1989’s Miss Firecracker is just the type of film that might make you wonder how you’ve missed it before when you run across it on cable or streaming. If you’re lucky enough to have seen it, chances are you remember it fondly. It’s got a cast that features three now Oscar winners and an Oscar nominee, it’s from a play by Mississippi’s own Beth Henley (who also wrote the screenplay), and it was directed by a 9-time Emmy winner with a long career directing and producing some of TV’s best-known shows.
When Miss Firecracker started filming in Yazoo City on May 30, 1988, lead actress Holly Hunter was hot off her recent Best Actress Oscar nomination for 1988’s Broadcast News. Her subsequent nomination for 1993’s The Firm and eventual win for 1994’s The Piano were both yet to come. (She would receive a fourth Best Actress nomination in 2004 for Thirteen). Hunter had previously played Miss Firecracker’s lead role of Carnelle Scott in an off-Broadway production of the play.
She was joined in the cast by fellow Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard (nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 1983’s Cross Creek), and Best Actress Oscar winner (for 1980’s Melvin and Howard) Mary Steenburgen. Also coming to the project hot off an Oscar nomination was playwright Henley, who was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for 1986’s Crimes of the Heart, having adapted her own Pulitzer Prize-winning 1979 play. This time she adapted her successful follow-up to Crimes, The Miss Firecracker Contest.
Rounding out the cast was the at the time up-and-coming actor Tim Robbins, who had made a splash in 1988’s Bull Durham and would go on to get a Best Director nomination for 1995’s Dead Man Walking before winning Best Actor for 2004’s Mystic River.
The film’s director, Thomas Schlamme, was making his first foray into film directing with Miss Firecracker after helming several successful TV projects. He’d later return to the TV world, directing and producing for a number of hit shows like The Wonder Years, Sports Night, The Americans and The West Wing, the show responsible for seven of his nine Emmys.
Some other familiar faces in the cast include Scott Glenn (The Silence of the Lambs), Anne Wedgeworth (TV’s Evening Shade) and Brent Spiner (Data on TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation) in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role as a preacher. The film also featured beloved character actor Trey Wilson, known for his role as the coach in Bull Durham and the dad of the titular kidnapped kid in Raising Arizona. The film is dedicated to Wilson’s memory, as he died suddenly at the age of 40 in January 1989 shortly before its release.
With such a bevy of talent involved, one has to wonder why Miss Firecracker has fallen into relative obscurity. At the time, it was not much of a hit, grossing only $1.8 million during its theatrical release, finishing 156th overall in a year dominated by sequels like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2 and Back to the Future Part II, and when top grosser Batman redefined the modern blockbuster for the coming decades.
One reason may be that it was the first production for Corsair Pictures, a new company created by Oscar-nominated director Frank Perry (1962’s David and Lisa) and funded by United Artists Theatres. The company would produce only one other film, 1990’s A Shock to the System, before folding. Corsair’s relation to a prominent theatre chain likely limited the number of screens at rival chains Miss Firecracker could be appear on.
For Mississippians, Miss Firecracker remains a wonderful time capsule, particularly of downtown Yazoo City, which is featured prominently in the film’s parade sequence down Main Street. One of the film’s other big set pieces, the fair that hosts the Miss Firecracker contest, was created on a two-acre plot south of Main Street with a bridge built specifically for the film. The main family house in the film still stands at 103 Grand Avenue in Yazoo City, and the opening of the film also features Yazoo City’s own Simmons Catfish Farm.
Some other filming was done outside Yazoo City. The Humphreys County Courthouse in Belzoni appears, as does Vicksburg’s Cedar Grove Mansion and the historic St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Lexington. And Millsaps College alumni may recognize that the observatory is none other than the iconic James Observatory, the oldest building on campus built in 1901.
Miss Firecracker is currently streaming on Prime Video, Peacock, The Roku Channel, Freevee, Plex and Crackle. It is also available on DVD.
Beth Henley will discuss her work on Miss Firecracker when she appears at The Mississippi Book Festival on Sept. 14 at 9:30 a.m. for the Page to Screen panel moderated by Mississippi Film Office Director Nina Parikh. For more information, visit msbookfestival.com.
