Carny (1980)

★ 6.2 1h 47m IMDb

Tired of being a small-town waitress, Donna departs with the latest carnival show, living with entertainers Frankie and Patch in a tense, emotional triangle.

Carny

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Cast

Gary Busey
Gary Busey as Frankie Age 81 · Goose Creek, Texas, USA William Gary Busey (born June 29, 1944) is a 6-foot-1 blond-haired European-American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in over 120 films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmo...
Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster as Donna Age 63 · Los Angeles, California, USA Alicia Christian 'Jodie' Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, three Golde...
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson as Patch Died 2023 · Toronto, Ontario Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician. He was lead guitarist for Bob Dylan in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s, guitarist and songwriter with the...
Meg Foster
Meg Foster as Gerta Age 77 · Reading, Pennsylvania, USA Margaret "Meg" Foster is an American actress who starred as Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter (1979), Ingrid in Ticket to Heaven (1981) and Holly in They Live (1988)..
Kenneth McMillan
Kenneth McMillan as Heavy St. John Died 1989 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA Kenneth McMillan (July 2, 1932 – January 8, 1989) was an American actor. McMillan was usually cast as gruff, hostile and unfriendly characters due to his rough image. However, he was sometimes cast in...
Elisha Cook Jr.
Elisha Cook Jr. as On-Your-Mark Died 1995 · San Francisco, California, USA Elisha Vanslyck Cook, Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor who made a career out of playing cowardly villains and weedy neurotics in dozens of films. He was perhaps m...

Audience Reviews

Oldmoviegal Mar 24, 2016
Carny is like a documentary inside a film. The movie revolves around the carnies and their day to day operations and personal lives.
Jodie Foster stars as Donna, a bored 18 year old small town waitress who dreams of more excitement. One night while attending the local carnival with her jock boyfriend (played by character actor Craig Wasson), she is singled out in the crowd while her boyfriend is engaging in a game of Dunk The Bozo. The Bozo in question is Frankie,played by Gary Busey, who sits in a dunk tank waiting for the 'marks' (victims of hustlers) to throw the balls that hit the spot so that he falls into the water. There are other hustlers too that each run their own game. Keeping everything under control is Patch,played by legendary guitarist and songwriting musician Robbie Robertson,who as his character's name suggests,patches things over from everything to paying off city officials to organizing plans with the local crime boss.
Problems arise when Frankie tells Patch that Donna will be accompanying them along the circuit. Patch is not pleased and organizes a plan to get Donna out of the picture. A series of mishaps ensue,which Patch blames on Donna. Patch then tries to tell the man running the strip tent that Donna can 'work strong ' meaning take her clothes off rather than be a back up dancer for the strippers,as Donna thinks she will be that evening. A riot breaks out and Patch realizes that he went too far after Donna gets hurt. Further tensions arise when Frankie catches Donna and Patch in flagrante one night. Patch and Frankie are at odds but not for long. A surprise ending rounds out this film but it is left wide open with room for a sequel that didn't ever materialize.
All in all, Carny is a good depiction of the lives of carnival workers and their respective con artist attitudes.

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