Martin Brest has lived an incredibly private life, so readily available information about him is scarce. Thankfully, Brest has made a few public appearances in recent years, and an in-depth interview about his filmography was published by Variety in 2023. As for his life before filmmaking, we know that Brest grew up in the Bronx, and attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in the early ’70s. “Hot Dogs for Gauguin” was his student thesis film.

Title Track: No one says the title within the film, though Adrian goes on a rant about how Paul Gauguin’s art was unappreciated in his lifetime and he died of starvation. While it’s true that Gauguin’s art didn’t receive widespread acclaim until after his death, how he died is still up for debate. Officially, Gauguin died of a heart attack, but there are theories that he died from the side effects of his untreated syphilis. As for the hot dogs…I dunno, because they’re in New York?

Seriously, Oscars?: It appears that “Hot Dogs for Gauguin” never played an Oscar qualifying run. For the record, 1972’s Live-Action Short Oscar winner was Robert Duebel’s “Norman Rockwell’s World…An American Dream”, which really should have been nominated in the Documentary Short category. Martin Brest would go on to receive Oscar nominations as the producer and director of 1992’s “Scent of a Woman”.

Other notes

Danny DeVito was just getting started as an actor when “Hot Dogs” came his way. Although this was his third film, DeVito was primarily an Off-Broadway actor, having recently played Martini in a revival of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, a role he would reprise for the film adaptation. It’s fun watching a young DeVito playing a character, rather than his later Louie De Palma persona. It’s also fun to see him with hair, although even at 28 he’s already prepping for one hell of a combover.
While never reaching the same levels of fame as his scene partner, William Duff-Griffin was a regular in the New York theater scene for over 25 years, and made brief appearances in such films as “Basic Instinct” and “The Hudsucker Proxy”. His life partner was fellow actor Robert Joy, represented on the NFR with “Atlantic City” and “Desperately Seeking Susan”.
Another bit of historical misinformation: Adrian mentions that the Hindenburg was destroyed by a small hydrogen leak. As I learned during my own research, we still don’t know what actually caused the Hindenburg to go up in flames, but a hydrogen leak is as good (and more plausible) a theory than anything else out there.
The idea of blowing up the Statue of Liberty really doesn’t sit well as a comic premise post – 9/11. That being said, I like that Adrian purposefully picks the statue’s annual maintenance day at lunch hour so that no tourists or employees would be around and get hurt. Very thoughtful for his act of terrorism.
That’s Martin Brest as the man sitting across from Fletcher on the ferry. The woman next to him is Rhea Perlman, DeVito’s then-girlfriend (now wife) who would go on to achieve fame as Carla the waitress on “Cheers”. It’s also fun to think that someone in this film would show up in “Barbie” 50 years later.
This film has excellent use of classical music throughout, as well as Irving Aaronson’s recording of Cole Porter’s “Let’s Misbehave”. Turns out public domain music can be fun!
Well I definitely didn’t see that ending coming, but then again I wasn’t expecting much given that this was a student film with presumably no budget. The last scene goes on a bit too long, but the final shot is a great punchline.

Legacy

A 3 ½ minute version of “Hot Dogs for Gauguin” played on “Saturday Night Live” on December 13^th, 1980, with guest host Jamie Lee Curtis (and not, as I assumed, Danny DeVito, who wouldn’t host for the first time until May 1982). I have no idea how or why this film was selected to air, but I do know that SNL’s 1980-1981 season was the show’s notoriously awful first post-original cast season, and almost everyone involved would be fired three months after this episode aired. Interesting bit of trivia: the “Hot Dogs” episode was the debut episode for Eddie Murphy, one of the few spared from the show’s restructuring and future Martin Brest collaborator.
Outside of its SNL airing, “Hot Dogs for Gauguin” has pretty much lingered in obscurity, even after its 2009 NFR induction, with only the abbreviated version available online. Thankfully the original uncut version has started to crop up online, which hopefully will lead to more visibility and a wider audience.
Martin Brest’s filmography is a small but impressive roster. His commercial film debut was the 1979 comedy “Going In Style”, and although he was fired from directing “WarGames” early in production, this allowed him to helm mega-hit “Beverly Hills Cop” with Eddie Murphy. This was followed by “Midnight Run” and “Scent of a Woman”, the latter getting Al Pacino his long overdue Oscar. “Meet Joe Black” was a critical and financial misstep, and 2003’s “Gigli” was completely re-shot and re-cut without Brest’s involvement (he called the final film a “ghastly cadaver”), and bombed so badly it essentially ended his career. Looking back on his filmography in 2023, Brest concluded that he “had a good run, and I enjoyed success and freedom, and that was fantastic.”

Bonus Clip: This is as good an excuse as I’ll ever get to play one of my favorite YouTube clips of all time: that time in 2006 when Danny DeVito showed up on “The View” to promote his movie “Deck the Halls” while still drunk from a night of partying with George Clooney. DeVito’s George W. Bush impression always makes me laugh.