Miss Firecracker
Encyclopedia
Miss Firecracker is a 1989 comedy film
directed by Thomas Schlamme. It stars Holly Hunter
, Mary Steenburgen
, Tim Robbins
, Alfre Woodard
, and Scott Glenn
. The film, set in Yazoo City, Mississippi
, was written by Pulitzer Prize
-winning playwright
Beth Henley
and is based on her 1984 play, The Miss Firecracker Contest.
) enters the Miss Firecracker beauty pageant in her hometown of Yazoo, Mississippi, trying to emulate her cousin Elain's (Mary Steenburgen
) win some years previous. Carnelle was taken in as a waif
by her genteel
cousins after the death of her mother and grows up promiscuous, brash, unfeminine
and lacking in grace
. Few expect she can win, her closest friends and relatives think she is heading for a big disappointment
, but Carnelle is ever hopeful. When her other cousin, the eccentric sociopath Delmont Tim Robbins
decides to sell the house
they both live in to make money, Carnelle becomes even more determined to win, viewing it as a way to escape her small town
existence . Elain returns to the town to give a speech at the pageant after a breakup with her husband. Carnelle insists Elain let her wear the red dress
in which she won the contest, thinking that will guarantee her success. Elain delays giving Carnelle the dress and makes excuses as to why she cannot have it, whilst pretending to be supportive. Carnelle surprisingly gets on the shortlist for the pageant when one of the other contestents pulls out. Without a red dress she breaks into a locked room in the house previously occupied by a sick relative
and takes an old dress to wear. She comes last at the final and is frustrated by her failure. Back at the house she discovers Elain had brought the dress with her all along and had been lying to her. She confronts Elain about this, realising the pageant is not the most important thing after all, then leaves the house and goes to the town observatory
and watches the pageant fireworks display.
. Scheduled for February 1989, it was released on April 28 of that year and grossed US$1.85 million in North America. A VHS release from HBO Home Video followed in November. Critical reception was mixed; the film carries a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Thomas Schlamme. It stars Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
, Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
, Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
, Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard
Alfre Ette Woodard is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Grammy Awards, 17 times for Emmy Awards , and has also won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.She is known for her role in films such as Cross Creek, Miss...
, and Scott Glenn
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
. The film, set in Yazoo City, Mississippi
Yazoo City, Mississippi
Yazoo City is a city in Yazoo County, Mississippi, United States. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle. It is the county seat of Yazoo County and the principal city of the Yazoo City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the...
, was written by Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Beth Henley
Beth Henley
Elizabeth Becker "Beth" Henley is an American dramatist and actress. She writes primarily about women's issues and family in the Southern United States. She is also a screenwriter who has written many film adaptations of her plays...
and is based on her 1984 play, The Miss Firecracker Contest.
Plot
Carnelle (Holly HunterHolly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
) enters the Miss Firecracker beauty pageant in her hometown of Yazoo, Mississippi, trying to emulate her cousin Elain's (Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
) win some years previous. Carnelle was taken in as a waif
Waif
A waif is a living creature removed, by hardship, loss or other helpless circumstance, from his original surroundings...
by her genteel
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
cousins after the death of her mother and grows up promiscuous, brash, unfeminine
Feminine
Feminine, or femininity, normally refers to qualities positively associated with women.Feminine may also refer to:*Feminine , a grammatical gender*Feminine cadence, a final chord falling in a metrically weak position...
and lacking in grace
Graceful
Graceful may refer to:* Graceful 4, TSZX The Grace 's first Japanese album released on November 14, 2007* Graceful & Charming, a song in the The Hard and the Easy album by Great Big Sea...
. Few expect she can win, her closest friends and relatives think she is heading for a big disappointment
Disappointment
Disappointment is the feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations or hopes to manifest. Similar to regret, it differs in that a person feeling regret focuses primarily on the personal choices that contributed to a poor outcome, while a person feeling disappointment focuses...
