Who has watched “Slap Shot” only once?
For anyone who has ever strapped on a pair of ice skates, slapped a puck around with a hockey stick, and dreamed of making it to the National Hockey League, chances are watching “Slap Shot,” a 1977 film starring Paul Newman about a rag-tag minor league team fighting for their operational existence, has been on their cinematic to-do list.
The Charlestown Chiefs myth is based in economically starved Western Pennsylvania during the mid-1970s, when the area’s main employer, a steel mill having 10,000 “clock punchers,” closed its doors. The Chiefs, led by Newman’s character, womanizer player-coach Reggie Dunlap, and a squad of has-beens and not-good-enoughs to play beyond the low-rung Federal League, find a way to jell, and, well, live happily ever after on the road to hockey heaven.
Nancy Dowd, the writer of “Slap Shot” and brother of Ned Dowd, a real-life junior hockey league player during the early 1970s in the North American Hockey League, marvelously captures the authenticity of what life on the road and in the locker rooms was like for hockey dreamers of that time period.
Actress Jennifer Warren, who prior to her lead role in “Slap Shot” as Newman’s estranged wife Francine Dunlap, a hairdresser looking to move on from her always promising-never delivering hockey husband, co-starred alongside Gene Hackman in “Night Moves.” Today, Warren, 83, recently retired after a long post-acting career as an associate professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, reflects on her contributions to one of sports’ most addicting films—the kind where viewers repeat watching so much that they learn the lines of each character.
“The entertaining done in [‘Slap Shot’] holds up well. The public loved the film when it was released,” Warren told The Epoch Times during a phone conversation from her home in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County.
After becoming known for their salty language and epic brawls as much as their teamwork executed on the ice in the film, the Hanson Brothers have made a career from public appearances for nearly 50 years.
For Warren, aside from the Chiefs as well as their foes on such mythical teams as the Syracuse Bulldogs, Peterborough Patriots, and Hyannisport Presidents, one thing from the film holds a very special memory: a movie prop.
Symbolizing happier times between Reggie and Francine is a studio-produced wedding photo of the couple, which the coach has proudly displayed in his unkempt bachelor apartment in the movie. With both actors in traditional wedding garb, it’s an authentic sell to viewing audiences of a once solid, blissful couple.
According to Warren, Kings Road Entertainment, the movie’s production company, created two such prints of the Dunlap couple. One of them was kept by Warren, and since filming concluded in 1976, it’s been on display in the foyer of her home.
“It’s funny. It happened just the other day. I had someone over [at] my place, and they hadn’t seen it before. While they stared at the picture of Paul and me, they, at first, didn’t know what to say. But, then they were amused when finding out the story behind it,” said Warren, who off-screen had been married to Roger Gimbel, a television producer, for 35 years until his death in 2011.
Although Warren tells of no official, full-cast reunion since the film’s release, there are a couple of the other “hockey wives” that were in scenes with her that she’s been in touch with. Actress Swoosie Kurtz, who played the spouse of Chiefs’ Johnny Upton, came to Warren’s wedding. During the filming of “Slap Shot,” actress Lindsay Crouse was portrayed as the disconnected wife of Chief’s scorer Ned Braden. Warren recalls looking up Crouse, now living in Essex County, Massachusetts, “a while ago,” and remembers her fondly.
Having an opportunity to work for director George Roy Hill, who also steered such box-office successes as “The Sting” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” was a privilege according to Warren.
“George was a brilliant director. When ‘Slap Shot’ was filmed, from the first day of shooting, George had everything mapped out in his mind exactly how he wanted the scenes to go. He successfully merged comedy with reality,” she said.
As a film, upon its release, few critics gave “Slap Shot” even one chance at doing well in theaters. Surprisingly to some, the film grossed $28 million. As for Warren, she will always remember working miracles as Francine at Gilda’s Cut ‘n Curl Beauty Parlor in Charlestown, as the Chiefs rode off into hockey never-never-land.
