Film / Kansas City

Kansas City is a 1996 Crime Fiction/Neo-Noir film directed by Robert Altman, with a screenplay by Altman and his frequent writing partner Frank Barhydt, featuring an Ensemble Cast, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Dermot Mulroney, Harry Belafonte, Michael Murphy, Steve Buscemi, Brooke Smith and Jane Adams.

Kansas City, 1934: Western Union clerk Blondie O'Hara (Leigh) kidnaps Carolyn Stilton (Richardson), the wife of Kansas City-based Franklin D. Roosevelt advisor Henry Stilton (Murphy), at gunpoint. Carolyn is shocked when Blondie tells her that she doesn't want a ransom. Instead, Blondie is holding Carolyn as collateral to force Henry to use his political influence to help free her husband Johnny O'Hara (Mulroney). O'Hara is being held captive by a prominent figure in the Kansas City Black underworld, only known by the name "Seldom Seen" (Belafonte), who operates the popular nightspot The Hey-Hey Club alongside other legal and illegal operations. Johnny robbed one of Seldom Seen's wealthiest customers, and Seldom seems to want to make him suffer by bringing him to the club and leaving his fate in limbo. But as Henry brings in various political bigwigs to help find his wife on the same day that a primary election is being held, danger lurks around the corner, ready to strike in unexpected ways.

A passion project for Altman, celebrating his hometown by depicting it as it was in his youth, this film was especially lauded for recreating the sounds of Kansas City's vibrant Jazz scene of the era, as a number of modern jazz notables portray the musicians at the Hey-Hey Club and contribute a memorable score.

Kansas City contains examples of:

