The Smartest Comedy that Nobody Saw

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You are so right. This is one of the smartest comedies about Hollywood and New York power brokering ever made. I read somewhere that Mike Nichols liked the movie but felt it was too "cynical" to be popular. I think the hard edge does make it tough for some people to respond to the movie as a "romantic comedy"(it has a bitter tang a little reminiscent of "Sweet Smell of Success" which was also a big flop when it first opened in the 1950s).
There is also a terrific interview with writer Jay Presson Allen in one of the Judith Crist collections in which she talks about how "perfect" the casting of King and MacGraw was, but that it was virtually impossible to get people to see a film in 1980 with only their two names above the title.
King is simply fantastic in the film. He has a couple of tantrum sequences that are classics and so true to the egomania of media titans like Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch. King is perhaps at his best in the long scene when he decides to destroy his ex-mistress (who has gotten married without his permission) and we see how much power the man wields in cutting off the MacGraw character's whole tony lifestyle. Myrna Loy is wonderful in this scene, too, as King's horrified secretary (who considers the mistress a pal).
And how sad that the one really accomplished performance that MacGraw ever gave was seen by so few people (check out fabulous work in the long renogiation scene with King at the end of the movie which is done in one take!)
Some day, this people will find its proper audience but why is it taking so long! I've almost worn out my old VHS tape. Will this ever appear on DVD?

Thank you! This is a GREAT movie, I have seen it maybe 15 times over the years and it gets better and better....Ali is great, if you watch the little details in her performance she is amazing, King is beyond great, he should have been an Oscar nominee. And Myrna Loy was great in her few scenes, and it wasn't just stunt casting!

I showed this to a friend last year and he couldn't get past how - ugly - all the characters were, but that was the point, how ugly people can be when they are rich and ruthless. Didnt you feel sorry for poor naive Peter Weller, though his was kind of the one odd performance in the movie that didnt jell for me....there were odd line readings and odd closeups and I couldnt figure out what Lumet was going for....What ever happened to the girl who was his secretary - she was impressive!

I went to this on opening day, I was a teenager! - and there was only one other person in the audience, I still remember it, but we had had a bad snowstorm a day or two before and the roads were not great.

Later it played at a second run house in my town, and I went again on a Saturday night and it was in the big theater and it was packed! But it was only 1.50 to get in, and it was a cold and still snowy Saturday night, I guess people were desperate to get out and see anything - the film was a total flop otherwise. I dont think it played at the discount house more than 2 weeks there, if that. The audience roared during the scene at the department store, it was very nice to see that scene fully appreciated. I still remember it like it was yesterday...I wish Sidney Lumet or King or Ali could have seen it with that audience to know that their great work was well received at least for one showing!!!! Ali if you read this it was a great night!!!!!!!!!

I like this film a lot, and think the performances are excellent. (As the above poster noted, however, the Peter Weller character is somewhat misty.)

You can see why it wasn't a hit, though...the storyline is sophisticated to the point of being jaded, and doesn't resonate with your average person.

But it's a very well made film.

(Not to be mean, but the customer reviews at amazon.com are often written by a more literary crowd, and if anyone wants to see further discussion of this film, they might want to look up the title over there.)

Just watched this movie, unfortunately on a barely working dvd-r from Warner's archive collection. But yes I found it to be unique, smart, and quite frankly wonderful. I will watch it again one day.

Definitely surprised there are less then 400 IMDB votes. That's really nothing for a film released in the 80's.

Cool.