At Long Last Love | |
---|---|
Directed by | Peter Bogdanovich |
Written by | Peter Bogdanovich |
Produced by | Peter Bogdanovich Frank Marshall |
Starring | Burt Reynolds Cybill Shepherd Madeline Kahn Duilio Del Prete Eileen Brennan John Hillerman Mildred Natwick |
Cinematography | Laszlo Kovacs |
Edited by | Douglas Robertson |
Music by | Cole Porter |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 123 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $5.14 million [2] |
Box office | $2.5 million [3] [4] |
At Long Last Love is a 1975 American jukebox musical comedy film written, produced, and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and featuring 18 songs with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It stars Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, and Duilio Del Prete as two couples who each switch partners during a party and attempt to make each other jealous. Bogdanovich was inspired to make a musical with Porter's songs after Shepherd gave him a book of them. All of the musical sequences were performed live by the cast, for At Long Last Love was meant by Bogdanovich to be a tribute to 1930s musical films like One Hour with You , The Love Parade , The Merry Widow and The Smiling Lieutenant in which the songs were shot in that way.
20th Century Fox rushed the film's release, only allowing for two test screenings before the final version premiered at Radio City Music Hall. Despite a few positive published opinions from critics like Roger Ebert, At Long Last Love faced mostly horrendous initial reviews that mainly targeted the lead actors' performances of the musical numbers. It was originally considered one of the worst films of all time, and received very low box office returns, only making less than half of its $5.14 million budget. The critical reception was so negative that Bogdanovich printed newspaper ads apologizing for the film.
Apart from a 1981 videocassette release, At Long Last Love did not have an official home media release for many years; until the early 2010s the only available versions of the film were through bootleg TV and VHS recordings, and 16mm prints. Bogdanovich's 121-minute 1979 default version of the film was issued to Netflix in 2012, and the "Definitive Director's Version", which is 90 seconds longer, was released on Blu-ray in 2013.
This film's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(March 2024) |
New York, 1935. Broadway star Kitty O'Kelly is dumped by her boyfriend after drinking heavily ("Down in the Depths"). Italian gambler Johnny Spanish wins a poker game and returns to his shabby downtown apartment ("Tomorrow"). Spoiled heiress Brooke Carter returns to her hotel suite after a night out, only to be given an official notice by her maid Elizabeth, saying that they will be evicted unless she settles the bill ("Which?"). Playboy millionaire Michael Oliver Pritchard III drives home with his chauffeur and valet Rodney James after being bored with partying all night long ("Poor Young Millionaire"). The hungover Kitty runs out and hails Michael's limousine, mistaking it for a taxi. Rodney manages to avoid her, but he still causes a minor accident. Michael and Kitty start chatting and take an instant liking to each other.
Brooke and Elizabeth go to the race track in order to raise money for the hotel bill. They meet Johnny, whom Brooke dislikes. Brooke bets her last $300 on the same race as Johnny. Johnny's horse wins while Brooke's comes dead last. After the race, Johnny offers Brooke and Elizabeth a ride. Elizabeth declines, but nudges Brooke to accept. Kitty and Michael, increasingly smitten, drink champagne at his apartment, while Brooke and Johnny go for a car ride. Brooke finds herself warming to Johnny and confesses that she has not heard from her mother, who sends her money, in three months. Johnny offers to settle her hotel bill, which Brooke gladly accepts ("You're the Top").
Michael and Rodney attend Kitty's musical and wind up sitting next to Brooke and Johnny. As the show begins, Brooke recognizes Kitty as her former schoolmate Kathy Krumm ("Find Me a Primitive Man"). Afterwards, Michael, Brooke, and Johnny visit Kitty backstage and the two girls reunite. The four go to the nightclub and Michael invites them to his country house for the weekend. On the way, they pick up Elizabeth who finds herself attracted to Rodney, much to his annoyance. Then they stop at Johnny's place and Brooke is disappointed to find he's living in a poor apartment building. Kitty and Michael manage to bring them back to a good mood ("Friendship").
The next morning, Rodney and Elizabeth fix breakfast for their employers while recovering from a drinking binge. She tries to seduce him, to no avail ("But in the Morning, No"). Johnny apologizes to Brooke for lying and promises he'll make a fortune soon. When she remains mad at him, he goes for a walk around the grounds. He runs into Kitty and flirts with her. Michael squirts shaving alcohol in his eye and accidentally bursts into Brooke's bedroom ("At Long Last Love").
