BUDDY BOYS: THE MOVIE

 

PRIMARY TECHNICAL CREW

Written By	Michael W. Mowery
Produced & Directed By	Michael W. Mowery, Bill Shute
Edited By	Michael W. Mowery
Filmed By	Michael W. Mowery
Original Concept By	Michael W. Mowery, Bill Shute, Bob Schoelkopf

PRIMARY CAST
Full Cast and Crew with Biography and Photos

Guts and Glory	Joe McGroarty
Brains of the Operation	Bill Shute
the Supplier	Michael W. Mowery
Hammer	Anthony Salerno
Lightning Bolt	Brian McGroarty
the Enforcer	Mike Shute
Slick	Brian Repici
Cuz	Jeff Wilkinson

 

A local terrorist group, "the Bandits" headed by the never seen Mr. Big strike fear into the residence of a small town. The film begins with Mr. Big talking to Hammer (Anthony Salerno) on the phone. Mr. Big instructs the Bandits to take care of the new threat to their operation Joe McGroarty). The Bandits proceed to jump Joe by surprise at the movie theatre. (Bill Shute) appears out of the night to help Joe out. Together they take an oath to take vengeance on the Bandits and clean up their town.

Along the way, the "T.P. Gang" as they're known, pick up a new member (Michael W. Mowery). He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Upon entering the T.P. Gangs secret hideout, Mike also vows to join the fight against the Bandits and clean up the town.

The two rival gangs battle each of in many comedic scenes revolving around toilet paper and larger than life adventures. This leads to the dramatic climax which brings the T.P. Gang face to face with their enemy, Mr. Big.

Buddy Boys: The Movie is the historic first film for the newly created production company entitled Golden Roll Productions. This film has deeply tied roots to the original writing sessions of 1990 when Bob Schoelkopf, Bill Shuteand Michael W. Mowery set out to create a film. Some of the ideas included in the film were: a Mr. Big character, the car chase and the entire desert sequence.

The desert sequence is one of the best scenes captured in the film. This also happens to be the scene in which the most time was spent on. The scene has the deeper roots than any other to the 1990 writing sessions. Michael W. Mowery (the Supplier), Bill Shute (Brains of the Operation), Anthony Salerno (Hammer), Bob Schoelkopf, Brian McGroarty (Lightning Bolt) and Dave DeMatteo recorded some rare improvisational footage of this location the previous summer. None of that footage made the film however. Some of the footage did turn up in the Buddy Boys: Creation of the Desert Sequence special which was released in 1996. The desert was one of the first scenes written and the final scene filmed. Notice the name given to the desert Chavez. This is a direct reference to the character Lou Diamond Phillips portrayed in the two Young Guns films. They happen to be among the favorites of both Bill and Mike. Other Young Guns references which found their way into Buddy Boys: The Movie are the Bon Jovi songs, "Never Say Die" (which is the music bed for T.P. Gangs T.P.ing scene) and "Bang A Drum" (which plays during the closing credits). Bill suggested "Bang A Drum" because of the positive message it says. This tied in perfectly because Bill and Mike decided to dedicate the film to the memory of Mike's father.

Many of the films scenes may appear lengthy at times. This is because, when filming began, Mike didn't know how or where to edited the film. Originally Mike and Bill contacted Bill's Aunt (Nancy Napoli) who was working for a local television station in Philadelphia. The plan was to transfer of the the 1/2" tapes to 3/4" tapes. Then use the stations equipment to edit. Time restraints were starting to become a problem, so Mike invested in editing equipment of his own. Once he did this, editing as well as filming took on an entirely new prospective. Mowery reworked major scenes such as the car chase, desert sequence and the unmasking of Mr. Big to take advantage of the new found editing freedom. The end result was a majority of the scenes filmed after Mowery bought the editing equipment, became the better scenes in the film.

Even though Bill Shute goes unaccredited as a writer, two major scenes would not have been possible without his influence. First the diner scene in which the T.P. Gang gets set up by the Bandits women. This was the one scene that writer Mowery was unsure how to develop. In the original screenplay, the girls were a more integral part of the Bandits operations. The girls were cut from the Bandit meeting scenes because it was hard for everyone to be available at the same time. The guys could make it more frequently than the girls. Since the girls roles were not major, they were cut out. This created a problem because all of the previous dialogue was changed and the girls would now seem out of place. The diner scene however was a huge turning point in the film and their presence was necessary. Bill stepped in with two suggestions. First, he wrote a few lines where Loraine (Donna Morris) talks to Hammer on the phone. This establishes their role in the film. Next Bill wrote the old guys into the film as a diversion which would actually help the T.P. Gang hook up with the girls. The old guys were actually reborn here. Bill had originally created them for a play entitled Hey Do You Want A Donut?, which he wrote with Bob Schoelkopf (one of the films original concept creators). Two of the old guys were played by Bill Shute and Joe McGroarty. Michael W. Mowery would play another gentleman in the diner that did not have any associate to the other characters. This allowed the cast to interact with themselves in the scene. The end result was a long, but comedic scene.

The other scene in which Bill had some influence over was the car chase. While the actual writing of the scene was done by Mowery, the final segment in the scene was Shute's vision. This is the end of the chase where a truck pulls out and cuts off the Bandits and allows the T.P. Gang to get away. This scene would require Bill's character to purposely get caught by the Bandits. So they did not know Bill's true identity, Bill applied theatrical make to himself to disguise his face. The actual on scene disguise was portrayed by Bill's Uncle, Frank Repici. In retro spec, Mowery would have cut in a few shots of Bill turning into Frank intertwined through out the car chase so the audience could understand what has happening better.

The film marked many firsts. For Mowery, it was his screen writing debut. He previously CO-wrote two plays You'll Never Guess What I Saw with buddy boy Joe McGroarty in 1989 and The Ever Amazing Dr. Crackpott 3: Igor In Hollywood in 1990. It also marked the transition of stage to film acting for Shute, Mowery and both Joe and Brian McGroarty. These were four of the leads who did many high school and community theatre productions. For the other three major villain characters of Mike Shute, Anthony Salerno and Brian Repici, this film marked their acting debuts. Finally, this film marked the debut production for Golden Roll Productions.