The idea for "Cold Turkey" was a good one, and it had a lot of potential. It could have been a first-rate satire, but instead we have a film that goes part way and then losses its steam. So, it comes off like a light-hearted soap opera.

The film has a few good laughs, but as another reviewer noted, it begins to wear thin. It's too long for the content. Had there been more meat with the potatoes, it could have become a full-scale satire. I'll grant that it starts in that direction, but most of the film is obvious and repetitious. Great satire sneaks up without warning and sometimes doesn't make much of a noise. It comes out in witty dialog or clever scenes that we viewers don't expect. But this plot, with all the buildup and TV coverage as part of the story leaves little room for anything surprising. So, instead it seems like tongue-in-cheek preaching to the audience. It tells us that this is dumb, that these people are in denial, the pastor is a hypocrite, the people are just grubbers, etc.

Those who think this is great satire should watch masterful examples. Start with "Dr. Strangelove," "The Mouse that Roared," "The Great Dictator," and "Ninotchka." Then see how this movie stacks up. There can be no real comparison.

For the parts they had to play, most of the cast are OK. Dick Van Dyke, Edward Everett Horton and Tom Poston have been in much better comedies and roles than they have here. Again, it's an idea with a lot of potential. Norman Lear just needed to be a little more creative and imaginative. One shouldn't announce that people are about to see a satire, and then deliver them predictable bits and pieces. Without its comedic punch, satire slips into lecturing and finger pointing. My five stars are for the idea, a few laughs, and the decent effort some of the cast put into their roles.

... and that is really no surprise since this film was written and directed by Norman Lear, architect of so many hit TV shows in the 1970s.

Bob Newhart plays Merwin Wren, a tobacco executive who pitches the idea of giving 25 million dollars to any town that gives up tobacco for one month. He figures this will redeem the image of the tobacco industry, and what town could get every smoker to give up smoking for a month?

Enter tiny town of four thousand, Eagle Rock, Iowa. It lost a major employer and people are leaving town. The military has said that Eagle Rock is at the top of the list to receive a new missile manufacturing plant, but they have to spruce up the town's infrastructure first. But how, with a diminishing tax base? So, encouraged by the town's preacher, Clayton Brooks, the town takes the pledge.

Wren's job is on the line if Eagle Rock succeeds, so he goes to the town to try and get just one smoker's foot to slip. Meanwhile, tobacco withdrawal hits the entire town hard with comic results. If you've ever watched a loved one go through such withdrawal, this will look familiar to you. The first half of the film is about the comic attempt to stop smoking. The second half is about how easy it is for greed to set in once the town becomes famous and is making just about as much money from tourism as it hopes to make from the tobacco company if it succeeds.

The film is classic Lear as he lampoons just about everything - men of the cloth, men of medicine - they were all men back then, marriage, big business, right ring groups that see Communism everywhere but really just want to be authoritarians themselves, and news anchors back when they were actually respectable and weren't just talking heads.

The billing of the cast is really odd in retrospect. As expected, Dick Van Dyke is top billed. But second billed is...Pippa Scott? She doesn't even have that big a role in the film! And Bob Newhart, who was really great at playing the slimy little weasel here is bottom billed!

I'd highly recommend it. It is certainly one of Dick Van Dyke's better film roles and you get to see Norman Lear at work just as he was becoming famous.

The evil cigarette magnets (and in this movie they are definitely shown as being evil) have a plan. They want to increase business by denouncing, in a way, smoking. This sounds a lot like all the sick ads we see and hear from the "concerned folks at Philip Morris" that encourage us to kick the habit--yeah, sure! Anyways, back to the plot. The cigarette execs figure that a publicity stunt that makes them appear nice and kind will pay off but what exactly this stunt will be is the question. Finally, they hit upon the idea of trying to convince America that they really want our health to come first and offer any town a huge sum of money ($25,000,000) to give up and remain tobacco-free for one month. They figure it makes them look good AND no city could ever really give up tobacco--thus convincing people that addiction is inevitable.

The little town of Eagle Rock, Iowa decides to accept the challenge. No matter how difficult it will be, they need the money and the 4000+ residents imagine all the wonderful things the money could buy. However, not everyone is so excited about the idea and compliance COULD be a problem. So, the town council organizes everyone to police each other AND they later decide to let the Christopher Mott Society (a local right-wing paramilitary group) to patrol the city and its borders. That's because once the month begins, people come pouring in from across the nation. Some come because it's become a media event (complete with Bob and Ray being on hand to report the happenings) and some because they are evil stooges working FOR the tobacco companies to make sure the people DO smoke (lead by Bob Newhart).

What I particularly liked was how crazed people became over time. Barnard Hughes was the most likely to begin smoking and his hysterics around trying to find a smoke were hilarious. The preacher, played by Dick Van Dyke, dealt with it by developing a new addiction--as he began making more and more frequent trips home to make whoopie with his wife! And, the Christopher Mott society began to get very scary--treating their job like it was the ultimate battle between Democracy and Communism! In other words, if you smoke or try to get others to smoke, you are the ENEMY and must be stopped at all costs! In particular, I adored the performance of 81 year-old Judith Lowry as they incredibly over-zealous member who wanted to "shoot Commies". You may just remember her as they horrible but hilarious "Mother Dexter" from the Phyllis Show (1975).

As the days tick by, the tobacco companies become more and more nervous that the city MIGHT win the challenge--thus convincing people all across the country and even the world that they, too, can stop smoking. So, Bob Newhart's devious plans get wilder and wilder. Ms. Lowry spots his antics and decides Newhart is DEFINITELY a Commie spy! At the very end, Newhart is going to release tons of cigarettes onto the town square just BEFORE the deadline--knowing someone MUST be too overcome to resist. And, as he's releasing the cigarettes Ms. Lowry shoots him! And, in spite of this, the people are too into the moment to even care. In the end, after they won the 25 million, you see garbage and cigarettes strewn everywhere--as well as the still bleeding Bob Newhart! Everyone has gone home and no one thought to call an ambulance or administer help! A very creative and energetic film. While some of the jokes fall a bit flat here and there, the film is so much fun it's well worth seeing.