0 Comments

“The raggle-taggle queen of the night is Robin…”

Relevant text:  MOVIE SCORE CARD capsule close-ups of current films by bruce williamson  Times Square (Reviewed this month) Punks on Broadway.

Bruce Williamson didn’t not like Times Square, but he couldn’t ignore its flaws… still, his review in the January Playboy was generally positive, appreciating the film’s visual evocation of Times Square and, like most other reviewers, Robin’s performance.

The two bunny-heads meant the movie was “worth a look.”

A gravel-voiced hoyden named Robin Johnson takes over Times Square (EMI/ AFD) and makes it all her own. Edited detail from p. 46, the second page of "Movies" by Bruce Williamson: a review of "Times Square": A gravel-voiced hoyden named Robin Johnson takes over Times Square (EMI/ AFD) and makes it all her own. Teamed up with Robin is Trini Alvarado (who made her big splash in last year’s Rich Kids), while England’s Tim Curry (star of The Rocky Horror Show on stage and screen) adds a garnish of colorful idiosyncrasy as an all-night deejay who transforms a couple of runaway kids into punk-rock stars. Directed by Canadian- born Alan Moyle from a screenplay by Jacob Brackman (former Esquire film critic and sometime PLAYBOY contributor), Times Square takes chances, caroms from hits to misses, yet captures the seedy, funky atmosphere of mid- Manhattan fleshpots as few other movies have done since Midnight Cowboy. Filmed on location, Moyle’s grungy fable depicts a nighttime New York full of music, drugs, muscle, hustle, youthful exuberance and teenaged rebels without a cause. The raggle-taggle queen of the night is Robin, herself in real life a Brooklyn high school girl and nonpro until someone discovered she could curse, swagger and belt songs like a junior-miss Bette Midler—though compared with this kid, Bette is a cream puff. Here, Robin’s the street-wise gamine who takes up with a New York City commissioner’s runaway daughter (Trini) to form a duo called The Sleaze Sisters. The movie as a whole may be a triumph of sleaze over substance, but Robin Johnson plays it like a seasoned trouper.Playboy Vol. 28 No. 1, January 1981, p. 1, cover Teamed up with Robin is Trini Alvarado (who made her big splash in last year’s Rich Kids), while England’s Tim Curry (star of The Rocky Horror Show on stage and screen) adds a garnish of colorful idiosyncrasy as an all-night deejay who transforms a couple of runaway kids into punk-rock stars. Directed by Canadian- born Alan Moyle from a screenplay by Jacob Brackman (former Esquire film critic and sometime PLAYBOY contributor), Times Square takes chances, caroms from hits to misses, yet captures the seedy, funky atmosphere of mid- Manhattan fleshpots as few other movies have done since Midnight Cowboy. Filmed on location, Moyle’s grungy fable depicts a nighttime New York full of music, drugs, muscle, hustle, youthful exuberance and teenaged rebels without a cause. The raggle-taggle queen of the night is Robin, herself in real life a Brooklyn high school girl and nonpro until someone discovered she could curse, swagger and belt songs like a junior-miss Bette Midler—though compared with this kid, Bette is a cream puff. Here, Robin’s the street-wise gamine who takes up with a New York City commissioner’s runaway daughter (Trini) to form a duo called The Sleaze Sisters. The movie as a whole may be a triumph of sleaze over substance, but Robin Johnson plays it like a seasoned trouper.

Photo of Trini Alvarado and Robin Johnson from p. 46, the second page of "Movies" by Bruce Williamson, containing a review of "Times Square":

 

 

The photo looks like the one that was used as the cover of the Japanese “Same Old Scene” single, on the inside of the soundtrack album gatefold, and in the songbook, but it isn’t. It also isn’t a color version of TS-72-8A/14, which appeared in the December 23, 1980 US magazine (as seen last post). It’s a third shot from that session, which as of this writing I don’t believe ever appeared anywhere else.

Update, 4 February 2018: The photo accompanying the Playboy review of Times Square is TS-C-34/29, one of a series of black and white press photos issued by AFD, and carrying a copyright date of 1981. I have one of those photos, but not this one; luckily they’re all in the collection of Karen Dean (Defeatedandgifted), and it’s on display on her blog.

 

 

Playboy, Vol. 28 No. 1, January 1981
8.25 in (W) x 10.85 in (H)
(Bruce Williamson, “Movies,” pp. 44-50
“Times Square,” p. 46) (work)

 

©1981 Playboy

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

Soundtrack Ad, Melody Maker, November 15, 1980

"AFTER ALL THE MOVIE ALBUMS RELEASED THIS YEAR COMES THE DEFINITIVE ROCK SOUNDTRACK FROM THE FORTHCOMING ROBERT STIGWOOD FILM 'TIMES SQUARE'"         Even as Times Square was opening and closing in the United States, the mighty RSO promotion machine was hard at work in the United Kingdom,…

“I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!”

But, I will anyway, 'cause that's how I roll. [gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="2045,2046"] The first is a not-quite 1 1/2 inch button with the Times Square logo on a black background. As far as I know these were never for sale, and were most likely given to radio stations and…

Times Square UK Lobby Cards, 1st Set (post 1 of 4)

[gallery columns="1" size="medium" ids="5029,5030,5031,5028"] I first encountered lobby cards from this series several years ago in the collection of DefeatedandGifted, and I assumed they were Australian, partly because that's where she was, and because they used the American form of the logo which was used on the Australian movie poster…