Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2002 | Page 75

Robert Downey, Sr.

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Downey had arrived. Even though Chafed Elbows seems incredibly
primitive by today’s MTV flash and tinsel standards, Downey’s idiosyncratic
worldview struck a chord of recognition with the public. The director was quick to
capitalize on his success with a down-and-dirty follow-up in 16mm, No More
Excuses. The film was composed of five short films Downey had previously made,
cut together into one hour-long ‘'whole” (including sections from his first film.
Balls Bluff). The film did some business, but Downey understandably wanted a
shot at a 35mm feature with a decent budget. Simultaneously, he sought to distance
himself from his earlier works, telling potential renters of his films th a t‘T hate
Babo 73 and Balls Bluff so please don’t book them - as for Chafed Elbows (I love
it) if I were you I wouldn’t let anybody over 40 years old in the theatre unless
they’re accompanied by a teenager” (as qtd. in Filmmakers's Cooperative Catalogue
No. 4, 46). No More Excuses simply marked time; what would come next would
remain perhaps Downey’s best-known film.
Putney Swope was the director’s first film in 35m m, shot mostly at night
in various office buildings in Manhattan, on a budget of $250,000. The plot revolves
around Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson), a minor functionary at a huge ad agency,
who is accidentally voted in as Chairman of the Board when the founder dies. No
one on the Board can vote for themselves, and they don’t want to vote for each
other, so they all vote for Swope, the agency’s token African-American, on the
theory that no one else will vote for him. Seizing the reins, Swope fires everyone
except for the exquisitely corrupt lifer Nathan (Stan Gottlieb), and fills all the
vacant slots with African-Americans. Renaming the shop the “Truth and Soul”
agency (or as he puts it, “TS, Baby!”), Swope wins his first new client, electronics
magnate Wing Soney, with a successful pitch for Soney’s new “Get Outta Here”
mousetrap. The idea is actually Nathan’s, but when Soney “digs it,” Swope claims
credit for the concept and fires Nathan, a pattern of “idea theft” he will repeat
continually throughout the film. By the end of the film. Putney is completely selling
out, pushing war toys, the Borman Six (a huge gas-guzzling car), and marrying a
woman he doesn’t even like just to get ideas from her for ads. Downey’s premise
in Putney Swope is simple: that everyone is equally rotten and on the take, and the
film remains one of the most effective satires on advertising ever produced.
But Downey had a problem shooting Putney Swope: his lead actor couldn’t
remember his lines. Anyone else would have panicked, but Downey pressed on
after a conference with his cameraman. “Arnold (Johnson, the actor who played
Putney) never learned his lines. He couldn’t. He just didn’t, he couldn’t, so the
cameraman (Gerald Cotts) one night said to m e...he knew I was upset...I said,
‘Jesus, I can’t make any fucking sense out of this,’ and he said ‘well look through
here,’ and I looked through the viewfinder. He said, ‘You see that beard moving?’
I said ‘yeah,’ and he said ‘you can put anything in there. Including what you wrote.