STRANGERS KISS. Orion, 1983. Peter Coyote, Victoria Tennant, Blaine Novak, Dan Shor, Richard Romanus, and Linda Kerridge. Written by Blaine Novak & Matthew Chapman. Directed by Matthew Chapman.

   A niche film, but accessible, engaging, intelligent — and Funny!

   About 30 years before Strangers Kiss was made, an eager young would-be filmmaker borrowed money, assembled a cast of non-actors, investors and their relatives, scarfed up one professional actor and somehow cobbled a movie together.

   No, not Ed Wood and Plan 9 from Outer Space. The laying of that egg was immortalized in a movie of its own, a decade later. This film is about the somewhat more talented Stanley Kubrick, and the movie was Killer’s Kiss, reviewed here: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=18638

   So if you’re still with me, Strangers Kill is loosely based on the making of Killer’s Kiss. For purposes of the plot, and to give the thing a sense of movement and suspense, they provide the leading lady/heroine with a loan shark/movie-investor for a near-husband, and Richard Romanus gives the character a hairy machismo that contrasts very well with Blaine Novak’s laid-back virility as her co-star /would-be lover.

   But these three, good as they are, compete for our attention with a vivid array of sub-Hollywood types, hangers-on or drop-outs from the fringes of the tinseltown dream, limping Kharis-like from ruin to ruin…

   Lyrical, ain’t I?

   Seriously, folks, the minor characters are well-drawn, and the bigger roles are played with commitment and deft comic timing. Dan Shor does an amazing — and very funny — job as a beleaguered producer in an abusive relationship with the director, played by Peter Coyote as a mercurial megalomaniac. The scenes of Coyote plowing through the film like a mulching mower, while Shor bags up the remains are a delight to watch, funny and deeply-felt at the same time.

   Finally, for a movie about movie-making, this is surprisingly intelligent. Director Matthew Chapman evokes the seedy back-lot milieu, and lovingly recreates scenes and set-ups from the earlier film. And best of all, ((WARNING!)) after teetering at the edge of melodrama for most of its running time, Strangers wraps with everyone acting like grown-ups, resolving their conflicts (or not) with a low-key maturity that surprised me more than many an action-film!