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"Tender Years Song"
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Eddie & The Cruisers
(1983)
All Films
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February 14, '02
Eddie & The Cruisers
(1983)
Based upon the classic novel by P.F Kluge, Writer/Director Martin Davidson
and his sister Arlene Davidson brought the legend of Eddie Wilson
and the
music of the early 1960's flooding to our screens.
Set in a period where the growth of new artists like Bill Haley, Little
Richard, and Buddy Holly were causing an evolution in contemporary music,
Kluge's tale tells of an innovative group from the South-Shore of New Jersey
called 'Eddie and the Cruisers.' With
Wilson (MICHAEL PARÉ)
as their
charismatic lead singer, and Frank 'Wordman' Ridgeway (TOM BERENGER) writing
their lyrics, they had an explosive combination that landed them a
number-one hit. Then before their second album was released, in the small
hours before dawn, Eddie Wilson drove his convertible off a bridge. His body
was never found. Without Eddie, there was no-one to complete
Frank
Ridgeway's creative unison of 'words & music' - the music stopped.
"If we can cant be great then there's no sense in ever playin' music again"
(Eddie Wilson)
In 1983, 20 years after the death of Eddie Wilson, DJ's around the country
have rediscovered 'Eddie and the Cruisers' - their classics
'Tender Years'
'On the Dark Side' and 'Wild Summer Nights' have attracted a new generation
of fans. Maggie Foley (ELLEN BARKIN) is a reporter who's writing a story
about the rock-star's mysterious death. Why was his body never found? And
what happened to the final master tapes of the ambitious unheard album
'Season in Hell'?
She probes the mystery behind their brief glory and as the mystery unravels,
it becomes clear that someone else is looking for the lost tapes of 'Season
in Hell' - and that someone might be Eddie Wilson.
They say rock 'n' roll never dies, but one dark night in 1963,
Eddie Wilson's car took a dive off aJersey bridge with the troubled rock idol at the wheel. His body was never found.
Tom Berenger (Platoon), Michael ParÃ(c) (Streets of Fire) and
Ellen Barkin (Sea of Love) star in this cool, compelling classic that really rocks! Twenty years after the lead singer
(ParÃ(c)) of"Eddie and the Cruisers" disappeared, the band's songs are hotter than ever. And renewed interest in the band leads TV reporter
Maggie Foley (Barkin) to pursue a tantalizing mystery: What if
Eddie is still alive? The circumstances surrounding his death are just shadowy enough to make it a distinct possibility, and someone (could it be
Eddie?) has been ransacking the homes of surviving band members in a desperate search for tapes of the group's visionary, never-released album. As
Maggie interviews the former "Cruisers," the pieces of the puzzle start to fit...but only until still deeper mysteries begin to surface.
Eddie and the Cruisers is a successful conversion of the novel, and has to
be considered a rock n' roll cult classic. It cleverly combines music,
friendship and suspense across different time periods.
Enthralling clues to Eddie's disappearance by way of Arthur Rimbaud's poem
'Looking for Ghosts' is a nice touch, and the relentless quest for musical
perfection that Eddie is cursed with makes for compelling viewing.
Paré, unlike in all subsequent film roles, here is outstanding, making great
technical accomplishments with the miming of John Cafferty's
staggering
vocals. Whilst Berenger is his perfect foil, tortured by the memory of what
might have been. A music lovers mystery.
Helen Schneider who plays Eddie's girlfriend and singer in the Cruiser
'Joanne Carlino' is actually an International Rock Star in her own right and
was the first foreign rock artist to be invited to perform in East Germany.
Michael Paré is a fully qualified chef and graduated from the Culinary
Institute of Hyde Park.
Director Martin Davidson also introduced Sylvester Stallone to our screens
with low budget classic 'The Lords of Flatbush' made for $160,000, it was
purchased by Columbia and on release, returned a gross of $12 million.
John Cafferty's 'Beaver Brown Band'
who performed the music and who's sax
player Michael 'Tunes' Antunes also portrays the Cruiser's sax man
Wendell
Newton, had huge Stateside success on the film's release, hitting no.1 on
the Billboard top 100. Having worked together for some 15 years, songs like
'Tender Years' had been poignant gems in the bands set for years. The
soundtrack album sold 2 million copies on release.