Later, Michael's mother Mabel comes to visit and invites the foursome to a dance party at the Racquet Club; they reluctantly accept the invitation. Brooke and Michael sneak out to the back yard, but they are noticed by Kitty and Johnny who quietly leave the party ("Well, Did You Evah!"). Mabel interrupts Brooke and Michael to tell them that Kitty and Johnny returned to the city.
While sharing a taxi with Kitty, Johnny decides to make Brooke and Michael jealous by following them around and posing as a couple in front of them. She agrees to do it, but eventually they spend a night at her place ("From Alpha to Omega"). Brooke and Michael return to his country house and she openly tries to seduce him, which she succeeds ("Let's Misbehave"/"It's De-Lovely"). Elizabeth does the same with Rodney by barging into his bedroom and forcing herself on him ("But in the Morning, No").
Kitty and Johnny make out in front of Brooke and Michael at a baseball game and a boxing match. Michael is struck by their relationship, though Brooke is unperturbed. Finally, at a movie theatre, Michael fights with Johnny in the men's room. They make up immediately afterward. Consequently, Michael breaks up with Brooke, and Johnny breaks up with Kitty ("Just One of Those Things").
Brooke stays in her suite and does not return Johnny's calls, who in the meantime has won $500,000 in a card game. Kitty avoids Michael, who buys a horse called Kathy-O. Brooke reads about the purchase in the paper and mourns her lost relationship ("I Get a Kick out of You"). Brooke's mother sends a telegram informing Brooke that she has deposited $1,000,000 in her account. Elizabeth persuades Brooke to go shopping. Kitty and Brooke accidentally meet in the powder room of the Lord & Taylor store and tearfully forgive each other. Along with Elizabeth, they state their disenchantment with men ("Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love"). Kitty and Brooke make plans to go dancing in the evening before leaving for a walk. Elizabeth phones Rodney and hatches a plan with him.
Walking in the park, Kitty complains of her unrequited love for Johnny, and Brooke of hers for Michael ("I Loved Him, But He Didn't Love Me"). Rodney, Michael, and Johnny arrive at the club. Rodney dances with Elizabeth, finally reciprocating her affection. Michael and Johnny take to the dance floor and attempt to rekindle their relationships with Kitty and Brooke, respectively. The two couples make up on the dance floor ("A Picture of Me Without You"). The bandleader asks the dancers to change partners and they do. Dancing with Kitty, Johnny observes that Brooke has never been more lovely. Michael, dancing with Brooke, remarks that Kitty has never been more beautiful.
At Long Last Love was Bogdanovich's first musical film, [5] as well as the first motion picture he wrote by himself. [6] He got the idea to do a musical film of Cole Porter songs when his then-girlfriend Cybill Shepherd gave him a book of songs by the composer. "His lyrics conveyed a frivolous era," said the director. "With a kind of sadness, but very subtle... Cole Porter lyrics are less sentimental than, say, Gershwin and more abrasive... Gershwin was the greater musician. But Cole was a better lyricist and I was more interested in lyrics than music." [5] When he heard the lyrics for "I Loved Him", with its reversal of emotion and wry lyric, he decided to use that as the finale and "worked back from there". [5] The film was originally called Quadrille and was equally weighted between the four lead characters. [7]
In September 1973, Bogadanovich announced the cast would be Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, Ryan O'Neal, and the director himself. [8] Shepherd had recorded an album of Cole Porter songs paid for by Paramount called Cybill Does It... to Cole Porter. [9] By March 1974, Bogdanovich had decided to not act, and replaced himself with Elliott Gould, who had experience in musical theatre. [10] Gould and O'Neal dropped out. By March 1974, Burt Reynolds had replaced Gould. Bogdanovich says he was "talked into" using Burt Reynolds, who wanted to try a musical. [11] "The whole joke is that he's kind of a nice fellow, good looking, not particularly good at dancing. He can't dally with the girl. He's rather ineffectual." [5] He gave the other male lead to Duilio Del Prete who had just been in Bogdanovich's Daisy Miller and who the director thought was going to be a big star. [12] In March 1974, Fox agreed to finance the film. [13]
Filming started in August 1974. Resisting the urge to shoot another film in black and white, Bogdanovich had it art-directed as "Black and White in Color". He wanted the characters to feel like they were having a conversation using "greeting cards in the form of songs" like "they didn't know what to say to each other." [11] The movies of Ernst Lubitsch with Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier such as One Hour With You , The Love Parade , The Merry Widow and The Smiling Lieutenant influenced Bogdanovich to have all of the song sequences be filmed live, as it would recreate the "kind of sad, funny, melancholy, silly," and "spontaneous" vibe of the films. [11] However, all of the lead actors, especially Reynolds "weren't accomplished singers or dancers," resulting in a lot of delays and mess-ups during the shooting process. [11]
