FORGOTTEN FILM: RETURN TO TWO MOON JUNCTION (1995)

Zalman King is one of my least favorite directors. The king of late night Showtime / saxophone music, I can’t say I’ve liked any of his work. From 9 ½ WEEKS, WILD ORCHID and THE RED SHOE DIARIES, if his name is on it, I’m most likely not going to watch it.

There are always exceptions. His 1988 film TWO MOON JUNCTION is just so goofy, you can’t help but watch it. With a pre-TWIN PEAKS Sherilyn Fenn, and cameos by Kristy McNichol and Burl Ives (the snowman from RUDOLPH in a Zalman King film???), it is so wild that it is actually kind of fun.

I wasn’t enough of a fan of the film to see the direct to video sequel, released in 1995.

However, a while back, when Melinda Clarke was in the middle of her tour de force performance as Julie Cooper on THE O.C., I looked in to see what else she had done, and if she was always that good.

In looking at her filmography, I saw that she starred in RETURN TO TWO MOON JUNCTION. While it isn’t on DVD, I was able to find a VHS of it.

Melinda plays Savannah Delongpre, a fashion model. She is the sister to Sherilyn Fenn from the first film. Since Milla Jovovich played Fenn’s sister in the first film, I thought they might be the same character. But Milla’s character is listed on the IMDB as Samantha, so I guess not.

Savannah returns home to see her grandmother, once again played by Louise Fletcher. While visiting, Melinda meets an artist / welder, Jake (John Clayton Schafer), living on the family property.

After the usual warnings about deep family feuds between Jake and Savannah’s families, as you can expect, the two begin an affair. But, Savannah’s boyfriend returns, threatening to destroy Jake.

Will true love win out?

While this is not Melinda Clarke at the Julie Cooper level of acting, she is still very good. But the strange thing about the film is the male lead, John Clayton Schafer.

I had never seen him before, or since (he only had a few credits to his name). He is sort of a cross between Fabio and Kirk Douglas. As the film began, he was giving absolutely dreadful line readings. I never thought I would be able to make it through the film. Yet, by the end, he had actually improved. He didn’t sink it after all.

There is one scene in here that will make it tough watching for most guys.

Back in the 1980’s, Jay Leno used to have a funny bit about how you never really know how ridiculous female centerfolds are until you see a male centerfold.

“Here is Bill fixing his carburetor in the nude!”.

Well, we get to see Schafer welding shirtless. It is just as funny.

Also in the cast are Molly Shannon as a pregnant friend of Savannah, and James T. Callahan (the grandfather in CHARLES IN CHARGE).

Directed by Farhad Mann (who other than LAWNMOWER MAN 2 has worked mainly in TV), the film isn’t quite as silly as the first, but it actually works more as a straightforward romance. Nothing new here, you probably know the story as it begins, but the characters are likable, the music is effective, and it is a rather entertaining film. It works on a sort of Harlequin romance level.

Some listings state that there is an NC-17 rated version of the film. The version I saw stated that it was R rated. It was very tame. I would be very surprised if there was another version, since many of the love scenes were shot in long shots. It didn’t feel edited at all. It was closer to a Lifetime movie than a Cinemax movie.

The film was released by Trimark / Vidmark. I would guess that means it is now owned by Lion’s Gate. It is worthy of a DVD release. It seems it is available on DVD in Australia.

You can find used VHS copies for 49 cents.