Title: Movie classic of the week: `The Last Detail'

Title: Movie classic of the week: `The Last Detail'.

Date: 5/15/2003; Publication: The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service);

Byline: Crosby Day

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THE LAST DETAIL

3 p.m. Saturday, May 30

Bravo

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"The Last Detail" (1973) is a raucous and profane comedy-drama about two veteran Navy petty officers (Jack Nicholson) and (Otis Young) who are assigned to transport an 18-year-old sailor (Randy Quaid) from Norfolk,Va., to the Marine prison at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

In the film, Nicholson and Young portray signalman first class Billy Buddusky and gunner's mate Mule Mulhall, the two petty officers-turned-shore patrolmen. Quaid plays their prisoner, Larry Meadows, who has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment and a dishonorable discharge for attempting to pilfer $40 from a polio-donation box, the favorite charity of the admiral's wife.

As the trio travel, by bus and train, from the Norfolk, Va., Navel Center to Kittery, the petty officers take pity on Meadows during his last few days of freedom. Their efforts to "show the kid a good time" result in four days of boozing, brawling and picking up prostitutes, one of whom is played by Carol Kane.

Nicholson's cheerfully foul-mouthed, low-life character solidified the actor's iconoclastic image, and has unexpected moments of genuine insight and understanding. He earned an Oscar nomination for his performance, only to lose out to Jack Lemmon in "Save the Tiger."

Young replaced terminally ill Rupert Crosse in the role of Mulhall just before filming got under way. Crosse died in March 1973 of cancer at the age of 45.

"The Last Detail" had trouble getting off the ground at Columbia because studio brass were frightened by the extremely raunchy dialogue and drunken, brawling scenes. However, screenwriter Robert Towne refused to change anything, and the cast was willing to go along with the script. Towne based his script on the novel by Darryl Ponicsan.

Not surprisingly, the Navy refused to cooperate with the filming, commenting that "we don't feel it's flattering to the Navy." Furthermore, Chief Justice Warren Burger refused to allow the production company to film a drunk scene on the steps of the Supreme Court building in Washington.

Nonetheless, production went ahead during the winter of 1972 and `73.

Much of the film was shot in and around Boston, including Boston Common, Boston's South End and the prison at nearby Deer Island in Winthrop (filling in for the Marine prison at the Portsmouth Naval Shipward). Other scenes were filmed in Toronto and in Virginia, including Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News.

Look for comic genius Gilda Radner (before she became a TV superstar) in a church scene.

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