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HEARTBEEPS
Rating: 
USA. 1981.
Director – Allan Arkush, Screenplay – John Hill, Producer – Michael Phillips, Photography – Charles Rosher Jr, Music – John Williams, Visual Effects – Albert Whitlock, Mechanical Effects – Robbie Blalock, Bud Ewing, Whitey Krumm & Jamie Shourt, Additional Special Effects – John Stirber, Makeup Effects – Stan Winston, Production Design – John W. Corso. Production Company – Universal.
Cast:
Andy Kaufman (Val-Com 17845), Bernadette Peters (Aqua-Com 89045), Barry Diamond (CatSkil 5602), Jack Carter (Voice of CatSkil), Ron Gans (Voice of Crimebuster), Kenneth MacMillan (Max), Randy Quaid (Charly), Melanie Mayron (Susan Gort), Christopher Guest (Calvin Gort)
Plot: While standing on a factory repair shelf Val-Com 17485, a robot valet, and hostess robot Aqua-Com 89045 strike up a conversation. Joined by a malfunctioning humour robot they decide to go out and explore the world beyond the factory window. During the journey, Val and Aqua begin to discover feelings for one another.
Heartbeeps sets out with one of the dippiest ideas imaginable – a robot romance – and in fact makes it work in ways that are quite delightful. The opening scenes with Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters standing on the shelf looking out a big picture window wondering about the world achieve a peculiarly touching kind of innocence. There are considerable charms to the film’s deadpan absurdities and wide-eyed innocent view of the world relayed in computer jargonese. Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters both give appealingly naive performances, although Kaufman’s nasally ingenuous voicing would probably have worn on the nerves if the film had gone on much longer. Less appealing is the wisecracking Catskil (although the relationship that grows between Catskil and the baby robot Phil-Co is rather sweet) and the regulation quoting Crimebuster. John Williams’s score is an experiment that tries hard but fails to make anything interesting out of bleeps and electronic noises.
Apparently Heartbeeps was interfered with by Universal before its release, who did not understand it at all and tried to re-edit it to give it a more upmarket commercial pace – although what does remain is really quite charming. The film was released without much promotion and proved a box-office flop. Wacky comedian Andy Kaufman was later immortalized in Milos Forman’s biopic Man in the Moon (1999). Stan Winston was nominated for an Academy Award for his makeup effects.
Director Allan Arkush seemed to have a promising career at New World Pictures for a time, directing or co-directing the likes of Hollywood Boulevard (1976), Deathsport (1978), the cult Rock‘n’Roll High School (1980) and the fairytale spoof Prince Charming (tv movie, 2000). The flop of Heartbeeps sealed Arkush’s career as a film director and he has subsequently worked as a director in television, mostly notably as a producer/director on the show Heroes (2006– ).
Copyright Richard Scheib 1999-2012
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