In addition, the cast had a tough time performing the sequences due to having to perform them in one take and deal with wonky receiver systems in order to listen to the instrumentals. [14] Bogdanovich later said he "was very arrogant" during the making of the film, "but that arrogance was bought out of a frantic insecurity. I knew it was so possible I was wrong that I became tough about insisting that I was right." [15]
The studio rushed the film into release, with only two previews in San Jose, California (which Bogadanovich recalled being "a total disaster") and Denver, Colorado. [16] Bogdanovich made more changes to the film to have it be more focused on Reynolds' character due to pressure from the studio, and the final version was never previewed. [17] [16] Following a premiere at 20th Century-Fox Studios in Los Angeles on March 1, 1975, [18] the film opened March 6 at Radio City Music Hall [19] to scathing reviews and poor box office returns. The chorus of critical attacks prompted Bogdanovich to have an open letter of apology printed in newspapers throughout the U.S. Bogdanovich later said once the film was released "I realized how I should have cut it after that and I immediately did cut it, they let me recut and I think I paid for that, and that version was then shown on television and that's the version that all release prints have been ever since. That was quite different from the opening version. Very different, but unfortunately it was too late." [16] The director has stated many people who first saw it in this version did not react so badly to the film. [20]
Jay Cocks in Time led the condemnation, stating; "this Cole Porter coloring book, mounted with great expense and no taste, is one of those grand catastrophes that make audiences either hoot in derisive surprise or look away in embarrassment", adding; "when dancing, the stars look as if they're extinguishing a camp fire." [21] Pauline Kael in The New Yorker called it a "stillborn musical comedy-a relentlessly vapid pastiche". [22] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "Peter Bogdanovich's audacious attempt to make a stylish, nineteen-thirties Hollywood musical comedy with a superb score by Cole Porter but with performers who don't dance much and whose singing abilities might be best hidden in a very large choir." [19] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "the year's most frustrating failure." [23]
John Simon wrote in Esquire that the film, "may be the worst movie musical of this or any decade: Sitting through this movie is like having someone at a fancy Parisian restaurant, who neither speaks nor reads French, read out stentoriously the entire long menu in his best Arkansas accent, and occasionally interrupt himself to chortle at his own cleverness"; [24] and he particularly criticized Cybill Shepherd, stating, "Cybill Shepherd, Mr B's inamorata, plays a poor little snotty rich girl with a notion of sophistication that is underpassed only by her acting ability. (I will not even sully my pen by making it describe her singing and dancing.) If it weren't for an asinine superciliousness radiating from her, Miss Shepherd would actually be pitiable, rather like a kid from an orphanage trying to play Noel Coward." Frank Rich also condemned the film and Shepherd specifically in The New Times, calling the film "the most perverse movie musical ever made...a colossal, overextravagant in-joke...Every time his stars open their mouths or shake their legs, they trample on Cole Porter’s grave...As for Shepherd’s dancing, the best to be said is that it may not be recognizable as such: when this horsey ex-model starts prancing around, she tends to look as if she’s fighting off a chronic case of trots. [25]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote, "The musical numbers are a mess. Nobody knows how to dance; nobody knows how to sing. Shepherd tries to hit the high notes and ends up sounding like a choir girl with a changing voice; Reynolds maintains good cheer, but too often slides into a Dean Martin accent that has nothing to do with the '30s." [26] Bruce Williamson attacked the film in a review for Playboy and stated "Duilio Del Prete, an Italian discovery with no voice, sings as if he came to paint the mansion and stayed on to regale the company with wobbly impersonations of Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier." [27] John Barbour wrote in Los Angeles: "If this Peter Bogdanovich fiasco were any more of a dog, it would shed", and, "Burt Reynolds sings like Dean Martin with adenoids and dances like a drunk killing cockroaches". [27] TV Guide remarked: "One of the worst bombs of the 1970s, this foolish attempt at re-creating the lush musicals of the 1930s offers fabulous art deco sets, memorable Cole Porter songs, and slick production values, yet it goes down like a stricken elephant." [28]
