He put $40,000 on credit cards to make his first film. Now 'Hollywood Shuffle' is a classic
LOS ANGELES — Robert Townsend has never stopped moving. For a recent Zoom interview, he is on his phone from his (parked) car so he can go for one of his regular walks around a local L.A. lake once he's finished.
"Hollywood Shuffle," Townsend's 1987 debut feature film as director, producer, co-writer and star, has just been released on disc by the Criterion Collection, in a newly restored 4K transfer with a new commentary track by Townsend, interviews with actors Rusty Cundieff, Bobby McGee and Anne-Marie Johnson, an essay by Aisha Harris and a 2022 radio interview with Townsend by Elvis Mitchell.
In the film, co-written with Keenan Ivory Wayans, who also appears onscreen, Townsend plays Bobby Taylor, an aspiring actor in Los Angeles. To make ends meet he works at small hot dog stand, Winky Dinky Dog, while suffering the indignities of auditioning for roles well below his talent and his dignity. The film features fanciful sketches including an ad for the Black Acting School, where students learn how to act like criminals and servants, or "Sneakin' in the Movies," a send-up of movie review shows.
As L.A. Times critic Sheila Benson wrote at the time, "pervading the film is an unquenchable air of optimism, even of community, which uses comedy to address some grievous inequities."
The film was a relative hit when it was first released, especially in relation to its minuscule $100,000 budget. Shot in 12 days over two-and-a-half years, Townsend financed the film with $60,000 he had saved