A Technical advisor on the film was 'Southside Johnny' who you might
remember singing at the House party in 'Adventures in Babysitting' where
Elizabeth Shue meets George Newbern for the first time.
Was followed by 'Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!' - a long-shot at
best with only John Cafferty's music and a limp handful of amusing scenes to
save it. Rich and creamy cheesecake if you can get a hold of it. Paré
is
uncomfortable as the bulked up 'disguised' Wilson. He ventures back into the
limelight by way of his talented new band - whom he unnecessarily tortures
with his unobtainable standards.
http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/Poetry.html
"The
First Film ~ "Eddie & The Cruisers
EDDIE AND THE
CRUISERS was filmed in 1983.
The director was Martin Davidson, and the cast included Tom Berenger (Frank),
Michael Paré (Eddie),
Jo Pantoliano (Doc), Matthew Laurance (Sal) and
Helen Schneider (Joann). It didn't do well at the cinema, but took off when it came to cable and video. The music was provided by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, for whose professional career the film was a big boost.
Eddie Wilson lives for his music. When he leaves school he teams up with
Sal Amato from Philadelphia. We can assume from hints in the film that they play as a duo for a while, before forming the
Cruisers with Wendell Newton, Kenny Hopkins and Joann
Carlino. In the summer of 1962 they are the resident band at
Tony Mart's in Somers Point NJ, improve their sound and establish a local reputation. At Tony Mart's
Eddie meets Frank Ridgeway, just out of college and working as a dogsbody at the club. He takes him into the band as keyboard player, but primarily to write the lyrics for their songs.
Frank becomes the "Wordman", and amply justifies
Eddie's expectations. The Cruisers record an album (twelve tracks) with Satin Records.
In the spring of 1963 the Cruisers play a wildly successful engagement at
Frank's old college (marred by a temporary falling out between
Eddie and
Frank). Over the next year they put in a lot of time at Satin Records recording a new album, Season In Hell. Significantly, this is the title of an anthology of poetry by Rimbaud, who disappeared after its publication and only resurfaced twenty years later. In August 1963,
Wendell Newton dies of a drug overdose. On March 15th 1964, work on the album is complete, but
Lew Eisen, the president of Satin Records, hates it and refuses to release it.
Eddie storms off into the night and his car runs off the Raritan Bridge. His body is never found, and the
Cruisers disband.
Doc Robbins, the band's manager, sells back the rights in the first album to
Lew Eisen. Eighteen years later, Satin re-release the album and it becomes a surprise hit. Soon the songs are climbing far higher in the charts than they ever did the first time around.
Frank has become a high school teacher, and one day he is visited by
Maggie Foley, a TV presenter who has discovered that the tapes of Season in Hell went missing from Satin Records on March 16th 1964.
Frank's home (a trailer) is done over by persons unknown and he is contacted by
Doc Robbins, now a DJ at a run-down radio station, who has also been burgled and theorises that it's being done by someone who's after the missing tapes.
Doc tips off Frank that Sal Amato
has carried on the Cruisers' name
with a group of his own. Frank goes to see
Sal's show, talks to Sal and runs into
Maggie Foley again. Frank's next port of call is
Kenny Hopkins, now working at a casino in Atlantic City, who tells him the truth about
Wendell's death. Frank (and the world in general) had believed it was a heart attack.
Finally, Frank contacts
Joann Carlino, now a choreographer working at a hotel in Wildwood. She reveals that she knows where the tapes are - at
Palace Depression, a junkyard cum theme park which was an old haunt of Eddie's. They go there, retrieve the tapes and take them back to
Joann's house. While they're there, a car draws up and the driver calls to
Joann in Eddie's voice.
Frank pulls him out of the car only to find that it's
Doc. He is trying to get hold of the tapes; "I knew she wouldn't give them to me, but maybe she'd give them to you,
Wordman". Doc
wants for once in his life to make it big. Frank and Joann give him the tapes and he drives off. They turn and go back together into the house.
The closing credits run over a scene at a city TV store. Dozens of sets in the window are all showing Maggie's documentary about
Eddie Wilson. A number of people are clustered around outside, watching. When it finishes, they disperse, and we see that one of them is -
Eddie Wilson. So he didn't die.
