Tracy/Hepburn Meets Day/Hudson
"House Calls" was one of Walter Matthau's last hits as a star. The "Ukranian Cary Grant" (as he only somewhat jokingly called himself) was a few years off from simply looking too old to carry a romantic comedy...but not yet.
The producers cannily paired Matthau with middle-aged, British two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson, who had recently paired with the young-Matthau-like deadpan comedy star George Segal in the successful comedy "A Touch of Class."
Cary Grant had said of "A Touch of Class" that he would have played George Segal's part had he been younger. Grant probably could have played Walter Matthau's part in "House Calls" had he been younger, too.
But the true analogy in "House Calls" would seem to be Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn -- in their older pairings like "Adam's Rib" and "Desk Set" (if a bit before "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.")
Matthau's kinda old and frumpy (though dashing) as a successful LA surgeon trying to get over the death of his wife three months ago while fending off the sexual assaults of multiple young blonde nurses. Glenda Jackson plays the "appropriate woman" -- not as pretty as the nurses, not as young as the nurses, not as pliable in her opinions as the nurses, but clearly the middle-aged sparkplug Matthau needs to truly function in a romantic relationship again. The contrast between Matthau's honking New York accent and Jackson's airtight Veddy British diction is fun, too.
If the middle-aged Matthau and Jackson recall Tracy and Hepburn circa the fifties, the domestic hospital comedy into which they are plunked resembles Doris Day and Rock Hudson circa the sixties. Everything's bright and modern and Matthau has an amiable wise-cracking sidekick in fellow doctor Richard Benjamin (more Gig Young than Tony Randall.) Eventually, Matthau gets into a potentially sexual pickle with "another woman" and Jackson misunderstands it (like Doris Day did) into a comedy climax of chase, race, kiss-and-make-up.
"House Calls" differs from Tracy/Hepburn and Day/Hudson in one key respect: Matthau and Jackson have (off-screen) sex early and often before the final fade-out. THAT's where the seventies changed everything (and Matthau beds at least one of those blonde bimbo nurses early on, too. Also mercifully off-screen.)
"House Calls" actually pays homage to the old "Hays Code" era in a funny scene in which Matthau and Jackson test the old movie censorship requirement that each member of a romantic couple must have one foot on the floor if they are in bed together. Can sex still be had in real life under such conditions? The (clothed) attempt to find out in a variety of strained positions is gentle, funny sexual slapstick.
Art Carney is also in "House Calls" as the amiable but dangerous villain of the piece: a senior surgeon who is not allowed to operate anymore because of creeping senility -- but who still wants to be elected chief of staff of the hospital (and who may still try to operate). Carney plays the knife's edge of dangerous, funny and sad, here -- and gets a reunion with Walter Matthau. Remember: on Broadway, Art Carney was Felix Unger to Matthau as Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple" for many years before Jack Lemmon took his role in the movie.
"House Calls" is rather silly and lightweight (beyond some good one-liners) and rather Oscar over-qualified in its cast: Best Actress Winner Glenda Jackson, Best Supporting Actor Winner Walter Matthau (by this time long a star lead), Best Actor Winner Art Carney...plus Richard Benjamin, a few years after he was a star for a few years, and wonderfully pleasant and witty as Matthau's wingman. (Benjamin had been playing nasty smarms for too long and sought roles like this out to rekindle his "nice guy" credibility. It worked.)
Nothing major going on here, but perhaps the biggest selling point of "House Calls" (and likely what made it a hit) is this: dating, courtship, and hot sex can be the province of the semi-attractive middle-aged crowd with just as much fervor as with the young, gorgeous crowd. A lesson that holds today.