Goodbye, Columbus (1969) - Young stars glimmer in Peerce's good Roth adaptation

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'Every father's daughter is a virgin' the diminutive tagline reads on the sensual image of  Ali McGraw with a rose on the cusp of blooming on this poster for Larry Peerce's Goodbye, Columbus

A young military veteran, who works at the local library and carries on his life with a comfortably loose hand, falls in love with the beautiful Brenda, who comes from a well-to-do Jewish family...

 

Goodbye, Columbus is written by Arnold Schulman (A Hole in the Head (1959)), adapting Philip Roth's (Everyman (2006)) same-titled 1959 novella, and directed by Larry Peerce (One Potato, Two Potato (1964)).

It is a zeitgeist type youth romance-drama with lots of skin; from the early pool scene to the later love scenes, some are natural and sexy, too. It today offers an interesting snapshot of its times, but it also has good performances from Richard Benjamin (Scavenger Hunt (1979)) and Ali McGraw (Players (1979)), as well as a refined sensibility, which may come from Roth's basis work.

SPOILER In the end the relationship, which is especially trialed by her bourgeois family, breaks - because she has forgotten her diaphragm! An authentic and painful fight becomes their end.

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 1.5 mil. $

Box office: 22.9 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Mega-hit (returned 15.26 times its cost in North America alone)

[Goodbye, Columbus was released 3 April (USA) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in July 1968 - ? in New York and Massachusetts. The film's 10.5 mil. $ in rentals made it the #10 top-grossing title in North America of the year; the gross is reported at 22.9 mil. $ and foreign grosses are unreported online, regrettably. The film was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, lost to Waldo Salt for Midnight Cowboy. It won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations and was nominated for 3 BAFTAs among other honors. Peerce returned with The Sporting Club (1971). Benjamin returned in Catch-22 (1970); McGraw in Love Story (1970). Goodbye, Columbus is fresh at 92 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Goodbye, Columbus?

Marci X (2003) - Benjamin slips with awfully scripted class comedy

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+ Career-Killer of the Year: Richard Benjamin 

 

The star duo attempt to lock your interest down on this poster for Richard Benjamin's Marci X

 

A white, Jewish socialite's father incurs serious health problems, as a hiphop act causes a crisis for his record company, so said daughter Marci rolls in to handle the situation.

 

Marci X si written by Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey (1995)) and directed by Richard Benjamin (My Favorite Year (1982)).

Opposites meet in this hard-to-categorize film, which angered many somewhat overly serious critics back in the day, probably because it dares to both lampoon overclass whites and black working class culture (namely hiphop). It does so in a childish manner, which feels as if the script must have been written in 1990.

Lisa Kudrow (The Other Woman (2009)) is fun nonetheless, and the same goes for Jane Krakowski (Open Season (2006)) and Christine Baranski (Happy Family (2003-04)) in particular here as a right-wing virago judge. Damon Wayans (Goosed (1999)) is less fun, but he is embarrassing from time to time in Marci X.

The film in general is a bit embarrassing; the plot is completely grotesque, its structure totally checked out. What on earth were they thinking, one wonders often during Marci X, and where does this idea come from? It fully ignores good taste and common practice, doing so with an at time Mel Brooksian comedic enthusiasm. Marci X is a pretty funny really bad movie.

 

Related posts:

 

Richard Benjamin: 2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair

 

Watch a short clip from the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $

Box office: 1.6 mil. $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.08 times its cost)

[Marci X was released 22 August (USA) and runs 84 minutes. Shooting took place in New York. The film opened #17 to a 872k $ first weekend in 1,200 theaters in North America, where it only decreased from there, grossing 98.4 % of the film's listed gross at Box Office Mojo, with the remainder coming from 26k $ made in South Africa. Benjamin has directed two TV movies since, but never again a theatrical feature. Kudrow returned in Wonderland (2003); Wayans in Luther Vandross: Dance with My Father (2003, music video), My Wife and Kids (2001-05) and theatrically in Behind the Smile (2006). Marci X is rotten at 8 % with a 3.48/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Marci X? 

City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair

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A nostalgia/buddy poster that seems to actively want to invoke George Roy Hill's super-successful The Sting (1973), for Richard Benjamin's City Heat

QUICK REVIEW:

Some murders, corruption, torture, prostitutes and fistfights in Kansas City of the 1930's.

- So superficially and indifferently can the plot of City Heat accurately be summed up. Although its teaming up of Clint Eastwood (In the Line of Fire (1993)) and Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights (1997)) theoretically could have proven a big pleasure, - in a loony car-movie, for instance, - here they are far from it. In fact this may be Eastwood's poorest film as an actor.
City Heat is a forced noir-ish gangster burb, which is unpleasant and coarse to boot. The designs and costumes look like a costume party. The film is truly a dud.
It was originally written by Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)), who was fired as director of the film, and it was rewritten by Richard Benjamin (Made in America (1993)) under the pseudonym Sam O. Brown, who became the director, while Edwards renounced the finished film.
Eastwood got 4 mil. $ for doing City Heat, while Reynolds' jaw broke in an accident on the first day, causing him to be restricted to a liquid diet that made him lose 30 pounds during the production. He was conclusively suspected of having AIDS in the tabloids, and also developed an addiction to analgesics [painkillers]. - Bummer!

Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds even look sour and lost on this German poster for Richard Benjamin's City Heat

Watch the loud, inane trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 38.3 mil. $ (US only)
= Flop, though some uncertainty
[City Heat was poorly received upon release, although audiences in America seemed to flock to see it nonetheless. Since foreign box office results are unknown, the flop status is somewhat uncertain.]

What do you think of City Heat?
Is this Clint Eastwood's worst film?
And Burt Reynolds' worst film?