F-0186

Title:

29^th Street

Category:

S

Produced:

1991

Country:

USA / Japan

Released:

Film: Nov 1991 (USA)
DVD: Mar 2005
VHS: Aug 1993

Director:

George Gallo

Writer:

Frank Pesce (story); James Franciscus (story); George Gallo (screenplay)

Actors:

Danny Aiello ( Frank Pesce, Sr.); Anthony LaPaglia (Frank Pesce, Jr.); Lainie Kazan (Mrs. Pesce); Frank Pesce (Vito Pesce); Robert Forster (Sgt. Tartaglia); Ron Karabatsos (Philly the Nap); Rick Aiello (Jimmy Vitello); Vic Manni (Louie Tucci); Paul Lazar (Needle Nose Nipton); Pete Antico (Tony); Donna Magnani (Madeline Pesce); Darren Bates (Sal Las Benas); Tony Sirico (Chink Fortunado); Richard K. Olsen (Father Lowery); Richard Cerenzio (Dom the Bomb)

Description:

Frank Pesce is the luckiest man alive in spite of his bad luck. Based on a true story, a man growing up in a tough New York neighborhood has a gift for finding himself in the worst possible jams...and always getting out. He is the first New York Lottery winner. (Steve Richer)

On Christmas Eve, Frankie Pesce of Queens wins $6 million in New York State's first lottery. Instead of joy, he's in a rage, breaking church windows and disturbing the peace. At the police station, he tells his story. He's extraordinarily lucky, beginning with surviving a dicey childbirth; he works a little here and there; he still lives with his parents, his sister, her husband, and his older brother. They have noisy relationships, and at the heart is his father: a guy with dreams but little to show for them. Dad has lost his trucking business to a Mafia wise guy, now he's lost his job as a teamster. But is dad really a loser, and why, after winning $6 million, is Frankie desolate? (jhailey)

A hybrid cross-pollination of a Martin Scorsese and Frank Capra film, this feel-good comic fantasy is loosely based on the real-life story of a New York lottery winner. Anthony LaPaglia stars as Frank Pesce Jr., a New Yorker with a good-luck streak that is unmatched in his Little Italy neighborhood. When Frank throws a pair of dice in a game of chance, he doesn't just toss a winning hand, the dice land on top of each other. When he's stabbed in the chest by a girlfriend's brother, his doctors find a pre-cancerous tumor. Although he tries again and again to get rid of a vehicle he no longer wants, it is retrieved every single time by the authorities. So when New York announces its first statewide lottery in 1976, Frank buys one ticket and immediately becomes everybody's best friend. Unfortunately, Frank's good luck is matched by the equally bad luck of his hard-working father, Frank Sr. (Danny Aiello), who has run up a gambling debt to a local mobster. The wise guy is willing to forgive the note if Frank Jr. will just hand over his sure-to-be lucky ticket, leaving the city's luckiest Italian-American in a bit of a moral quandary. The real Frank Pesce Jr. executive produces and co-stars in 29th Street as his own police officer brother, Vito. (Amazon.com)

Anthony LaPaglia of WITHOUT A TRACE stars as Frank Pesce, the $6.2 million winner of the first New York State Lottery. Unfortunately, Frank is also a full-time dreamer cursed with a lifetime of great luck, a bickering Italian-American family, and a love-hate relationship with his loser gambler father, Frank Sr. (Oscar® nominee Danny Aiello of DO THE RIGHT THING and MOONSTRUCK). But when Frank Jr. makes a deal with local mobsters, will his lottery prize be his unluckiest break ever? Fuhgeddaboutit! The biggest jackpot of all may be waiting for Frank and his father among the good guys, bad guys and wiseguys of 29th STREET. Lainie Kazan (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING), Oscar® nominee Robert Forster (JACKIE BROWN), Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts of THE SOPRANOS) and Frank Pesce himself co-star in this acclaimed comedy written and directed by George Gallo, the screenwriter of MIDNIGHT RUN. (Amazon.com)

Language:

English

TT:

101 min

J.S. Bach's Music:

Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971
Conrad Andriani

Format:

Film: Color (DeLuxe)
DVD: (PAL, Region 4) | (Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (PAL, Region 2)
VHS: (Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC) | (PAL, German)

Company:

Film: JVC Entertainment; Largo Entertainment; Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
DVD: M.R.A.; Starz / Anchor Bay
VHS: 20^th Century Fox

Comments:

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com [Region 4] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [Region 2]
VHS: Amazon.com | Amazon.com [PAL, German]

Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)