Word: shavelson
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Directed by MELVILLE SHAVELSON...
Screenplay by MELVILLE SHAVELSON and MORT LACHMAN...
This movie begins with a sure sign oi trouble to follow: a montage of stills showing cute kids, each representing an ethnic minority, all of them pretty and smiling and irritatingly adorable. Having established this trough at the very outset, Writer-Director Melville Shavelson is free to proceed downward...
...Shavelson, whose credits include The Pigeon That Took Rome and The War Between Men and Women, shows himself a master of a formula that used to be standard fare on TV sitcoms: the emasculated American male who blusters and protests while remaining the tool of his pert, soft-spoken but granite-willed wife. Here he is played by Joseph Bologna, she by the adept but woefully misused Barbara Harris. Hubby coaches a hapless professional basketball team, the Phoenix Suns. He makes a good enough living, however. His suburban home is roomy, wellappointed, and chock-full of kids-three when...
Having reduced Thurber to a my opic misanthrope and the plot to a sentimental muddle, Director Shavelson gets better acting than he deserves. The cast makes a brave fight of it, and there is an especially fine and funny cameo by Herb Edelman, who plays Wilson's agent. While Wilson and wife war with each other over the impending operation, the agent sits with them at a restaurant table, blubbering and sobbing "the courage, the devotion," oblivious to the fact that the marriage is crumbling around...