Bagdad Cafe

This West German film is set in the California Desert. A husband-and-wife pair of Bavarian tourists become stranded when their car breaks down; after a quarrel, the wife, Marianne Sagebrecht , gathers her luggage and stalks off. She stops at the Bagdad Cafe, a fleapit truckstop run by outspoken C.C.H. Pounder , who is also having husband problems. The Cafe has become a magnet for some of truly odd: temperamental Hispanic cook George Aguilar , tattoo artist Christine Kaufmann , and onetime Hollywood set designer Jack Palance . Despite obvious personality differences, Sagebrecht and Pounder become friends. Bagdad Cafe was later adapted into a short-lived American sitcom starring Jean Stapleton and Whoopi Goldberg . — Hal Erickson