Don't Make a Scene: Tucker: The Man and His Dream

The Story: I saw Tucker: The Man and His Dream in theaters in 1988 (I was one of the few, despite it being produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis Ford Coppola). It was one of Coppola's dream projects—both he and Lucas owned a couple of the 50 1948 Tucker Torpedos produced—and, at one point, Brando was to star as Tucker. It was even briefly floated as a musical—music by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Comden and Green—a grandiose idea befitting the subject matter.

 

But, I still vividly recall this scene—Harold Karsten (known to Tucker as financier "Abe Karatz") confesses to would-be car-maker Preston Tucker that the empire envisioned of giving post-war Americans a safe, affordable, family vehicle snazzier than anything that Ford, GM, and Chrysler could imagine is built on a house of cards. Abe knows it, but he feels the need to tell his partner Tucker that he'd better wear a hat because a shit-storm is coming. And Abe should know. He's an ex-con. He's been on the receiving end of "the business" the government dishes out.

 

It's a resignation and a confession, and it has that same father-son drama (without the shared lineage) that so many Coppola movies share. And it has "The Coppola Crumble" where actors' faces finally just collapse under the weight of grief. Brando and Pacino did it in the Godfather movies. Here, Martin Landau—who, after years of slumming in B-schlock and TV roles—revived his career with the role of Abe Karatz, earning the first Oscar nomination of his career before achieving acclaim with roles for Woody Allen and Tim Burton. His scene here is rich with context and gravitas, as rich as one of those "Godfather" scenes everybody crows about. 

 

Except no one knows this one. More's the pity. Shame, really.

 

The Set-Up: In post World War II America, Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) aspires to continue his manufacturing business (of building plexiglass turrets for fighter planes and other vehicles) to making "the car of tomorrow" incorporating such features as fuel injection, disc brakes, a rear-placed engine, streamlined styling, padded dash, springless suspension, a roll-bar in the roof, reinforced chassis, even a swiveling central headlight to better illuminate turns. "The Big Three" automakers—who hadn't put out a new car design since 1941—begin using the SEC to investigate and try to stymie Tucker's efforts to finish production on his "dream car." Helping him secure financing is financier Abe Karatz—aka Harold Karsten (Martin Landau)—who has dealt with the SEC before and sees a familiar pattern.

 

Action.

 

PRESTON TUCKER: What's all this cloak and dagger business now? 

ABE KARATZ: Your office is wired. 

ABE: The board room, the whole plant, even washrooms.

TUCKER: What?

ABE: Ever since you road-tested the new car, G-men have followed you around the clock.

TUCKER: What for?

ABE: You made the car too good. 

TUCKER: Well, that's the whole idea isn't it? To build a better mousetrap. 

ABE: Not if you're the mouse. 

TUCKER: What are you talking about? 

TUCKER: We did it. We won. 

TUCKER: In two weeks, we're going to have a hundred cars coming out of this plant a day. 

ABE: I just got off the phone with Frank the press agent. In two weeks you'll be dead and buried by the Big Three. 

ABE: Here. 

ABE: It's my resignation. 

ABE: Take it. 

TUCKER: So you're bailing out, is that it? 

ABE: Captains go down with their ships, 

ABE: ...not businessmen. 

TUCKER: Look me in the eye. 

TUCKER: You're too good a salesman, Abe, not to look a customer in the eyes. 

ABE: What do you think, I'm playing games here? What do you...?

TUCKER: Yeah, I think you're trying to...

ABE: Oh, c'mon!

TUCKER: you're trying some double-whammy kinda hustle backwards! Why?!

ABE: You're gotta make me say it? 

TUCKER: Yeah. 

TUCKER: Let's start from there. 

ABE: OK. 

ABE: I did three years in the pen for bank fraud. 

TUCKER: So what? 

ABE: So they'll use it against you. 

TUCKER: What, you think just because of this measly piece of paper, they're not going to? 

ABE: Just leave me alone, will you? 

ABE: The whole ten years since I've been in the pen, it never bothered me for two seconds I'm an ex-con. 

ABE: Why should it?

ABE: Who cared? 

ABE: But for you and Vera and the kids to know...

Abe breaks down.

ABE: I'm ashamed. 

TUCKER: Hey, Abe, come on. 

ABE: When I was a little kid, 

ABE: ...maybe five  years old in the old country, 

ABE: my mother would warn me, "Don't get too close to people."

ABE: "You'll catch their dreams." 

ABE: Years later, I realized I misunderstood her. 

ABE: Germs, she said, not dreams. "You'll catch their germs." 

They laugh

ABE: I want you to know something, Tucker. 

ABE: I went into business with you to make money. That's all. 

ABE: How was I to know... 

ABE: ...if I got too close, I'd catch your dreams? 

ABE: Here. 

ABE: If you want to know how they'll finish you off, listen to Drew Pearson.

Abe retreats.

The lights are turned off at the plant.

 

Tucker: The Man and His Dream

 

Words by Arnold Schulman and David Seidler

 

Pictures by Vittorio Storaro and Francis Ford Coppola

 

Tucker: The Man and His Dream is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Paramount Home Video.