Wall of Paul

Today’s writers should take note of Hal Ashby’s topical, and still surprisingly racy, “Shampoo.” It’s just as effective now as it was back in 1975, because its politics are mostly implied and come dressed up in old-fashioned movie star dazzle. There seems little chance, however, that modern studios would clamor to shoot a script that mocks the well-dressed bottom-feeders who populate the greater Los Angeles area, since a lot of those bottom-feeders actually work at the studios. And very few of them are into self-reflection.

Simply put, “Shampoo” is one of the classic comedies of the 1970s. It’s sharp as a tack, filled with piercing social commentary, and features Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, and Goldie Hawn at their Hollywood Hills foxiest. Robert Towne, who wrote “Shampoo,” as well as the equally brilliant “Chinatown” and “The Last Detail,” compares and contrasts free-love hedonism with the shady me-firstness that will forever infect our corporate boardrooms. People are getting screwed all over the place in “Shampoo,” but most of them are a faceless mass, and they’re fully-clothed when the screwing takes place. Welcome to America.

The story unfolds mainly on election eve in 1968. Beatty, in one of his patented dim-bulb performances, plays George, an over-sexed L.A. hairdresser who can’t keep his hands off the variously distressed, high-maintenance women who come to him for follicle and libido rejuvenation. George will bang away at a moment’s notice, but he’s belatedly realized that he needs to grow up, with the first baby-step being to start his own salon. But his search for funding will unexpectedly force him to become an adult in the course of one very busy day.

Towne’s melancholic, screwball plot accelerates until poor George doesn’t know who to cling to for emotional support...and whether or not to keeps his pants on while he does it. To simplify matters, he usually just takes them off.

See if you can follow this: George’s actress girlfriend, Jill (Hawn), wants to settle down and have a baby, so she wills herself not to notice that George is, shall we say, out of the house at strange hours. George is also having a fling with Felicia (Lee Grant), a slightly older client at the salon who can’t think of anything but climbing on top of George. Felicia hooks George up with her husband, Lester (Jack Warden), a powerful businessman who’s considering loaning George the money he needs to start his salon, mostly because Felicia thinks George is a great hair stylist. Lester also figures that George, due to his girlie occupation, must be gay.

The wildcard in all of this is Lester’s gorgeous, alcohol-swilling mistress, Jackie (Christie), who happens to be Jill’s best friend. She also happens to be George’s ex-girlfriend, and both she and George are trying not to admit that they still love each other. This all leads to an extended Mexican stand-off scene at a black-tie dinner party, during which the sex and the money finally rise to the surface...all while a chorus of TV’s blare that Richard Nixon will soon be our new president. Tricky Dicky indeed.

The actors in “Shampoo” are dazzling, straight across the board. Hawn grates a little as Jill, because the character is supposed to be a twit. But she’s a sweet, kind-hearted twit. Grant, who won an Oscar for her performance, finds levels of desperation in Felicia that are hard to watch, and she’s hilarious when she downshifts into animal-sex mode around George. Christie, perhaps the most underrated actress of her generation, has a way with a rueful glance that’s repeatedly put to optimum effect, and Beatty gradually allows air-headed George to grow heavy with despair. As is so often the case with Beatty, he’s doing more than you think he is.

But Warden delivers the key performance. Although Lester, with his mansion, Rolls Royce, and trophy mistress, appears to be a Master of the Universe, beneath the surface he’s roiling with comic insecurities. His suits skew a little young for his middle-aged build, and he struggles to seem even vaguely hip in a landscape populated by the casually ultra-hip. You can even sense he has working class roots, via the self-consciously garrulous manner that he tries to cope with George’s unnerving “homosexuality.” Warden is a marvel of subtle comic invention. He, too, should have picked up an Oscar for this one (George Burns actually snagged it for “The Sunshine Boys,” then fooled everyone by living another 20 years.)

George is the only character who’s clearly trying to grow up in “Shampoo,” but Towne and Ashby make it clear that the entire country needs to follow suit. The fact that, 32 years later, we still haven’t gotten around to it, makes “Shampoo” an especially prescient bit of pop sociology. If you’ve never seen “Shampoo,” rent it and watch it. If you have seen it, it’s about time you rinse and repeat.

- Paul Tatara