Based very, very loosely on Harold Robbins' 1949 novel, this 1980 mini-series moves well, and it features many names from the golden age of Hollywood and several newer performers at the time.
The storyline focuses on the introduction of the nickelodeon, silent pictures, and the transition to talking pictures. There are also allusions to Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the murder of director William Desmond Taylor, and a possible sex scandal involving an underaged girl.
My favorite performers from the mini-series Mark Harmon and Morgan Fairchild play a mismatched couple, full of heat and passion. The following year they would reteam as a romantic couple for N. B. C.'s prime time soap opera FLAMINGO ROAD. Both give wonderful and believable performances in their portrayals of Johnny Edge and Dulcie Warren.
The mini series uses the names of Harold Robbins' characters and a minimum of his storyline. The mini-series, for now, can be found on You Tube.
Despite the many changes made in the mini series, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also decided to read the novel before watching this mini-series, so here is a list of differences:
First Half
In the novel, the action begins in Rochester NY, not Albany as in the movie.
In the novel, Johnny Edge's parents died when he was ten years old. His parents worked in a travelling carnival, and his father tried to save his mother, who was in a burning tent. Both died, and Johnny was raised by a carnival worker. In the movie, Johnny says his father was a gambler, and his mother dropped him off at an orphanage very soon after he was born.
In the novel, it is Johnny's idea to start a nickelodeon, not Peter Kessler's. In the movie, Peter is the one who starts it all.
In the novel, Peter's children, Doris and Mark, are young children at the start of the story. In the movie, Doris is about 15 and Mark is about 20.
In the novel, Mark is the younger child. In the movie, Mark is older than Doris.
In the novel, Dulcie Warren is a stage actress when Johnny meets her. In the movie, she is a movie extra.
In the novel, there is no pregnancy scare and no abortion for Dulcie.
In the novel, Dulcie never marries Mark.
In the novel, Mark gets killed in World War I.
In the novel, Johnny loses a leg in World War I.
In the novel, Johnny's friend Rocco Salvatore is a barber by trade, not a future bootlegger as in the movie.
In the novel, Johnny and Dulcie get married.
In the novel, Warren Craig never makes the film version of The Bandit.
In the novel, Dulcie and Warren Craig are first cousins, who have an incestual relationship. When Johnny walks in on them in bed, it ends both his marriage to Dulcie and not long afterwards Dulcie and Warren's relationship.
In the novel, there is no partnership with Henry Farnum and Magnum Studio. Farnum never goes to go to work for Peter.
In the novel, Peter throws Mark, who has been in control of the studio when Peter is in Europe, out of his house and his life when he discovers that Mark has been making a movie using funds for several other movies behind his back and laughing at his father. In the movie, Peter throws Mark out of his house and his life when Mark announces he and Dulcie had gotten married the day before Johnny and Doris marry.
Second Half:
Johnny and Doris have a son named Bobby.
Conrad Stillman, a director, and Astrid James, his star, are caught in bed by Helene, Conrad's wife. She shoots and kills them both.
Dulcie is invited back to Magnum to replace Astrid in The Flapper, even though Peter is not happy with Dulcie marrying Mark.
Bobby falls off a horse, and Johnny couldn't be notified since he is unreachable due to having some afternoon pleasure with Dulcie.
Doris is tempted by Zac Larsen, who had replaced Craig Warren when Craig quits during the filming of The Bandit. Zac makes a pass at her, but Doris stays faithful to Johnny.
Bruce Benson, a film comedian, is accused of sexual misconduct with a supposedly underage girl, but Johnny threatens the parents with a lawsuit claiming their daughter is much older than fourteen as they claim.
Peter has fought the conversion to talking pictures. Once he accepts the inevitable, the movie shows the difficulty of sound issues when sound is put on a record and also when filming occurs too when working with the new invention.
George Pappas, the Greek man from Rochester, who has bought the nickelodeon at the start of the novel, commits suicide in Farnum's office bathroom when the bank controlled by Henry Farnum, Charles Slade, and Lawrence Radford threaten him since George has missed his last two payments. The three men later move the body to be found in the basement of one of George's theaters, and Farnum makes a call to sell all of their Pappas stock to avoid any possible connection to his death.
Dulcie and Mark are killed in an automobile accident when Dulcie starts hitting Mark while he is driving. She tells him she is leaving him and going back to Europe to continue her career since Peter has ended it. Peter has threatened he would renew her contract but never cast her in a film ever again. He wants her to stay home and have babies.
Peter almost gets replaced as President of Magnum Studio, but Johnny finds out the truth of when and how George died. He informs Farnum, Slade, and Radford that he will go to the police with proof that they sold all their Pappas theater stock shares. Plus, with the testimony of Farnum's secretary and Bruce Benson's, who was waiting to see Farnum in his office, they will be in legal trouble with moving a body, obstruction of justice, and insider trading information.
Johnny, with his information, changes all the stockholders' minds, who have wanted to remove Peter from his position.
Peter decides to retire, he offers Johnny the opportunity to run the studio, Doris wants him back, and Magnum makes its first talking picture.
(In the novel, Peter dies before Johnny and Doris hope to marry.)