EDDIE AND THE
CRUISERS was written by P.F.Kluge and published by Viking in 1980 and has recently been reprinted. It's a mystery story set in the music world, and it's written in a very accessible style which nevertheless leaves you guessing about the twists in the plot.
Eddie Wilson (the son of a dentist in Vineland, New Jersey) lives for his music. When he leaves school he teams up with
Sal Amato from Philadelphia and they play the bars and clubs in Virginia and New Jersey as a duo for a year or so. Then
Eddie takes on a couple of other people,
Wendell Newton and
Kenny Hopkins, and forms the
Parkway Cruisers. In the summer of 1957 they are the resident band at Vince's Boardwalk Bar in Atlantic City, improve their sound and establish a local reputation. They record an album (twelve tracks) with an obscure record company. At Vince's
Eddie meets
Frank Ridgeway, just out of college and working as a dogsbody at the bar. He teaches him guitar and takes him into the band, primarily to write the lyrics for their songs.
Frank becomes the "Wordman", and amply justifies Eddie's expectations.
Second
Theory:
In the spring of 1958 the Parkway, Cruisers play a wildly successful engagement at Frank's old college in Ohio (marred by a temporary falling out between
Eddie and Frank) and a mildly disastrous benefit performance at a black venue in Newark. Following this
Eddie and Wendell (without the rest of the group) spend a month holed up in secret at a backwoods studio at Lakehurst, joined at various times by a whole list of well-known names including
Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly. Whatever
Eddie was trying to do, it doesn't seem to work. A week after the sessions finish, on 8th June 1958,
Eddie's car crashes on the Garden State Parkway and he is killed.
The Cruisers attend the funeral, except for
Joann Carlino, Eddie's girlfriend
(perhaps because he turns out to have been married since 1955 and his widow is there), and for
Doc Robbins, the band's manager. Then they disband.
The company which issued the Parkway Cruisers' album goes bankrupt and the rights are acquired by Ekko Records, which reissues the album,
twenty years after Eddie's death. It's a surprise hit and soon the songs are climbing far higher in the charts than they ever did the first time around.
Frank has become a high school teacher, and one day he is visited by
Elliot Mannheim, a rock journalist, who is ostensibly researching the
Cruisers but seems particularly interested in the Lakehurst sessions. After this he's contacted by
Doc Robbins, now a DJ at a run-down radio station, who reveals that there may be tapes of those session somewhere - worth a lot of money now that
Eddie's music is back in fashion.
Doc tips off Frank that Sal Amato has carried on the Cruisers' name with a group of his own.
Frank goes to see Sal's show in Columbus, Ohio, talks to
Sal who confirms the existence of the tapes but knows nothing about their present whereabouts, and runs into Elliott Mannheim again.
Frank next tracks down the other remaining
Cruiser: Kenny is a minister of
religion.
Finally, Frank goes to see Joann Carlino, now the owner of a blueberry farm. While he's there someone drives up in a 1951 Ford (the model
Eddie used to own), calls to
Joann in a good imitation of
Eddie's voice, and takes a shot at her before driving off.
Joann has the tapes and gives them to Frank.
Third
Theory:
Frank
hides away in a trailer park in Florida. Eventually, Elliot Mannheim tracks him down and
Frank
agrees to meet him at his hotel. When he arrives, he finds Mannheim and his girlfriend are dead, is shot at by someone talking with
Eddie's voice,
fires back and hits his target, who turns out to be
Doc Robbins.
Doc dies, and the book closes with Frank and Joann becoming an item. The tapes? Joann had erased them, all but twenty seconds.
 "Eddie
& The Cruisers ~Part
2
Eddie
Lives!
"I
have loved the movie
"Eddie & The Cruisers,"
since the first time I saw it. The music is phenomenal!
Then
came "Eddie & The
Cruisers Part 2 ~ Eddie Lives!
Eddie
Lives! is equally as great as the first film....Maybe Better!
