\u00a0E.L. Doctorow <\/strong><\/p>\nStars: James Cagney, Elizabeth McGovern, Howard E. Rollins Jr., Brad Dourif, Moses Gunn, Kenneth McMillan, Pat O’Brien, Donald O’Connor, James Olson, Mandy Patinkin, Mary Steenburgen, Debbie Allen, Jeffrey DeMunn, Robert Joy, Bruce Boa, Jeff Daniels, Fran Drescher, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Jeter, Ted Ross, John Ratzenberger<\/strong>\u00a0and Norman Mailer.<\/strong><\/p>\nTagline: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was Ragtime<\/em><\/p>\nThe Plot…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAn African-American baby is left in the yard of a wealthy family.\u00a0 When the police discover the young unwed mother nearby, they are ready to put the child in an orphanage and the mother in jail.\u00a0 The family decides to take in the mother and child until the mother can get on her feet.<\/p>\n
The baby’s father shows up.\u00a0 His name is Coalhouse Walker Jr.\u00a0 He wants to marry the mother and support the child now that he has a job.\u00a0 The wedding is planned and all is looking up until a group of racist firemen put horse manure in Coalhouse’s new car.\u00a0 When the police and the courts refuse to make things right, Coalhouse decides to get his own revenge… against the city.<\/p>\n
The famous architect Stanford White has placed a nude statue at the top of Madison Square Garden.\u00a0 Evelyn Nesbit, a former chorus girl reportedly posed for the figure.\u00a0 Now Evelyn is married to millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw.\u00a0 Thaw is outraged and demands that White remove the statue.\u00a0 White refuses.\u00a0 Thaw murders White at a huge social event.\u00a0 The court case will be considered the trial of the century.<\/p>\n
These events will converge to become a part of American lore.\u00a0 Like the tagline says, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was Ragtime.”<\/p>\n
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\nRagtime<\/em> was nominated for eight 1982 Academy Awards<\/em>…<\/p>\n\n- Nominee – Best Music, Original Score<\/em>: Randy Newman<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nominee – Best Music, Original Song<\/em>: Randy Newman<\/strong> for the song “One More Hour”<\/em><\/li>\n
- Nominee – Best Costume Design<\/em>: Anna Hill Johnstone<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nominee – Best Art Direction-Set Decoration<\/em>: John Graysmark, Patrizia von Brandenstein, Tony Reading, George DeTitta Sr., George DeTitta Jr., Peter Howitt<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nominee – Best Cinematography<\/em>: Miroslav Ondr\u00edcek<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nominee – Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium<\/em>: Michael Weller<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nominee – Best Actress in a Supporting Role<\/em>: Elizabeth McGovern<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nominee – Best Actor in a Supporting Role<\/em>: Howard E. Rollins Jr.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ragtime<\/em> would be James Cagney’s final film.\u00a0 He hadn’t appeared in a movie in 20 years.\u00a0 Cagney was in poor health during filming and so in most of his scenes he is seated.<\/p>\nThis was also Pat O’Brien’s final film.\u00a0 O’Brien and Cagney co-starred together in several films during the 30s and the 40s.<\/p>\n
Jeff Daniels made his film debut in Ragtime<\/em>.<\/p>\nRagtime <\/i>(1981) <\/em><\/strong>rates 4 of 5 stars.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/logo\/zview_b.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2025\/z013025zview_ragtime2.png\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ragtime (1981) Director: \u00a0Milo\u0161 Forman Screenplay: Michael Weller, Bo Goldman (uncredited); based on RAGTIME by\u00a0\u00a0E.L. Doctorow Stars: James Cagney, Elizabeth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,17,51,72,54,65,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-celebs","category-crime","category-history","category-movies","category-trivia","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38258,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38257\/revisions\/38258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2025\/z013025zview_ragtime.png\")
<\/p>\n