Film

Mariangela Melato and Ryan O’Neal in So Fine (1981)

Jack Fine, owner/manager of Fine Fashions of Brooklyn, which solely produces women’s dresses, has been having a difficult time the past year due to the company not keeping up with the changing fashions, so Jack is in debt to the tune of $1.5 million to loan shark/gangster Mr. Eddie, a hulking, flamboyant man who has a penchant for picking up and destroying things that bother him. Jack now falls into that category. Instead of figuratively or literally breaking Jack’s legs or worse, Mr. Eddie decides to take over Fine Fashions until the debt is paid, naming Jack’s son Bobby Fine, an English Literature professor at upstate Chippenango State College, to manage the operations. Not only does this new career, which Bobby has no option but to accept, threaten the possibility of Bobby obtaining this year’s tenure track position in the department, but Bobby at the helm of the fashion house threatens to ruin it completely, as Bobby has no idea about fashion whatsoever. Complicating matters is that Bobby and Mr. Eddie’s wife, seductive Italian Lira, fall in love at first sight–she doesn’t love Mr. Eddie. Bobby’s association with Lira accidentally leads to the latest fashion craze which could save Fine Fashions: coined “So Fine”, they are jeans which expose the butt cheeks, that area of the pants covered with clear plastic. With Jack and Bobby potentially coming into a financial windfall because of So Fine as well as being the toast of the fashion world, the question becomes whether Bobby will get everything he wants, including the tenure position and Lira, without Mr. Eddie killing him.