Unusually sincere for a crime film, the minor but well-intentioned CHAINS OF GOLD is a welcome change from the kill-them-and-quip insouciance typical of buddy-cop romps. Set in drug-soaked Miami, the story centers on Scott Barnes (John Travolta), a recovering alcoholic whose boozing caused
his small son's car-wreck death. Now a maverick social worker, Scott gets personally involved in his cases, especially that of Tommy Burke (Joey Lawrence), a plucky adolescent who's mixed up with a cocaine combine run by a murderous 21-year-old multimillionaire named Carlos (Benjamin Bratt). When
Tommy gets forced into narco-slavery, working day and night in Carlos's Dickensian crack-packaging plant, Scott launches a one-man rescue.
Most of the personnel involved here have their roots in TV. John Travolta (credited as one of the film's three screenwriters) bounded from "Welcome Back Kotter" heartthrob to superstardom via SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and GREASE before hitting a stretch of duds. He still holds center stage well, but
Scott's do-gooder concern, mixed with his own fight to stay sober, gets a trite, melodramatic treatment. The elegant Marilu Henner (JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY, NOISES OFF) has a thankless role as the doomed romantic interest. Director Rod Holcomb is a longtime TV helmer, and this 1989 production was
intended as his theatrical debut. But after sitting in limbo for a couple of years the $10 million CHAINS OF GOLD finally made an inauspicious bow on the Showtime cable network in 1991. leave a comment
