ROMANTIC COMEDY
US, 1982, 97 minutes, Colour.
Dudley Moore, Mary Steenburgen, Frances Sternhagen, Janet Eilber, Robyn Douglass, Ron Leibman.
Directed by Arthur Hiller.
Romantic Comedy is not quite! This film was adapted by author Bernard Slade from his play. Slade had much more success with his version of Same Time Next Year, less so with his version of Tribute.
However, the film directed by Arthur Hiller (director of a wide range of films from Love Story to The In-Laws?, Making Love and Teachers) is a vehicle for Dudley Moore. However, as with many of his films of the early '80s he plays a rather unsympathetic character - whom the audience seems to be meant to like. He was successful in Foul Play, 10, Arthur - less so in Wholly Moses, Six Weeks, Lovesick, Best Defence.
His leading lady is Oscar-winner Mary Steenbergen, an attractive daffy actress (Goin' South, Time After Time, Melvin and Howard, Ragtime). There is a good supporting cast with tough Frances Sternhagen as his agent, ballet dancer Janet Eilber (Whose Life Is It Anyway, Hard to Hold) as his wife and Robyn Douglass as a leading lady. Ron Leibman looks in as a journalist. Good ingredients, middling results.
1. The appeal of this kind of playwright's romance? Wit and repartee? Relationships? Success and failure story?
2. Production values - glossy colour locations, affluence? The theatre? Musical score?
3. The film as a Dudley Moore vehicle - his presence, size, affability? His unsympathetic role? His being matched by Mary Steenbergen?
4. Audience interest in the lives of playwrights, their ups and downs, personal lives, collaborations, theatrical successes? This portrait of the theatre?
5. Dudley Moore as Jason Carmichael - his Broadway success, his marriage to Alison, his extravagant lifestyle? His relationship with his agent Blanche and her looking after him? The arrival of Phoebe - with all the awkward comedy and his thinking she is the masseur etc.? Their working together, first lack of success, the string of hits? The two becoming friends? Jason exploiting Phoebe? The progress of the marriage, children, Alison and politics? The possibility of an affair between Jason and Phoebe - with Phoebe going off with Leo and marrying him? Her breaking off the partnership? Jason and the break-up of his marriage, his lack of success? His relationship with the leading lady? The final clash and fight? A new relationship - personal, professional? A future together?
6. Mary Steenbergen's style as Phoebe - her awkwardness, school teaching background, her play and Jason liking it? The arrival at the wedding and the misunderstandings? Their work together, her dedication, creativity? The ups and downs of their working partnership? Her friendship with Leo, his doing a story on them, the marriage, her going to Paris, her best-seller and success? Turning the book into a play? Jason asking her back, his fickleness, her response - and her seeming love for him?
7. Alison and her relationship with Jason, the background of family, wealth, her attention to her children, politics and the break-up of the marriage?
8. Blanche and her tough-mindedness, liking tor Jason, trying to organise his life, help with Phoebe? The buddy-friend?
9. Leo and his journalism, attraction towards Phoebe, proposal, the marriage, her success, the tensions?
10. The background of the theatre, the character of Kate Mallory and her ego, liaison with Jason? The background of affluent New York?
11. Traditional themes of comedy - how well treated?