Credits: Repo's House Of Music
Music
Performed by:
John
Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
Share
With And Send To Friends
EDDIE AND THE
CRUISERS II - EDDIE LIVES!
was
released in 1989. It retained Michael Paré and Matthew Laurance from the first film, but Frank, Joann and Doc have vanished utterly, not even mentioned in passing. Perhaps Tom Berenger turned the film down. The Beaver Brown Band again provided the music.
Back in the summer of 1963, just before Wendell dies, he and Eddie spend some time holed up in secret at a backwoods studio near Lakehurst NJ, jamming with a lot of black musicians including Bo Diddley. The sessions are recorded, but none of the Cruisers know about them. Somehow the tape gets to be stored in the same box as the Season in Hell tapes, so when Satin Records re-acquire those tapes they find it too, although unsure what it represents.
After the crash, Eddie swims to the river bank and never gets back in contact with anybody he knew. In 1982, he's working in the construction industry in Montreal under the name of Joe West, playing his music only when he's by himself. When the Cruisers revival gets under way, Eddie hears his old songs everywhere and it eats him up, especially when Satin Records stage-manage 'Is Eddie still alive?' speculation in the media. He takes up with a new girlfriend (Diane, a spectacularly untalented artist) to whom he reveals his true identity. She encourages him to play in public again and he joins a band which includes Rick Diesel on guitar and Hilton Overstreet on sax. Hilton had known Wendell Newton before his Cruisers days and recognises who Eddie is as soon as he hears him play - but stays quiet about it.
The band become quite successful and are invited to be the opening act at the Montreal Rock Festival. Meanwhile, Eddie goes off to New Jersey and meets up with Sal Amato for the first time since his disappearance. Sal is annoyed at first but soon forgives Eddie and learns the truth about the Lakehurst sessions.
Rick has sent a tape of the new band's music to Lew Eisen at Satin Records and Lew comes up to Montreal to hear them at the Montreal festival. Eddie is less than pleased to see Lew after all these years and storms off but is persuaded by Diane to come back and play the festival.
The band go on stage and Eddie declares his true identity, to rapturous applause from the audience. (The final concert scenes were actually filmed at a Bon Jovi concert in Las Vegas).
EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS was filmed
in 1983. The director was Martin Davidson, and the cast included Tom
Berenger (Frank), Michael Paré (Eddie), Jo Pantoliano (Doc), Matthew
Laurance (Sal) and Helen Schneider (Joann). It didn't do well at the cinema,
but took off when it came to cable and video. The music was provided by John
Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, for whose professional career the film
was a big boost.
Eddie Wilson lives for his music. When he leaves school he teams up with Sal
Amato from Philadelphia. We can assume from hints in the film that they play
as a duo for a while, before forming the Cruisers with Wendell Newton, Kenny
Hopkins and Joann Carlino. In the summer of 1962 they are the resident band
at Tony
Mart's in Somers Point NJ, improve their sound and establish a local
reputation. At Tony Mart's Eddie meets Frank Ridgeway, just out of college
and working as a dogsbody at the club. He takes him into the band as
keyboard player, but primarily to write the lyrics for their songs. Frank
becomes the "Wordman", and amply justifies Eddie's expectations. The
Cruisers record an album (twelve tracks) with Satin Records.
In the spring of 1963 the Cruisers play a wildly successful engagement at
Frank's old college (marred by a temporary falling out between Eddie and
Frank). Over the next year they put in a lot of time at Satin Records
recording a new album, Season In Hell. Significantly, this is the
title of an anthology of poetry by Rimbaud, who disappeared after its
publication and only resurfaced twenty years later. In August 1963, Wendell
Newton dies of a drug overdose. On March 15th 1964, work on the album is
complete, but Lew Eisen, the president of Satin Records, hates it and
refuses to release it. Eddie storms off into the night and his car runs off
the Raritan Bridge. His body is never found, and the Cruisers disband.
Doc Robbins, the band's manager, sells back the rights in the first album to
Lew Eisen. Eighteen years later, Satin re-release the album and it becomes a
surprise hit. Soon the songs are climbing far higher in the charts than they
ever did the first time around. Frank has become a high school teacher, and
one day he is visited by Maggie Foley, a TV presenter who has discovered
that the tapes of Season in Hell went missing from Satin Records on
March 16th 1964. Frank's home (a trailer) is done over by persons unknown
and he is contacted by Doc Robbins, now a DJ at a run-down radio station,
who has also been burgled and theorises that it's being done by someone
who's after the missing tapes. Doc tips off Frank that Sal Amato has carried
on the Cruisers' name with a group of his own. Frank goes to see Sal's show,
talks to Sal and runs into Maggie Foley again. Frank's next port of call is
Kenny Hopkins, now working at a casino in Atlantic City, who tells him the
truth about Wendell's death. Frank (and the world in general) had believed
it was a heart attack.
Finally, Frank contacts Joann Carlino, now a choreographer working at a
hotel in Wildwood. She reveals that she knows where the tapes are - at
Palace Depression, a junkyard cum theme park which was an old haunt of
Eddie's. They go there, retrieve the tapes and take them back to Joann's
house. While they're there, a car draws up and the driver calls to Joann in
Eddie's voice. Frank pulls him out of the car only to find that it's Doc. He
is trying to get hold of the tapes; "I knew she wouldn't give them to me,
but maybe she'd give them to you, Wordman". Doc wants for once in his life
to make it big. Frank and Joann give him the tapes and he drives off. They
turn and go back together into the house.
The closing credits run over a scene at a city TV store. Dozens of sets in
the window are all showing Maggie's documentary about Eddie Wilson. A number
of people are clustered around outside, watching. When it finishes, they
disperse, and we see that one of them is - Eddie Wilson. So he didn't die.
  
  
Eddie & The Cruisers (1983)
Starring :
Eddie
MICHAEL PARÉ
the Cruisers
TOM BERENGER (Frank) /
HELEN SCHNEIDER (Joann) / MATTHEW LAURANCE (Sal) /
DAVID WILSON (Kenny) / MICHAEL "TUNES" ANTUNES (Wendell)
JOE PANTOLIANO (Doc - the Cruisers' manager) /
ELLEN BARKIN (Maggie - TV reporter)
Original Music by : JOHN CAFFERTY
Music Performed by : JOHN CAFFERTY and the BEAVER BROWN BAND
Music Produced and Supervised by: KENNY VANCE
Screenplay by : MARTIN DAVIDSON and ARLENE DAVIDSON
Executive Producer:
RICH IRVINE and JAMES L. STEWART
Produced by : JOSEPH BROOKS and ROBERT K. LIFTON
Directed by: MARTIN DAVIDSON
Based upon the novel by : P.F. KLUGE
"Michael
'Tunes" Antunes"
AKA "Wendell"
(Screen Name)
Based upon the classic novel by P.F Kluge, Writer/Director Martin Davidson
and his sister Arlene Davidson brought the legend of Eddie Wilson and the
music of the early 1960's flooding to our screens.
Set in a period where the growth of new artists like Bill Haley, Little
Richard, and Buddy Holly were causing an evolution in contemporary music,
Kluge's tale tells of an innovative group from the South-Shore of New Jersey
called
'Eddie and the Cruisers.' With
Wilson
(MICHAEL PARÉ)
as their
charismatic lead singer, and Frank 'Wordman' Ridgeway (TOM BERENGER)
writing
their lyrics, they had an explosive combination that landed them a
number-one hit. Then before their second album was released, in the small
hours before dawn, Eddie Wilson drove his convertible off a bridge. His body
was never found. Without Eddie, there was no-one to complete Frank
Ridgeway's creative unison of 'words & music' - the music stopped.
"If we can cant be great then there's no sense in ever playin' music
again"
(Eddie Wilson)
In 1983, 20 years after the death of Eddie Wilson, DJ's around the country
have rediscovered 'Eddie and the Cruisers' - their classics 'Tender Years'
'On the Dark Side' and 'Wild Summer Nights' have attracted a new generation
of fans. Maggie Foley
(ELLEN BARKIN)
is a reporter who's writing a story
about the rock-star's mysterious death. Why was his body never found? And
what happened to the final master tapes of the ambitious unheard album
'Season in Hell'?
She probes the mystery behind their brief glory and as the mystery unravels,
it becomes clear that someone else is looking for the lost tapes of 'Season
in Hell' - and that someone might be Eddie Wilson.