, but Carnelle is ever hopeful. When her other cousin, the eccentric sociopath Delmont Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
decides to sell the house
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
they both live in to make money, Carnelle becomes even more determined to win, viewing it as a way to escape her small town
Small Town
Small Town is a song written by John Cougar Mellencamp and released on his 1985 album Scarecrow. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.-Content:...
existence . Elain returns to the town to give a speech at the pageant after a breakup with her husband. Carnelle insists Elain let her wear the red dress
Dress
A dress is a garment consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice or with a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment.Dress may also refer to:*Clothing in general*Costume, fancy dress...
in which she won the contest, thinking that will guarantee her success. Elain delays giving Carnelle the dress and makes excuses as to why she cannot have it, whilst pretending to be supportive. Carnelle surprisingly gets on the shortlist for the pageant when one of the other contestents pulls out. Without a red dress she breaks into a locked room in the house previously occupied by a sick relative
Relative
-General use:*Kinship, the principle binding the most basic social units society. If two people are connected by circumstances of birth, they are said to be relatives-Philosophy:...
and takes an old dress to wear. She comes last at the final and is frustrated by her failure. Back at the house she discovers Elain had brought the dress with her all along and had been lying to her. She confronts Elain about this, realising the pageant is not the most important thing after all, then leaves the house and goes to the town observatory
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
and watches the pageant fireworks display.
Cast
- Holly HunterHolly HunterHolly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
as Carnelle Scott - Mary SteenburgenMary SteenburgenMary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
as Elain Rutledge - Tim RobbinsTim RobbinsTimothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
as Delmount Williams - Alfre WoodardAlfre WoodardAlfre Ette Woodard is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Grammy Awards, 17 times for Emmy Awards , and has also won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.She is known for her role in films such as Cross Creek, Miss...
as Popeye Jackson - Scott GlennScott GlennTheodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
as Mac Sam - Veanne CoxVeanne CoxVeanne Cox is an American stage and screen actress and former ballet dancer.Cox was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She studied ballet at the Washington School of Ballet, acting at the Studio Theatre's Conservatory in Washington, D.C., and voice at Catholic University.Her Broadway debut was in the...
as Tessy Mahoney - Ann WedgeworthAnn WedgeworthAnn Wedgeworth is a Tony award winning American actress, best known for her role as Lahoma Vane Lucas on the daytime dramas Another World and Somerset .-Early life:...
as Miss Blue - Trey WilsonTrey WilsonDonald Yearnsley "Trey" Wilson III was an American character actor known for playing rural, authoritarian type characters, most notably in comedies such as Raising Arizona and Bull Durham.-Early life:...
as Benjamin Drapper - Amy WrightAmy WrightAmy Wright is an American actress. She has appeared in such films as The Deer Hunter, Breaking Away, The Amityville Horror, Heartland, Wise Blood, Stardust Memories, The Accidental Tourist, Hard Promises, Crossing Delancey and Miss Firecracker.Wright is married to actor Rip Torn and the couple...
as Missy Mahoney - Kathleen ChalfantKathleen Chalfant-Life and career:Chalfant was born as in San Francisco, California and raised in her parents' boarding house in Oakland. Her father, William Bishop, was an officer in the Coast Guard...
as Miss Lily - Robert Fieldsteel as Tommy Turner
- Greg German as Ronnie Wayne
- Avril Gentles as Mrs. Biggs
- Bert RemsenBert RemsenHerbert Birchell "Bert" Remsen was an American actor.-Life and career:Remsen was born in Glen Cove, New York, on Long Island, the son of Helen and Winfred Herbert Remsen. He played character roles in numerous films directed by Robert Altman, including: Brewster McCloud , McCabe & Mrs...
as Mr. Morton - Angela Turner as Caroline Jefferson
Production and release
Costing US$4 million, Miss Firecracker was the first production for Corsair Pictures, a division of United Artists CommunicationsRegal Entertainment Group
Regal Entertainment Group also known as REG is a movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. Regal operates the largest and most geographically diverse theater circuit in the United States, consisting of 6,775 screens in 548 locations in 39 states and the District of Columbia as of...
. Scheduled for February 1989, it was released on April 28 of that year and grossed US$1.85 million in North America. A VHS release from HBO Home Video followed in November. Critical reception was mixed; the film carries a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.