Hearts of the West, released in Europe as Hollywood Cowboy, is a 1975 American comedy film directed by Howard Zieff, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Blythe Danner, and Alan Arkin. A remake of 1932’s Make Me a Star, its story revolves around a wannabe Western writer who finds himself cast as a leading man in several 1930s Hollywood B-movie Westerns.
Despite good reviews, the film was a financial disappointment for MGM upon release in 1975, but it has since developed a significant cult following from midnight showings and college campus screenings.
Screenwriter Rob Thompson launched his career with this film. He went on to be a major creative talent on the television series Northern Exposure (for which he won an Emmy) and Monk.
Plot
In 1933, Lewis Tater (Jeff Bridges), an aspiring novelist who harbors dreams of becoming the next Zane Grey, decides to leave his family home in Iowa to go to the University of Titan in Nevada so he can soak up the western atmosphere. He arrives to find that there is no university, only a mail order correspondence course scam run by two crooks out of the local hotel. He tries to spend the night at the hotel, but is attacked by one of the men in an attempted robbery. He escapes his attacker, grabs his suitcase, and steals their car to get away, but after a while it runs out of gas. He looks in the car trunk, and finds a toolbox containing a revolver and ammunition. Afraid the two crooks are still in pursuit of him, he takes the tool box and his suitcase and walks off into the desert.
Wandering and exhausted, the next morning he happens upon a threadbare film-unit from Tumbleweed Productions grinding out a "B" western. Later that day, he catches a lift with the cowboy actors to Los Angeles. After applying for work at Tumbleweed, he is referred by crusty old extra Howard Pike (Andy Griffith) to the Rio, a western-themed restaurant. While washing dishes at the Rio, he is called by Tumbleweed, where Howard mentors him to be an actor. After proving himself as a stuntman, unit manager Kessler (Alan Arkin) offers him a speaking role. Tater then falls in love with spunky script girl Miss Trout (Blythe Danner). Meanwhile, the crooks trace him to Los Angeles to retrieve the safe-box containing their money that was in the car stolen by Lewis.
Cast
Jeff Bridges as Lewis Tater aka Neddy Wales
Andy Griffith as Howard Pike aka Billy Pueblo
Donald Pleasence as A.J. Neitz
Blythe Danner as Miss Trout
Alan Arkin as Bert Kessler
Richard B. Shull as Stout Crook
Herbert Edelman as Polo
Alex Rocco as Earl
Frank Cady as Pa Tater
Anthony James as Lean Crook
Burton Gilliam as Lester
Matt Clark as Jackson
Candy Azzara as Waitress
Thayer David as Bank Manager
Marie Windsor as Hotel Manager
Anthony Holland as Guest at Beach Party
Dub Taylor as Ticket Agent
William Christopher as Bank Teller
Stuart Nisbet as Lucky
Tucker Smith as Noodle in Pith Helmet
Richard Stahl as Barber
Granville Van Dusen as World War I Pilot
Reception
Roger Ebert called it "a lovely little comedy, a movie to feel fond of" and that Bridges "brings a nice complexity to the role".
Awards
It was named one of the National Board of Review's Top Ten Films for 1975. Arkin won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor.