Nuts
Short description
Claudia Draper is a high-priced call girl in New York City who is charged with killing a client. Rather than accept a plea of mental incompetence, which her parents and her own lawyer would prefer in order to avoid a public scandal, she insists on standing trial. When she clashes with her attorney in open court, the judge assigns public defender Aaron Levinsky to take over. What follows is a bitter legal fight in which Claudia has to prove she is sane enough to be judged at all, while her respectable family background comes under scrutiny.
The film was directed by Martin Ritt, the ninth of the ten features listed in his filmography, arriving between Norma Rae and Stanley & Iris. Barbra Streisand plays Claudia and also produced; Richard Dreyfuss plays Levinsky, with Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach and Robert Webber among the supporting cast. Darryl Ponicsan, Tom Topor and Alvin Sargent wrote the screenplay.
Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Barwood Films and Martin Ritt Productions, Nuts cost about 25 million dollars and took in roughly 31 million worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from around 8,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.4 from 127 votes. A critics' rating of 5.2 from 26 reviews places it below what general audiences gave it.
What's left behind the scenes
- This is the last film for Robert Webber and Carl Molden.
- The film's soundtrack was released in a limited edition on 3-inch discs by Columbia Records.
- Thanks to her role in this film, Barbra Streisand became the first actress to receive a fee of $5,000,000.
- Initially, Mark Rydell was the director of the project, and at that time Barbra Streisand was interested in the role of Claudia. However, Rydell chose young Debra Winger instead. Later, Streisand returned when Winger left the project. Then Rydell left and was replaced by Martin Ritt. Streisand said that she was actually afraid of Leslie Nielsen, who managed to convince her that he was truly dangerous. She said she couldn't “hold back” in their joint dramatic scenes because he scared her.
- The original Broadway production of Tom Topor’s “Nuts” premiered on April 28, 1980, and ran for only 96 performances. For her role in this production, Ann Twomey was nominated for a 1980 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
- During the filming of the movie, Leslie Nielsen was visited by brothers David Zucker and Jerry Zucker, who offered him the role of Frank Drebin in “The Naked Gun” (1988). Nielsen admitted that he had been waiting for this offer since the end of the series “Police Squad!” (1982).
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