Eddie and the Cruisers is a successful conversion of the novel, and has
to be considered a rock n' roll cult classic. It cleverly combines music,
friendship and suspense across different time periods.
Enthralling clues to Eddie's disappearance by way of
Arthur Rimbaud's poem
'Looking for Ghosts'
is a nice touch, and the relentless quest for musical
perfection that Eddie is cursed with makes for compelling viewing.
Paré, unlike in all subsequent film roles, here is outstanding, making
great technical accomplishments with the miming of John Cafferty's
staggering vocals. Whilst Berenger is his perfect foil, tortured by the
memory of what might have been. A music lovers
mystery.
Helen Schneider who plays
Eddie's girlfriend and singer in the Cruiser 'Joanne Carlino' is actually an
International Rock Star in her own right and was the first foreign rock
artist to be invited to perform in East Germany.
Michael Paré is a fully qualified chef and graduated from the Culinary
Institute of Hyde Park.
Director Martin Davidson also introduced Sylvester Stallone to our
screens with low budget classic 'The Lords of Flatbush' made for $160,000,
it was purchased by Columbia and on release, returned a gross of $12
million.
John Cafferty's 'Beaver Brown Band' who performed the music and who's sax
player Michael 'Tunes' Antunes also portrays the Cruiser's sax man Wendell
Newton, had huge Stateside success on the film's release, hitting no.1 on
the Billboard top 100. Having worked together for some 15 years, songs like 'Tender Years'
had been poignant gems in the bands set for years. The
soundtrack album sold 2 million copies on release.
A Technical advisor on the film was 'Southside Johnny' who you might
remember singing at the House party in 'Adventures in Babysitting' where
Elizabeth Shue meets George Newbern for the first time.
Was followed by 'Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!' - a long-shot at
best with only John Cafferty's music and a limp handful of amusing scenes to
save it. Rich and creamy
cheesecake if you can get a hold of it. Paré is
uncomfortable as the bulked up 'disguised' Wilson. He ventures back into the
limelight by way of his talented new band - whom he unnecessarily tortures
with his unobtainable standards.
Although "Eddie and the Cruisers" is not a
"musical" in the lighthearted sense of the word, music is woven trough out
the story. Paré and the other "Cruisers" were called on to perform as
instrumentalists and singers throughout the filming. (Only Michael "Tunes"
Antunes who is the tenor saxophone player for John Cafferty and the Beaver
Brown Band, and Helen Schneider who is a major rock star in Europe are
professional rock artists in real life.)
"I love music," admits Paré, "but I have no musical background."
They were encouraged to adopt their
individual "Cruiser" roles, so that when they reached the set there would be a
"feeling of people who lived, traveled, fought, made music, laughed, wept and
sometimes slept together."
----
"Michael Paré: Cruising to Stardom" from Press kit of "The Eddie and the
Cruisers" ©1983
courtesy: Publicity Department Embassy Pictures
"Soon, so many people were calling
me EDDIE instead of Michael that it stared to have an effect on me," recalls
Paré.
"When I wasn't in a scene I 'd work by my self in a corner of the studio,
until I felt like this electric guitar was an extension of my own arm."
...Davidson rehearsed us as if we are
preparing for a real gig. "Michael paré has vivid memories of how those rehearsals paid off.
"The first time we played together - as a band - was a college concert," Paré
recalls.
"An odd thing happened," says Paré. "At first, the extras simply did what they
ware told. Then, as the music heated up, so did the audience. They weren't
play-acting anymore. The screaming, stomping and applause became spontaneous."
"The mood changed," recalls director
Davidson. "One by one, kids began standing up in their seats, screaming and
raising their hands in rhythmic applause.
"A few girls made a dash for the stage, tearing at Michael's shirt. We
certainly hadn't told them to do that. But we kept the cameras
rolling."
----
"Michael Paré: Cruising to Stardom" from Press kit of "The Eddie and the
Cruisers" ©1983
courtesy: Publicity Department Embassy Pictures
John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, which performed all of the original
music in the film, has had an avid cult following throughout the eastern
seaboard for the past eight years. "Eddie and the Cruisers" is their first
motion picture assignment. The songs Cafferty wrote so captured the feeling of
the '60s and the '80s, he was later signed to score the film as well.
