The One and Only (1978)
1951: Andy Schmidt is in his last year of college. Taking life easy and always a saucy joke on his lips, he manages to win fellow student Mary's heart, although she's already otherwise engaged. But getting a job after college turns out much harder than expected; most directors take offense at his free interpretation of his roles. Desperate, he tries in wrestling. To avoid getting beaten up he stages the fights - and incidentally invents show-wrestling.
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"The One and Only" is a movie that most likely had a difficult time finding an audience. It really is more a "chick flick" than a wrestling film. The first third relies on a lot of slapstick, but once Henry Winkler enters the ring, the frantic pace settles down somewhat. Quite a few character actors contribute, including Mary Woronov as a bar trollop, Henry Villechaize as a midget wrestler, and Gene Saks as a manager. The theme song "The One and Only" is quite good, as is the trip down wrestling's memory lane. Most of the laughs come from Winkler's enormous ego, and interactions with Kim Darby's Mother and Father (Mom and Tom). - MERK
Ah gees...well so many fantastic words you could use to describe The One & Only. Words such as.....er....um...ah..well atleast it's better than Nightshift. Look out for a surprise appearance from none other than Tom Bosley - as the bad guy wrestler Mr.C
Possible Spoilers:I saw One and Only when it first came out; I am a fan of Henry Winkler but this film almost turned me into an ex-fan; Winkler plays an obnoxious, self-absorbed acting student about to graduate with no job prospects. He does things like ruin his college play so his minor character can get a standing ovation, and try to rewrite scripts at auditions. Winkler tries to play the character as "brash", but it comes across as overbearing and obnoxious in the extreme. This movie came early in his career, and I don't think he would make the same acting choices now. He can't seem to get a job acting, and falls into professional wrestling as a way to fame. This is not developed to be as much fun as it sounds. His personality seems to fit the field, but success does not mellow out his character; towards the end he makes a charming statement to his fiance (who he stole with his winning personality from a pipe-smoking "nice guy" - big surprise): "If you don't stop thinking like that you're going to wind up an old single woman with a picture of JESUS on the wall!" said in absolute disgust. Even to an athiest this was an offensive moment in the film; it made one want to pour a bucket of water over this girl's head for being with this ass; and this is supposed to be a love story, with Winkler at the "hero". Creeps like this don't change; and girls keeping falling for them; though that's not the point of the film. If you can find the point, good luck. But there are 99.9% better films at Blockbuster, and all of Winkler's other films are better. Avoid - unless you like watching Herve Vellachez humping furniture. (Don't ask.)Three out of ten stars.
Well I guess it supposedly not a classic because there are only a few easily recognizable faces, but I personally think it is... It's a very beautiful sweet movie, Henry Winkler did a GREAT job with his character and it really impressed me.