Inner City Hues
The saga of Hey Good Lookin’, Ralph Bakshi’s fractured masterpiece
by Tony Best
Photo courtesy of the Ralph Bakshi Archive
By the time he wrapped production on Harlem Nights in 1973, there was no question that Ralph Bakshi had become a major player within that decade’s “New Hollywood” movement. The undisputed “bad boy of animation” already had two box office successes under his belt–1972’s Fritz the Cat and 1973’s Heavy Traffic –and was about to raise the bar again with Harlem Nights (ultimately title Coonskin), his third animated feature. But instead of relying on the tried-and-true formula of cartoon cussing, fighting, and fornicating for his fourth effort, Bakshi embarked on a more ambitious course.
Inspired in part by the Fleischer Studios’ Koko the Clown shorts of the 1920s, Bakshi envisioned a film with humans and animated characters interacting on the same plane of existence. With this concept, Bakshi began charting out Hey Good Lookin’, a semi-autobiographical film based on his teenage years in 1950s Brownsville, Brooklyn. The screenplay centered on the exploits of Vinnie, a smug, hypersexual caricature of ’50s cool who leads the Stompers, an Italian street gang. Along with Crazy Shapiro and the curvaceous Rozzie, Vinnie comes into contact with mobsters, crooked cops, and the Chaplains, a Black rival gang. Like Bakshi’s previous work, Lookin’ pulled no punches. It was funky, grimy, and unapologetic to the fullest–an appropriate ode to his Brooklyn street roots.
Warner Bros. Pictures–perhaps feeling somewhat embarrassed for reneging on a deal to distribute Fritz the Cat–excitedly optioned the screenplay and eventually greenlit Hey Good Lookin’ in 1973. Lookin’ was heralded to the press as the first full-length motion picture to feature live action and animation. Bakshi began work on his passion project in earnest, but not without drama along the way. After nine years of revamps, problems with Warner Bros., threats on his life, and a near nervous breakdown, Bakshi’s artistic vision finally came to fruition in 1982, albeit in a fragmented form. Wax Poetics spoke with Ralph Bakshi about the history, tragedy, triumph, and legacy of Hey Good Lookin’.
In early 1974, you were helming three simultaneous projects. Storyboarding a proposed series for ABC, editing Coonskin for Paramount, and developing the screenplay for Hey Good Lookin’ at Warner Bros. That’s a hell of a workload.
Yikes! [laughs] One of the problems I faced was keeping Ralph Bakshi Productions in business. Now I don’t know if that was smart or not; I was brought up in the day where animation studios went year to year. They didn’t lay people off. Terrytoons, Disney. You know. It seemed to me that animation studios like to keep people because…you become so close to the people there in making a film. So I would sell a film to avoid laying the guys off, knowing that I was going to finish a film. That pressure of basically doing two films at the same time, the end of Coonskin, the beginning of Hey Good Lookin’, was very difficult on me creatively, because I forgot that I was also producer, director, and writer! [laughs] I had to wear all three hats.
Principal photography for Lookin’ began in April 1974. Did you spend much time on preproduction beforehand, since you were essentially directing a feature-length live action film?
There was virtually no preparation on Lookin’, because the budget was incredibly low. Lookin’ cost $1.5 million. That would be the equivalent of about $3.6 million today. There was no money. First of all, I had this style where I didn’t care too much about preparation. Preproduction was one of the things we didn’t enjoy. We basically had a week for that with casting. I was very much into shooting what was in front of me. I was like, “If I thought it was right, it was right!” I didn’t question much, and I didn’t like slickness, because I was animating! If I was doing a Scorsese film, I might basically want to polish things up. [laughs]
Did you film on location?
I was shooting on New York City streets and Warner Bros.’ soundstages in L.A. I used the set from Angels with Dirty Faces on the Warner’s lot. It was such a nostalgic thing for me just to use that same street. The stuff in New York was like guys in front of a candy store. What I would do is dress guys up, live-action guys. Very strange dudes! The weirdest guys I could find. Having them talk to animated characters in front of candy stores, discussing girlfriends and such. It was very surrealistic. So I was going back and forth from coast to coast for about four weeks. Where the locations were not that serious, I used Warner’s. For the locations that were gritty like Heavy Traffic, I used New York. Plus it was an excuse to go back to Brooklyn. [laughs]