---- "Eddie
and the Cruisers Production Information" from Press kit of "The Eddie and the
Cruisers" ©1983
courtesy: Publicity Department Embassy Pictures
courtesy:
Publicity Department Embassy Pictures
"I want to be
remembered for the music or not at all."
----- Eddie Wilson, 1964
Starring :
MICHAEL PARÉ
MARINA ORSINI
BERNIE COULSON
and
MATTHEW LAURANCE
as Sal
Original Music Composed by : MARTY SIMON and LEON ARONSON
Original Songs Written by : JOHN CAFFERTY
and Performed by : JOHN CAFFERTY AND THE BEAVER BROWN BAND
Artistic Consultant : PETER NELSON
Executive Producers : VICTOR LOEWY and DENIS HEROUX
and WILLIAM STUART and JAMES L.STUART
Based on Characters Created by : P.F. KLUGE
Written by : CHARLES ZEV COHEN and RICK DOEHRING
Produced by : STEPHANE REICHEL
Directed by : JEAN-CLAUDE LORD
The Cast Members From Eddie Lives!
The Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas,
Nevada is packed with 14,000 screaming rock fans. They've come to see the
Bon Jovi Show, but tonight they're getting an added treat. Scotti Brothers
Picture is going to borrow the stage for 45 minutes to film the final
sequence in "Eddie and the Cruisers II : Eddie Lives."
As an opening band leaves the stage, the house lights come on and actor
Michael Paré leaps on stage, Joined by his fellow musicians. "Let's rock and
roll," he yells and the crowd, entirely unsolicited, begins to chant
"Eddie!" "Eddie!" "Eddie!" It's an electrifying unprecedented moment and the
entire cast and crew feels it.
"... It was a gamble," explains Paré, "because the audience could have
destroyed us. But they loved us. Women were taking their clothes off in the
crowd, everyone was clapping and yelling 'Eddie!' 'Eddie!' It was amazing,
and it proves that there are a lot of "Eddie and the Cruisers" fans out
there."
John
Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
----- "THE
MAGIC AND THE MUSIC" JOHN CAFFERTY AND "EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS" ARE BACK!"
from the Press kit of "Eddie and the Cruisers II Eddie Lives!" ©1989
courtesy: Scotti Brothers Pictures, Inc.
"It was a terrific experience," remembers Paré. "You're standing out there
in front of 14,000 people and they all want to love you. When we started
playing, the crowd immediately got into it, clapping, yelling. It was the
perfect atmosphere."
---- "MICHAEL
PARE TURNS UP THE VOLUME" "EDDIE WILSON IS COMING BACK!"
from the Press kit of "Eddie and the Cruisers II Eddie Lives!" ©1989
courtesy: Scotti Brothers Pictures, Inc.
Paré is up to the challenge because he knows that the Eddie Wilson character
is a part he was born to play. Under those circumstances, he went to work
with a vengeance to bring Eddie Wilson back to life. Director Jean-Claude
Lord remarked that Paré rehearsed his part virtually every evening and on
week ends. Whenever here was a break in the schedule and he wasn't needed in
a particular scene, Paré was off practicing his material, at time working
with his acting coach, George Nasser.
In addition to carrying the drama of the new film on his shoulders, Paré had
to learn ten new John Cafferty songs for the film's musical sequences. "For
me," he says, "'Eddie II' had four times the amount of work I had in the
first one. In 'Eddie I', I had four songs to learn, this time I have ten and
sometimes we would get a songs on Friday and we had to perform it on Monday,
so there was always a lot of pressure."
...The part was also a major challenge for Paré who, amazingly, had only
twelve lines of dialogue in the first film. He explains, "The first story
was told through the eyes of Wordman (Tom Berenger). I was a mystery figure.
This time, I'm in every scene, "Eddie II" is my story."
Paré also has high hope for the sequel's box office chances, "The bottom line
is that we have a great film and this time it's opening in the summer when
films like this should. This is a summer rock and roll movie. The kids can
see it every night if they want."
 
Michael Paré
Tom Berenger
Frank 'Wordman' Ridgeway
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