The Linguini Incident (also released on home video as Houdini and Company, The Robbery, Shag-O-Rama) is a 1991 American crime comedy film set in New York starring Rosanna Arquette and David Bowie.[1] The film was directed by Richard Shepard, who co-wrote the script with Tamar Brott. The title refers to linguini, a type of pasta.
A British bartender, Monte, hopes to marry Lucy, a waitress at the upscale restaurant where they work, ostensibly so he can obtain his green card and become an American citizen. In several scenes, Monte alludes to likely being killed if he returns to his native country.
The waitress, Lucy, is an aspiring escape artist who is fixated on the legacy of Harry Houdini. She and her friend Vivian, a lingerie designer, conspire to rob the restaurant in order to fund their ambitions. Monte agrees to help with the robbery if Lucy agrees to marry him.
Although the robbery does not occur precisely according to plan, the trio are successful. However, Lucy later inadvertently forgets to meet Monte at the marriage registrar, causing him to lose a two million dollar bet with the restaurant owners that he could marry a waitress in a week.
In a double or nothing scenario, Monte wagers Lucy's skills as an escape artist. He tricks the women into playing along, claiming that the bosses have uncovered the robbery. The women appear to forgive Monte for lying about the circumstances of the escape performance. The two women rob the restaurant a second time. The relationship of the women and Monte remains ambiguous in the end, although there are hints of chemistry between Monte and Lucy.
The movie was shot in late 1990, after Bowie had completed his Sound+Vision Tour.[3][4] It was co-funded by Bowie's own production company, Isolar.[3]
Release
Different edits of the film were shown internationally under the titles The Linguini Incident, Houdini & Company, The Robbery, The Incident, and Shag-O-Rama. An assembly cut was released in Europe and Asia while a cut by the producers was released in the United States and Canada.[citation needed]
It was released on VHS in 1992, and again in January 2000 on DVD with the name Shag-O-Rama, The Robbery, and Houdini and Company.[3]
Critical response
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film "trumpets its eccentricity with its title and casting, as well as in every other way it can".[5]
Los Angeles Times staff writer Kevin Thomas called the film "a rarity, a contemporary screwball comedy that actually works".[6]
Empire magazine gave the movie 1 star out of 5, calling it "an unbearably protracted dud".[7]
In The Radio Times Guide to Films Lorien Haynes gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "A designer restaurant called Dali is the setting for this bizarre and ultimately unsuccessful comedy. Bartender David Bowie, elegant as ever, is paired with a more quirky than usual Rosanna Arquette, who works as a waitress. Romance does blossom eventually, but not before cash-strapped Bowie has masterminded a robbery at the restaurant. Combine this with Arquette's Houdini-like desire to truss herself up in a tank full of water, and you have a plot as unappealing as a bowl of soggy pasta."[8]
TV Guide gave the movie 2 stars out of 5, writing: "Arty Manhattanites come under the less-than-razor sharp gaze of writer-director Richard Shepard in The Linguini Incident, a meek comedy of manners... Unfavorable comparisons with Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan, particularly in light of Arquette's casting, are inevitable, but they're also apt. Desperately Seeking Susan was genuinely quirky and offbeat, capturing the cheerful chaos of shiftless Downtown lives; The Linguini Incident is a pale pretender that tries too hard."[9]
Variety magazine called the movie an "uninspired, poverty row production" and lamented the miscasting of Bowie in the lead role.[2]
Bowie biographer Nicholas Pegg called the movie "harmless but negligible", with a "misconceived script and turgid direction."[3]
Cult status
Since its initial release, the film has garnered a cult following.[citation needed]Collider called it "a hidden gem in Bowie's filmography" and "the best kind of cinematic comfort food".[10]
Reviewer Virginie Pronovost wrote "it keeps you entertained from the beginning until the end with its humour, its peripeties and the overall aura of excitement".[11]
One 2013 review from Mutant Reviewers says "here on my Island of Misfit Movies, The Linguini Incident lives on in a special place of honor".[12]
Director's cut
In 2021, Shepard was approached to make a director's cut of the film for a Blu-ray release. The rights to the film were initially held by Academy Entertainment, which went bankrupt and sold its film library to another company that also went bankrupt. The Linguini Incident was one of several films whose copyright was claimed by the Screen Actors Guild. Shepard had to find a print and faced difficulties as SAG did not have any and both the European distributor and processing lab went bankrupt. Shepard was able to find a 35mm print of the film in 2022 through a Zurich art theater.[13] On August 8, 2023, Shepard announced on his Twitter account that he had recovered the rights to the film and remastered it in 4K with a director's cut. The recut premiered at Vidiots on May 9, 2024[14] and the BluRay was released in July 2024.[15]
Shepard, Richard (2024). "Take Two: Director Richard Shepard on redoing his first feature, The Linguini Incident". Filmmaker. Vol.32, no.4. The Gotham Film & Media Institute.
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