Tall tales of heroin, murder and Neil Diamond

AMERICAN BOY: A PROFILE OF: STEVEN PRINCE (1978)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Aside from Scorsese's wonderful, beguiling "Italianamerican," "American Boy" is possibly Scorsese's finest documentary - a fiercely alive film with a subject who is a skilled raconteur and has the face of a walking skeleton with bulging eyes who can keep you up all night with dozens of compelling stories.

Steven Prince is the central subject of Scorsese's film - a wiry, fiery coil of jittery flesh with eyes that have seen it all. Prince talks about his days having worked for producer Fred Weintraub, being a road manager for Neil Diamond, his heroin addiction, his trouble with a girl who nearly died from a drug overdose had it not been for an adrenaline needle (Tarantino fans: this is where the "Pulp Fiction" scene of Mia Wallace's near overdose came from) and, in two gripping episodes, the accidental death of a kid who got electrocuted and Prince shooting a man in self-defense at a gas station who was trying to steal tires. Opening scene sets the tone for the film as Prince arrives at his friend's house where the filming will take place (actor George Memmoli is the friend) and they wrestle like schoolyard kids. This looks staged or maybe it is not - but it has an absurdity to it and resembles a story Steven Prince might tell later in life of how he was late to the making of a movie about his own life!

What is riveting about "American Boy" is that the tales Prince tells are horrifying and funny - he is so damn good a storyteller that the stories put very clear, precise pictures in your mind of what he went through. Sometimes there are anecdotes such as Prince's unwillingness to answer a question about his homosexuality to a military personnel - when he does give the answer that he had "latent homosexual tendencies," he is registered as a 4F (unfit for military service to the rest of you). Another anecdote about his addiction to heroin that resulted him in ingesting the drug every 4 hours to coincide with purposely 4-hour connecting flights while being Neil Diamond's road manager is hysterical.

Some of you Scorsese fans will probably recognize Steven Prince as Easy Andy, a gun salesman in the film "Taxi Driver." But what is especially wonderful and captivating about "American Boy" is how intimate the film is, even having scenes where Scorsese himself and Prince share the same shot while Scorsese asks questions (this is also true of Scorsese's "Italianamerican," "Public Speaking" and "The Last Waltz"). Last scene has Scorsese insisting that Prince repeat a story about his dying father three times. By the third time, he is no longer a skilled raconteur at work, pleasing his audience of friends and cronies. No, by then, he is a sad little American Boy.