Noble Rot

The proprietor of Subterranean Cinema tells us, “If you have ever read WIRED, Bob Woodward's compelling (and very controversial) biography of John Belushi, then you are no doubt aware of the final screenplay that Belushi was attempting to write with Don Novello (most famous for his Saturday Night Live portrayal of ‘Father Guido Sarducci’). By early 1982, Belushi’s notorious drug habits had worsened significantly -- to the point where, even in the carefree era of recreational usage, there was no denying he was out of control. Feeling his career had already peaked and there was nowhere to go but down, Belushi decided to take his next film into his own hands. Despite the fact that he was no writer, he teamed up with Novello to reconfigure an existing movie script called Sweet Deception (written by former Mary Tyler Moore writer-producer Jay Sandrich) into Noble Rot … Together with Novello, Belushi spent nearly a year tweaking the plot.”

While the title, Noble Rot, might give some the impression of a morally decaying nobleman, the phrase actually has to do with some very fine wine. Noble Rot is the form of a grey fungus called Botrytis cinerea. Grapes typically become infected with Botrytis when they are ripe, but according to Wikipedia, it’s when the grapes are exposed to drier conditions that they become partially raisined and “the form of infection brought about by the partial drying process is known as noble rot. Grapes, when picked at a certain point during infestation, can produce particularly fine and concentrated sweet wines. The finest Botrytized wines are literally picked berry-by-berry in successive tries (French for ‘selections’).”

I love it. I love the title. I love the oxymoronic flavor in the phrase, the noble set against the rot, which lends itself to comedy. I love the idea of this noble rot fungus, the Botrytis cinerea, getting used in a story and the idea of that fungus creating a fine wine. This, at first, feels like it could be an analogy to how seemingly low-valued people can produce something extraordinary, a kind of variation on the “diamond in the rough” premise. (Yes, I know that’s a terribly tired theme, but that theme will never die. In this day and age when everything’s been done, it’s not so much what it’s about as how it’s about it.) The Noble Rot could also be a variation on the cliché “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” In fact, it’s said in the wine industry that “when mother nature molds your vines, make a select late-harvest dessert wine.” Similarly, a character tells this story in the script:

A long time ago, there was this prince who owned big vineyard. It produced great wine. Year after year. And even when the conditions were bad, it still produced good wine. One year, he went away to war. He was an officer probably. And when he came home, his fields were full of rotting grapes. Of all the people that worked for him, not one had the guts to make the decision of when to pick the grapes. Consequently, they let the grapes rot. He couldn’t believe how his luck had changed. He was ruined. But for some reason, he said pick the grapes anyway. And they did. And they pressed them. And they barreled them. But when the time came to taste the wine, everyone was afraid. Except the prince! And when he tasted it, he couldn’t believe it. It was the best wine ever. The curse turned out to be a blessing. A special magic fungus blessed his land. He called it -- the Noble Rot.

So let’s analyze this Novello & Belushi screenplay. First, I’m going to let the words from Subterranean Cinema recap the story and set the scene:

“It was a romantic comedy/adventure about a young, unsophisticated guy named Johnny Glorioso, who takes an elite new California wine to a New York wine tasting contest, falls in love with a very untrustworthy but sexually desirable young woman named Christine (who is responsible for the multiple thefts of his beloved few wine samples for the competition), becomes involved with a diamond smuggling ring, and maybe grows up a little and loses his naivete in the process, while getting the last laugh in the kind of final scene that audiences loved seeing Belushi have. Belushi considered it the role he was born to play, and became obsessed with getting it produced. However, Paramount Pictures (the studio behind producing a potential film of Noble Rot, including at that time Michael Eisner) was nonplussed with the script and was instead pushing Belushi to star in a sophomoric comedy based on the popular book, The Joy of Sex, to be directed by Penny Marshall. (A completely different version was created a few years after Belushi's death by director Martha Coolidge). Meanwhile, Aykroyd had also intended for Belushi to star in the supernatural comedy, Ghostbusters (1984), which he was co-scripting with Animal House writer Harold Ramis. By this time, Belushi was heavily into punk rock (especially the raw L.A. punk band Fear, whose members he was hanging around with at the time) -- to the point of alienating friends who would not listen to it. Belushi moved out to Hollywood to continue writing the film with Novello, feeling it would restore his cinematic mojo."

Alas, March 5, 1982 brought the end of Belushi and Noble Rot. 

There is also an interesting article at Basic Juice where Paul White of Coturri Winery wrote about John Belushi’s visit to his winery the day before he died. They played basketball. They did comedic pratfalls. They drank wine. And they did a little bit of scouting for locations.

The magical aspect of this screenplay is that whenever Johnny Glorioso speaks, you can hear the voice of John Belushi saying those words. The unfortunate thing, however, is that those words are never worthy of being spoken. The scenes are never worthy of Mr. Belushi’s presence, and the story is never worthy of being told, regrettably. Why did this screenplay fail? For a variety of reasons. It doesn’t know what it wants to be with its wide range of action, comedy, mystery, and love elements, although the story leans mostly toward comedy but it’s not funny. The protagonist is passive to a fault. Johnny shows up in New York with his fine wine and the story is about anything but his fine wine as Johnny gets swept up in the most improbable cat-and-mouse game involving a divorced couple, diamonds, and cash. He becomes active only when his wine is stolen from him, which happens repeatedly for increasingly preposterous reasons. Plus, the story has at least three MacGuffins -- the fine wine, the diamonds, and the money.

Why is this story so scattered? Because the writers didn’t know their theme. Remember when I talked earlier about the potentials of the “noble rot” idea? I said that “noble rot” could be an analogy to how low-valued people can produce something extraordinary. Or the lesson that “when mother nature molds your vines, make a select late-harvest dessert wine.” Or any number of interpretations, which I’m sure my brilliant readers have already dreamed up. But, you see, when you know your theme you know what your story is about and you construct a story to support your theme. Thus, you will know that a subplot involving missing diamonds should be cut because it doesn’t support the theme.

Yet, this could’ve been so great -- the unforgettable final film of John Belushi.

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Mystery Man is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. He blogs at MysteryManOnFilm.blogspot.com and tweets at Twitter.com/MMonFilm. And he has nice shoes.A version of this post originally appeared on Mystery Man on Film.

Header Photo: Bigfoto.com 

Comments (1)

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Another great review!
written by Don Alex, February 26, 2010

Thanks again for checking out my site!

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