Any movie that opens with a young boy in a silver lame outfit telling a grown man (George Segal) in a bathroom that he shouldn't be smoking in there guess my attention from the start. Being from a certain age, I instantly recognized the type of arts and crafts inside the elementary school classroom he had to visit. My classrooms around the same time of this movie's release had exactly the same thing. For Segal, his career as a graphic artist in New York City and his suburban life in Connecticut has him frustrated as he tries to maintain a family life, a mistress and the frustrations of his job.
Married to Eva Marie Saint, he has two daughters who are at that bratty stage, one of them demanding that he gives her the cupcake that he has bitten into, even though there are full ones on the plate. Normally little girls like this make me cringe, but I enjoyed their antics. An elderly neighbor across the street comes to harass him about finding his garbage can in the middle of the road, then goes on to complain about everything else, turning this man into a male version of Gladys Kravitz from "Bewitched". Segal discovers a saxophone playing Asian man in his girlfriend's apartment, signaling the end of that relationship.
This is definitely a highly recommendable slice of life comedy terrific ensemble including Keenan Wynn, Sterling Hayden, David Doyle and future film executive Sherry Lansing, who is instantly recognizable asking Segal his astrological sign. But this film belongs to Segal, quite handsome at this point in his early career, and playing a very believable *every man", flawed but basically likeable. Saint is quite good too, winning a New York film critics nomination. This is one of those movies that was forgotten at the time, mainly because it came out so early in the year, but in seeing this film 50 plus years after its release, I have to add it to my list of the best films of this era, not "out there" like so many others, but extremely real and believable.
Married to Eva Marie Saint, he has two daughters who are at that bratty stage, one of them demanding that he gives her the cupcake that he has bitten into, even though there are full ones on the plate. Normally little girls like this make me cringe, but I enjoyed their antics. An elderly neighbor across the street comes to harass him about finding his garbage can in the middle of the road, then goes on to complain about everything else, turning this man into a male version of Gladys Kravitz from "Bewitched". Segal discovers a saxophone playing Asian man in his girlfriend's apartment, signaling the end of that relationship.
This is definitely a highly recommendable slice of life comedy terrific ensemble including Keenan Wynn, Sterling Hayden, David Doyle and future film executive Sherry Lansing, who is instantly recognizable asking Segal his astrological sign. But this film belongs to Segal, quite handsome at this point in his early career, and playing a very believable *every man", flawed but basically likeable. Saint is quite good too, winning a New York film critics nomination. This is one of those movies that was forgotten at the time, mainly because it came out so early in the year, but in seeing this film 50 plus years after its release, I have to add it to my list of the best films of this era, not "out there" like so many others, but extremely real and believable.