Be My Gypsy

IF YOUR GRANDFATHER'S a king, your father's a drunk, your mother's a thief and you're a gypsy, your situation is unbearable but inescapable. Not only do you have the same exotic blood they do but you have the same light fingers. You're stuck.

These are the givens, along with a few more--like Brooke Shields--which make King of the Gypsies interesting. The movie's subject--the gypsy subculture in New York during the forties--deserves and receives much attention, but the plot itself is run-of-the-mail.

King Zharko (Sterling Hayden), leader of New York's gypsies, has an idiotic son and a clever grandson. From the beginning it is obvious that Dave (Eric Robert), the grandson, will become king. It is equally clear, though, that he doesn't want any part of king-ship.

During the movie we see Dave grow up. He hates his father (Judd Hirsch), who is a good-for-nothing drunk, while his mother (Susan Sarandon) keeps the family going with her stealing and her fortune- telling--which amounts to the same thing. His sister (Brooke Shields) is a beauty, with a mind of her own that you never see but which Dave assures us it there. She is destined to be sold into marriage at age 12 to an obese little boy. Her betrothal exemplifies gypsy life for Dave--his mother was stolen as a child; now his sister won't have any say in her life, either.

Meanwhile, the king's heir breaks away from the gypsies and lives in hiding. He sings and waits tables for a living and has a strawberry-blonde girlfriend. For him this spells success. However, the gypsy heritage which he uses to woo women comes back to haunt him. His grandfather, the only person who ever showed him any kindness, is dying. Dave is summoned and the old man, after bestowing his kingship on his grandson, dies peacefully. Grief and blood follows between the betrayed son Groffo and the rewarded grandson Dave, who renounces the old man's legacy to no avail.

Except for the fact that Dave ends up killing his father--who deserves it--there is nothing extraordinary about the plot; it's just like countless fairy tales. At times it even seems trite. Dave, the handsome gypsy, takes up with Susan, a rich blonde American girl. Dave, the dark and mysterious gypsy, dreams of California. And, typically, neither the romance nor the emigration can ever come to pass. Although Groffo's hired killers botch their job, they manage to gash Dave's face. Susan is too horrified to help and not gypsy enough to understand. Dave turns to Sharon, his mother's friend, who has had her eyes on him for a while. After washing his wound she puts Zharko's medallion--which Dave is conveniently carrying-- around his neck. He doesn't object. Nor does he object to her affection--thus he returns to the gypsy fold.

AT TIMES, too, the symbolism is too blunt. One theme that runs through the movie is Dave's disgust with the outmoded, conniving ways of the gypsies. If he has any mission it is to "bring the gypsies into the twentieth century." Fittingly he is the only gypsy with an American name other than Sharon. Dave, Tita, Rosa (their mother), and Groffo fit the older brother, younger sister, mother- and-father pattern of the ideal American family, despite their infighting.

At other times, though, the messages seem lost in transit. For instance, Groffo dances on a table at Dave's baptism. He flails about in a russet suit on an orange tablecloth, only to fall on an orange roast pig which has an orange in its mouth and is lit by orange candles at its head. For Groffo to fall on the pig is appropriate but for everything to be orange makes no sense.

The absurdity, though, is not completely wasted--the scene makes you laugh, as does the movie. There are some very clever sequences which, more often than not, involve great gypsy rip-offs--Rosa and five-year-old Dave stealing a diamond, Rosa telling a fortune, Dave rigging an out-of-court settlement for a trick injury. Nor is it by chance that most of the funny scenes, and the touching ones, involve Rosa and Dave.

The superb acting by Susan Sarandon and Eric Robert does more than just enhance the well-directed lead roles the two of them play--it makes the movie work. Last seen in pretty Baby with sidekick Shields, Sarandon is even better here; she has more to work with. She can be funny, serious, wealthy and wide-eyed, as well as downtrodden, while Shields, though visually pleasing, can't act.

Robert, on the other hand, who makes his debut in King of the Gypsies, could conceivably rival Redfort in looks (a darker version), and unlike Shields and Gerald Ford he can do more than one thing at the same time.

Like Sarandon he has multiple roles. He loves, hates, cries and even sings, all convincingly. While much of this is attributable to Robert's acting skill, director Pierson's input is also significant. Dave would not have been such a realistic character if he had been brilliant or articulate instead of street-smart and sullen.

The rest of the cast is no less worthy--only less visible. Worthiness is also the theme 23-year-old producer Frederico DeLaurentiis follows in his credits--the costume designer receives as much due as the producer.

Unfortunately, though all the clever touches and well-acted segments add up, they don't make for a first-rate movie. They can't overcome the plot; it isn't different or fresh enough. The bright colors of the gypsy world make this drab story good entertainment, nothing more.