Parador Uber Alles

Moon Over Parador

Screenplay by Paul Mazursky and Leon Capetanos

Directed by Paul Mazursky

At the USA Charles

ONE might expect Moon Over Parador to be a cross between Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Parador director Paul Mazursky and star Richard Dreyfuss worked together in Beverly Hills, while Parador's other stars, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga, appeared together in Spider Woman. Also, Parador, like Beverly Hills, means to be a comedy of social and cultural clashes, while using the political instability of a Latin American dictatorship as a backdrop, like Spider Woman.

There are other apparent influences, notably Woody Allen's Bananas and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel The Autumn of the Patriarch. But actually, Parador is not nearly as sophisticated as all this borrowing would suggest. It is simply a Hollywood comedy, albeit a rather clever and funny one. And that is sufficient.

Parador operates on the no longer fanciful premise that an actor can impersonate a president for a long time, and that however much a buffoon he is, as long as he has charisma, the people will suffer him gladly. When the dictator of Parador dies, his right-hand man (Julia) forces Jack Noah (Dreyfuss), an American movie actor shooting on location in Parador, to assume the role of the dictator to prevent the citizens from finding out.

The idea of an actor hoodwinking an entire country is not supposed to invite more than a superficial parallel with the Reagan administration, any more than Parador is supposed to resemble a real Latin American country. Parador is an American tourist's fantasyland, where everyone speaks English, where drinks are large, cheap and potent and where the annual Mardi Gras-like carnival is headlined by Sammy Davis Jr.

One of the running gags in the film is that Parador is also a haven for Nazis waiting for their statutes of limitations to run out. The country is really run by the shadowy "14 Families"--German expatriates all. Julia's character is named Roberto Straussmann and is made to look Aryan via an eerie blond dye job. Parador's national anthem is to the tune of "O Tannenbaum" and is often accompanied by "Deutschland Uber Alles."

THIS is about as deep as the political satire gets. Noah falls under the spell of the dictator's mistress--now his mistress--Madonna Mendez (Braga), who appeals to his conscience and presses him to effect social reforms, which he does with remarkable ease and neatness. If Mazursky seems politically naive here, that is to be expected. His Moscow on the Hudson and Beverly Hills were similarly naive. They were also bittersweet comedies, in the same vein as Parador, and none of these movies aspires to anything much higher than that.

But Parador often goes for the big, broad laughs--and gets them. The movie is peppered with good gags and competent cameos by such old pros as Sammy Davis Jr., Charo and Jonathan Winters. Best of all are the exaggerated comic performances of the three principals, especially Dreyfuss.

Despite its potential for satire, Moon Over Parador doesn't leave you with any significant social statement about Latin American politics. Still, it is funny enough not to disappoint you or leave you with anything to moon over.