Back in the far off 1970s, Kristoffer Tabori was a person I saw on TV a lot. He guest starred on tons of TV dramas and mini-series, and showed up in an occasional movie. I didn't know much about him at the time, but I really liked him, even though he was so much older than me. It was his eyes mostly. He had great eyes. Sometime when I was in high school I was flipping through a catalog of films that where available to rent on 16mm for film societies, school activities, children's parties, etc. I came upon an illustrated page devoted to Making It, the 1971 film that marked 19-year-old Tabori' s first starring role. The pictures in that catalog were like catnip to me. I wanted to see that movie so very badly!
Today, after approximately 38 years of waiting, I finally saw Making It. As it turns out, the whole movie is on YouTube. Is it good movie, you may ask. Well... no. Frankly it is a bizarre movie, just all over the place, with a tonal shift in the last act that will give you whiplash. "Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Is it a... oh shit, did that really just happen?" But where else can you see Bob Balaban, already in his mid-twenties, but looking much older, playing a high school student? What other movie features actor Dick Van Patton and his real life sister Joyce Van Patton playing an engaged couple who share a hot grope and on-the-mouth kiss? And how often does a film take the time to offer a long debate on the merits of Catcher In The Rye between two characters who have obviously never read Salinger? Despite all this, Kristoffer Tabori is just amazingly, scorchingly hot in Making It; just as hot as I always imagined he would be.
Kristoffer Tabori, if you were wondering, is still working, mostly as a voice actor, which is a shame, because I'm sure, at 62 years of age, that he still has great eyes.
