Word: wilderness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...MacArthur's wildman farce "The Front Page" by turning Hildy Johnson into a woman, and one who was trying to excise herself from the male society she had tailored herself into. She can't do it. Hecht and MacArthur's play proved that it was not indestructable when Billy Wilder made it move like a sludge barge. "His Girl Friday" is louder and faster than any other movie ever made. Cary Grant did everything right as Walter Burns; it must have been a great surprise to see him work in this sort of part after the more submissive work...
...Owner Steve Rubell, who light-show years away was a Wall Street broker, is striving for permanent chic. Most nights he stations himself at the doorway (with a few bouncers) to weed the throngs begging for entrance. "We only want fun people," he explains. "The wilder the clothes, the better the chance you have of getting in. We discourage the Bagel Nosh-polyester group...
...other overblown attempts at humor such as an accidentally flooded living room ("It's my new swimming pool!" Wilder explains, floundering among the floating chairs), shrill and tasteless jibes at homosexuality, and scenes in which the mere sight of fat people is intended to be funny. Wilder can make such devices laughable for a while, but they are worth a chuckle at most, and not the guffaws he tries (and fails) to extract from them. Repeated as often as they are, they become downright boring...
That is a shame, since Wilder and Kane handle their scenes together delicately. As the Midwestern couple encountering Hollywood for the first time, they display the proper amount of naivete and wonder. Kane is convincingly sweet and supportive and when he declares his true love for her at the end of the film, Wilder does his best acting...
...side-splitting beginning and a sentimental ending with a lot of dreck in between are not the best ingedients for the definitive Gene Wilder film. There is neither enough originality nor direction to sustain this movie. Those fans who hoped it would symbolize Wilder's break with his past will be disappointed. Had Wilder decided at the outset just how much and what kind of comedy to use, his final result might have been more consistent and much more memorable...