Kansas City

Thriller set in the 1930s in which a telegraph operator sets out to save her husband, a small-time criminal. Blondie O’Hara (Jennifer Jason Leigh) devises a desperate plan when her husband Johnny (Dermot Mulroney) falls foul of gangster Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte) – which may result in Johnny losing his life. Taking the screen personae of Jean Harlow and Joan Crawford as her cues, Blondie abducts Caroline Stilton (Miranda Richardson), the wife of one of President Roosevelt’s advisers whom she dubs ‘Red’ and who may be the only person capable of saving Johnny’s skin., Robert Altman’s 1930s tale about a woman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who resorts to desperate measures to rescue her shady husband from mobsters. Miranda Richardson. Seldom Seen: Harry Belafonte. Stilton: Michael Murphy. Johnny: Dermot Mulroney., Robert Altman directs this ensemble drama focusing on a young kidnapper named Blondie whose hostage is the wife of a politician. She has been taken as insurance for the return of Blondie’s husband whose half-witted robbery has angered a local gangster. Snaking human drama underwritten with awesome jazz soundtrack and given the director’s usual flair with plot and visuals., Johnny O’Hara is a thief who’s captured by crime boss Seldom Seen when trying to rob him. Johnny’s wife Blondie tries to get him back by kidnapping the wife of a local politician in order to get her husband to help. Nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival., Ice cool, red-hot jazz is the soul of Robert Altman’s personal excursion back into the title Missouri town during its seedy Depression-era heyday. With his trademark quickly shifting cross-cut episodes Altman skewers the American institutions of big business, politics and the myth of American honesty, and fortitude in the face of adversity. His 1934 Kansas City is a ruthless place where the struggle to survive drives normally decent people beyond the law’s frontiers. The stories begin as feisty, determined Blondie O’Hara (Jennifer Jason Leigh) bursts into the well-appointed home of local blue-blood Carolyn Stilton (Miranda Richardson), the wife of prominent Democrat Henry Stilton (Michael Murphy). Blondie slips Carolyn some laudanum to calm her and then sets off. Her purpose for the abduction is to somehow use Carolyn to get back Blondie’s husband Johnny O’Hara (Dermot Mulroney), a bumbling petty thief who stupidly put on blackface to disguise himself and robbed the biggest mobster in Kansas City, the enigmatic African American crime boss Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte). Seldom Seen runs the riotous Hey-Hey Club where a jazz band ceaselessly jams. He has captured Johnny and now amuses himself by torturing the little hood and manipulating his mind. Meanwhile, Blondie continues searching accompanied by the now laudanum-addicted Carolyn, who stumbles along in a half-blind haze. Blondie speeds things up by forcing her captive to involve her husband, who is busily engaged in corrupting the upcoming presidential election. In the midst of it all, a ruthless mobster (Steve Buscemi) strong-arms innocent people into voting his way.