Frozen Deposits

The headquarters of the fictional transnational corporation TGC in Los Angeles - an emergency. Unable to withstand the stress at work, the vice president of marketing goes crazy, and he’s "taken to NP" directly from the workplace ( NPI, National Psychiatric Institute , a reference to the real NIMH ). His place is vacated, which Zack Shepard ( Corbin Burnsen ), who has worked for 13 years at TGC, is ready to take. The president of the corporation offers Shepard a tough test task: to lead a chronically unprofitable bank in a provincial town in Oregon . Either the bank shows profit for six months and Shepard gets the position of vice president, or Shepard leaves the company altogether.

Shepard boldly agrees with the proposed choice and goes to a new job. On the way, he sits down the eccentric Newton Petterson ( Larry Miller ), who "escaped from PNC" to his mother, who lives just in the vicinity of the same town.

Upon arrival at Zac Shepard's new job, a stunning surprise awaits: this is not an ordinary bank, but a sperm bank , quite successfully, from a medical point of view, headed by Dr. Grace Murdoch ( Shelley Long ) before his arrival.

In order of appearance in the opening credits:

Genie Cooper , the mother of Corbin Burnsen , played the role of Zack's mother in the film, which, in turn, was played by her son Corbin ^[5] .

For Jennifer Lewis, who remained outside the opening credits, the role of the energetic mistress of the beauty salon Michelle became the second (after “ Act, sister ”) prominent role in the movie and the first with her own words and character ^[6] .

The role of prostitute Piches in the "salon" of Madame Gloria was the last in the Hollywood film career . The star of the sitcom “ ” was one of the sex symbols of the 1980s in the USA and a girl from the cover of Playboy magazine in November 1990. She was positioned as the ideal potential performer of the role of Marilyn Monroe ^[7] . This moment is played out in the film: Peaches in his “working form” imitates the appearance, gestures and facial expressions of Marilyn Monroe from the films. However, in the early 1990s, Teri Copley unexpectedly admitted that she always lived with an unbearable emptiness in her soul, which only God could fill. She left the Hollywood film career and became a true Christian, caring mother of her two children ^[8] .

"Frozen Deposits" was released on the US screens in October 1992 and met a generally perplexing negative reaction. In a popular American review of new films, “ ” one of the two presenters, Gene Siskel, defined the film as “the dumbest comedy I've ever seen,” to which Roger Ebert said “the worst movie ever made.” ^[9] It should be noted that in the same block of reviews went “ Mad Dogs ” by Tarantino , which critics defined as a film that “after the first 15 minutes it makes no sense to watch.”

Later, Roger Ebert indignantly wrote ^[1] :

While watching Frozen Deposits, I did not feel like a spectator. I felt like an eyewitness to the disaster. If I had more heroism, I would have spent the next couple of weeks bursting into the movie theaters where this film is shown, and taking the audience to the emergency exit. And if I were one of the actors of this film, I would be surprised why all the characters in "Frozen Deposits" look dumber than the average animal that was hit by a car on the road.

Original text

I didn't feel like a viewer during "Frozen Assets." I felt like an eyewitness at a disaster. If I were more of a hero, I would spend the next couple of weeks breaking into theaters where this movie is being shown, and lead the audience to safety. And if I'd been an actor in the film, I would wonder why all of the characters in "Frozen Assets" seem dumber than the average roadkill.

Another critic called the film "some kind of frantic comedy, which emanates a kind of manic energy because of attempts every few minutes to surpass itself in poor taste and ridiculous plot twists." At the same time, Zach Shepard at the beginning of a simply walking set of clichés of aggressive male chauvinism with a complete lack of knowledge about the biological aspects of reproduction ^[2] .

The editor-in-chief of Videoguide M. N. Ivanov does not share the pathos of American colleagues, calling the film simply a “silly comedy”, and highly appreciates the voice-over translation into Russian by A. M. Mikhalev ^[3] .

Perhaps, due to the ambiguity of the theme and the boldness of humor for the United States in the early 1990s, the filmmakers provided him with an output that was unusually secretive for ordinary Hollywood practices.

Formally, by credits , the film generally does not have a production studio, only a distributor and producer . The distributor in the credits indicates "RKO Pictures Distribution" ( released through RKO Pictures Distribution ), which is not related to RKO Pictures , which stopped filming in 1955. In 1984-1991, The Walt Disney Company sometimes used the brand (practically a pseudonym) of RKO Pictures Distribution when the film did not match the main products of the company by rating or theme.

The producer of the film in the credits is one of the scriptwriters Don (Donald) Klein ( Donald Klein ), and the owner of the film opened in 1991 in his name the company Frozen Assets Productions, Inc. The only asset of the company was the film of the same name ^[10] .

Cinema rentals started in late October 1992, but were soon discontinued. In 1993, the film went on sale on VHS video cassettes in NTSC format in the USA, in SECAM format in France and in PAL format in Germany. Since then, it has never been reprinted, either on video tapes or on DVD . In Russia, the film was not officially sold, however, copies of it in the off -screen translation of A. M. Mikhalev became widespread there. At the same time, in the Russian translation, due to the coincidence of the expressions, it was possible to save the pun in the name. In the German version, the film was called “Ein Baby von der Bank”, in French “Baby express” ^{[11] [12]} .

German LGBT scholar Kristina Schneider in her article “Image of a sperm donor in television and cinema” refers “Frozen Contributions” to the initial stage in popularizing the very idea of ​​such a donation. Which in the American version was reduced only to the problem of childless heterosexual couples (as in the film under consideration) or voluntary single mothers (" Made in America " 1993). In Western European cinema, the theme was picked up at a deeper level, in terms of lesbian family relations ^[13] .

In the review “Image of a sperm donor in television and cinema” ^[13], in addition to Frozen Deposits, they are also mentioned (by years):

• Made in America (1993, USA)
• Proposal (1998, USA)
• Two women, one man and a child (Zwei Frauen, ein Mann und ein Baby, 2000, Austria)
• 2004 (USA)
• Farewell Time (2005, France)
• (2007, Germany)

•   Official Movie Trailer (in English)
• David Kronke. "Frozen Assets" falls flat on its face . Los Angeles Daily News (October 27, 1992).
• Frozen Assets: Review . TV Guide .