• Anachronic Order: Very rare for an Altman film, the opening acts starts In Medias Res with Blondie kidnapping Carolyn, then flashes back several times to show us Johnny's robbery and his capture by Seldom Seen's men.
• Awful Wedded Life: Blondie is shocked to learn that Carolyn and Henry are in a loveless marriage, after prodding her to reveal their pet names for each other "in bed, when you're doin' it," and Carolyn struggles to answer.
• Blackface: Johnny O'Hara covers his face in lampblack pigment when he robs Sheepshan Red in Blue's cab, and when Seldom Seen recognizes the smell on Sheepshan's coat, that helps him figure out what happened.
• Broken Bird: It's gradually revealed that behind her tough gun moll act, Blondie has had a rough life. She got pregnant at 17, left her hometown of Joplin, Missouri to have the baby, then gave it up for adoption, alongside falling in love and marrying petty criminal Johnny.
• Call-Back: A few subtle ones to Altman's earlier work.
  • A crime saga set during The Great Depression recalls Thieves Like Us.
  • The rich period detailing and a female character addicted to an opiate recalls McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
  • Being set around an election, not to mention using a city name for the title, obviously nods toward Nashville, and in one moment, it becomes really explicit with a vehicle spreading political messages via a bullhorn, just like the van from Nashville.
• Chekhov's Gun: Blondie sets her gun down while she tends to other business.Carolyn takes it and eventually uses it to fatally shoot Blondie.
• Colourful Theme Naming: All over the place, referring both to regular colors and hair colors—Blondie, Rose, Blue, Sheepshan Red, and Blondie gives Carolyn the nickname Red.
• Cult Soundtrack: Featuring an All-Star Cast of Jazz notables of The '90s, the soundtrack album was a huge hit among jazz fans, and Altman even made a separate documentary centered on the performances, called Robert Altman's Jazz '34.
• Death of a Child: In a highly emotional moment, Blondie reveals to Carolyn that the baby she gave up for adoption died at age 2.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Blondie's plan hits an immediate snag when Carolyn tells her that Henry's on his way to Washington via Chicago, which means that Blondie now has to forge a telegram to draw him back to Kansas City, and in the meantime she has no safe house to stash Carolyn in (they spend much of the night at the train station), and without a ransom demand, Henry has no real incentive to cooperate beyond the bare minimum to get his wife back.
  • Johnny robbing Sheepshan Red, without bothering to consider that Seldom Seen would end up finding out about it one way or another, with dire consequences.
• Dramatic Drop: At the end Carolyn drops the empty laudanum bottle onto the pavement before she gets in the car with Henry, signifying that she's likely going to try to treat her addiction and get a fresh start in her life.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Carolyn reluctantly tells Blondie that her husband's pet name for her is Pussy, and she calls him Heinie.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The story takes place over around 30 or so hours.
• Functional Addict:
  • Carolyn is hooked on laudanum, which Blondie even uses to secure her cooperation for the abduction. She explains that it helps her relax.
  • Seldom Seen is shown snorting cocaine on a couple of occasions.
• Historical Domain Character
  • A bunch of actual Kansas City figures from the era are characters, like political boss (and Harry S. Truman mentor) Tom Pendergast, Missouri governor Guy Park, and crime boss Johnny Lazia.
  • The musicians jamming at the Hey-Hey Club include several Real Life legends, played by modern day jazz notables, like Count Basie (Cyrus Chestnut), Coleman Hawkins (Craig Handy) and Lester Young (Joshua Redmond).
  • A possible one is Nettie Bolt from the Junior League. That happens to have been the maiden name of Robert Altman's maternal grandmother, so that could well be her (though Jane Adams is quite a bit younger than the real Nettie, who would've been in her 60s at the time).
• Hyperlink Story: The opening bounces between Blondie and Carolyn, Henry leaving for Washington, Seldom Seen and the Hey-Hey Club, and Rose arriving at the train station, seeming unconnected at first, but the storylines all come together later on.
• Inane Blabbering: Carolyn is prone to this when she's zonked out on laudanum, to Blondie's occasional annoyance.
• Inside Job: Johnny O'Hara works with Blue, one of Seldom Seen's cabbies, in his robbery of Sheepshan Red.
• Mercy Kill: At the end, you get the sense that Carolyn killed Blondie not only to free herself from her, but also knowing that Blondie would be ruined by watching her beloved Johnny die and having to live without him, so it was for her own good that she died too.
• N-Word Privileges: The Black characters throw the N-word around quite a bit, but Blondie also uses it, though Carolyn chides her for it (but insists on saying "Colored" instead).
• One-Steve Limit: A huge aversion, as Blondie and her sister Babe are both married to underworld figures named Johnny (Johnny O'Hara and Johnny Flynn), forcing Babe to refer to them as "your Johnny" and "my Johnny". Lampshaded by Carolyn.
  Carolyn: What I find fascinating is that both you ladies are married to men named Johnny.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • We never learn Seldom Seen's name, which gets Lampshaded.
    Charlie: That's Seldom Seen.
    Rose: Seldom Seen? What kind of name is that?
    Charlie: He won't tell nobody what his real name is. He's a gambler and he goes around to all kinds of different places. Might not see him for a long time. He's been to prison three times for murder. He's a big talker, though. Seldom Seen but often heard.
  • Blondie and Babe also count, and we never learn their actual first names either.
• Pet the Dog: Blondie giving Rose a ride to the boarding house to give birth, showing she has a softer side.
• Retraux: The film has a stylized look in the manner of a color melodrama from The Golden Age of Hollywood. Some of the poster art (as seen above) also emulated older film art.
• Teen Pregnancy: Rose, a 14-year-old Black girl, has arrived in Kansas City from Joplin to give birth. Eventually we learn that Blondie is also from Joplin and also came to the city as a pregnant teen.
• Together in Death: At the climax, Johnny comes home but is mortally wounded, and as Blondie tries to tend to his bleeding, Carolyn shoots her, and she dies at the same time Johnny expires.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Carolyn Stilton's abduction borrows some elements from the Real Life 1933 kidnapping of Mary McElroy, the 25-year-old daughter of Kansas City, Missouri city manager (and Pendergast associate) Henry McElroy.
• Vote Early, Vote Often: Johnny Flynn (Blondie's brother-in-law) is an operative for Tom Pendergast's political machine, and on Election Day morning he gives orders to a bunch of paid voters shipped in from all over Missouri, telling them who to vote for and how many times to vote (Blondie notes that the poll watchers don't even bother to check IDs anymore).
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We lose track of Rose after she ends up at the boarding house.
• You Have Failed Me: After learning that Blue was in on the robbery, Seldom Seen has him killed and leaves his body in an alley.
• Young Future Famous People: A 14-year-old African-American kid with a saxophone meets Rose at the train station, then brings her along when he goes to the Hey-Hey Club to watch the musicians, and also tells her a little about Seldom Seen. He's young Charlie Parker (though you basically need to see his name as a character in the closing credits and pay attention to some of the dialogue to know that). He's connected to Blondie because his mother Addie works with her at Western Union (which the real Addie Parker did as well)

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