Liking this film was just about the last thing I'd expected, as I'd only been curious to watch it because it's very seldom seen these days, and has a reputation as one of the worst Neil Simon screen adaptations, or even worst early 1970s movies, period. I had never heard a good word about it. But though inevitably the dialogue has a feel of stage shtick, the film has a little more grit than the "better," glossier Simon films of that era (like Plaza Suite, The Odd Couple, etc.), and generally manages to avoid a sitcomish feel (unlike the prior year's atrocious Star-Spangled Girl). It's hardly a great movie, or even a great comedy, but it does have pretty great performances, and with this kind of material that's 80% of the battle.
The first of the three sections (in all of which Alda's nebbishy restauranteur unsuccessfully tries to have an affair) got the most of the limited praise at the time, and it's certainly the one with the most dramatic edge, since Sally Kellerman plays it pretty straight as a jaded married woman who picks up Arkin, then is exasperated by his skittishness about actully getting down to business. Perhaps this sequence comes off as a bit more serious because it's the one part in which the woman is the sane party, reading him the riot act for his neurotic self-consciousness.
The next part is with Paula Prentiss as a would-be actress he picks up in the park, but she turns out to be entirely too crazy for a quickie. She does muscle him into smoking a joint, and his worst-case-scenario reaction to getting high the first time is very funny. Prentiss really sinks her teeth into this ditz, and Arkin is in good farcical form, as he is in the final segment (after a brief ensemble party sequence) where he's trying to finally consummate his planned infidelity with somebody--this time his neighbor Renee Taylor. But it turns out she is even more uptight with her suburban values than he is. Her running up and down the scale of guilty-in-advance theatricality gets a bit screechy near the end, but again both performers are in crackerjack form. Anyway, this is hardly a neglected classic, but it's far more enjoyable than I ever would have expected.
The first of the three sections (in all of which Alda's nebbishy restauranteur unsuccessfully tries to have an affair) got the most of the limited praise at the time, and it's certainly the one with the most dramatic edge, since Sally Kellerman plays it pretty straight as a jaded married woman who picks up Arkin, then is exasperated by his skittishness about actully getting down to business. Perhaps this sequence comes off as a bit more serious because it's the one part in which the woman is the sane party, reading him the riot act for his neurotic self-consciousness.
The next part is with Paula Prentiss as a would-be actress he picks up in the park, but she turns out to be entirely too crazy for a quickie. She does muscle him into smoking a joint, and his worst-case-scenario reaction to getting high the first time is very funny. Prentiss really sinks her teeth into this ditz, and Arkin is in good farcical form, as he is in the final segment (after a brief ensemble party sequence) where he's trying to finally consummate his planned infidelity with somebody--this time his neighbor Renee Taylor. But it turns out she is even more uptight with her suburban values than he is. Her running up and down the scale of guilty-in-advance theatricality gets a bit screechy near the end, but again both performers are in crackerjack form. Anyway, this is hardly a neglected classic, but it's far more enjoyable than I ever would have expected.