PERFECT GENTLEMEN

US, 1978, 91 minutes, Colour.
Lauren Bacall, Sandy Dennis, Lisa Pelikan, Ruth Gordon, Robert Alda.
Directed by Jackie Cooper.

Perfect Gentlemen is yet another crime caper comedy. Made for television by juvenile and adult actor Jackie Cooper, the film is distinguished by performances from Lauren Bacall, Sandy Dennis and Ruth Gordon. With the young Lisa Pelikan, they form a very entertaining team in disguising themselves as men to commit a robbery as an answer to the behaviour of their prisoner husbands. Light and frothy but very entertaining.

1. The popularity of the crime caper film? Serious overtones, comedy?

2. The conventions of this kind of crime comedy: the establishing of the characters, the basic situation, the situation for,. the robbery, the detailed plans, the suspense, the execution with its suspense, the achievement? The quality of this robbery comedy?

3. Colour photography, prison sequences, hotel sequences, homes? The editing and the special effects for the robbery? For suspense touches, comic touches?

4. The plausibility of the plot - for the purposes of the crime comedy? The plausibility of the characters ? the wives, their husbands in jail, domestic situations, marriages? The mother in law? Their meeting, friendship, sharing sorrows and joys? The vindictive approach to the robbery? The men and their comeuppance? Enough to make a plausible crime comedy?

5. The characters of the three women, Lauren Bacall and her type, her gangster husband, her suave sophistication, her vulnerability, sense of betrayal? Her visits to the prison? Dependence on the other women? Her masterminding of the plot, its execution and her enjoyment of it? The contrast with the Sandy Dennis style character, devotion to her husband, the awkwardness in running the delicatessen, her love for her husband, her compassion, her reasons for involving herself in the plot? The contrast with Lisa Pelikan and the vulnerable young girl, her love, the weakness of her husband? Her decision to collaborate?

6. The details in showing the bonds between the three women in their visiting, friendship and support, the humour and enterprise of the robbery?

7. The mother in law, Ruth Gordon's particular humorous and tough style? Her role as mother in law, her participation in the robbery, her quick wittedness?

8. The contrast of the men, the gangster and his lack of love for his wife, his worry about money? The delicatessen as the ordinary man? The sense of failure? The young man and his being victimised and imprisoned?

9. The build up to the robbery, the attention to detail in the planning, the feminist irony in the women disguising themselves as men, the suspense in the execution of the plot, the incidental characters, the people in the hotel, the visiting couple from out of town? Ruth Gordon and her carrying off the impersonation with aplomb?

10. Audience support of the women in the robbery ? the enjoyment of the robbery? Their getting away with it?

11. The enjoyment of the caper film, the additional value in this film of the character studies, impersonations, the emphasis on the feminist themes?