Burt Reynolds later said the film was:
Not as bad as it was reviewed. What was reviewed was Cybill and Peter's relationship. You see, Peter Bogdanovich has done something that all critics will never forgive him for doing. That is, stop being a critic, go make a film and have that film be enormously successful. What he did then was to go on talk shows, and be rather arrogant and talk about how bad critics are. That was the final straw. So they were waiting with their knives and whatever. And along came Peter who finally gave them something they could kill him with. Unfortunately there I was, between Cybill's broad shoulders and Peter's ego. And I got killed along with the rest of them. [29]
"I came out of it with better reviews than anyone else," added Reynolds. "But that's like staying afloat longer than anybody else when the Titanic sunk. I still drowned." [30]
Despite the negative reviews, Roger Ebert gave the film a mildly positive review, awarding 2.5 stars out of 4: "It's impossible not to feel affection for At Long Last Love Peter Bogdanovich's much-maligned evocation of the classical 1930s musical. It's a light, silly, impeccably stylish entertainment...The movie's no masterpiece, but I can't account for the viciousness of some of the critical attacks against it. It's almost as if Bogdanovich is being accused of the sin of pride for daring to make a musical in the classical Hollywood style...Bogdanovich has too much taste, too sure a feel for the right tone, to go seriously wrong. And if he doesn't go spectacularly right, at least he provides small pleasures and great music." [31]
Filmink magazine wrote the film "has to be seen to be believed. Not a complete success as a film but glorious in its ambition. Once you get into the groove, it’s actually a lot of fun and Cybill is great. People were unnecessarily mean to it, but they’d been waiting with baseball bats for Bogdanovich for a long time. He tried again to make a star of Duilio Del Prete here – didn’t happen." [32]
At Long Last Love was listed in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time , was cited in The Golden Turkey Awards (winning the award for "The Worst Musical Extravaganza of All Time"), and was listed as a major financial disaster in The Hollywood Hall of Shame , all written by Harry and Michael Medved. [33]
At Long Last Love currently holds a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews. [34]
Some modern directors praised the film. Rian Johnson put At Long Last Love among his ten favorite musical films of the 1970s. [35] He described the film: "I'm here to tell you, they were all wrong. This movie is a delight. My wife and I love everything about it, we even have this poster up in our kitchen. Pop some dom, put on some white gloves and enjoy." [36] Johnson's wife, film historian Karina Longworth, reiterated this on her podcast You Must Remember This, calling At Long Last Love one of her favorite films and revealing the couple has a print of the movie poster hung in their kitchen. [37]
At Long Last Love was released on videocassette by Magnetic Video in 1981. [38] In addition, there were different versions (each with different scenes and numbers added and missing) floating around among fans and collectors, from 16mm prints and various TV broadcasts.
The director dismissed the film as a painful memory until around 2011 when he was told it was streaming on Netflix and people were liking it. For the first time in many years, he watched it himself, and for the first time in years, he liked what he saw. But it was not his cut. It was discovered that a longtime studio editor named Jim Blakely had secretly assembled another edit (running approximately 121 minutes), which more closely resembled Bogdanovich's shooting script and first preview cut. He quietly substituted it as the default version as early as 1979, and that was the version made available on streaming. [39] Bogdanovich has gratefully acknowledged Blakely, who died before anyone learned what he had done. [40]
After finding out how it happened, Bogdanovich called Fox to say he liked that version. He made some refinements, including 90 seconds of restored footage, bringing the final running time to 123 minutes. The studio released it as the "Definitive Director's Version" on Blu-ray Disc in June 2013, resulting in more positive reviews than the theatrical version received.
Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her film debut and breakthrough role came as Jacy Farrow in Peter Bogdanovich's coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show (1971) alongside Jeff Bridges. She also had roles as Kelly in Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Betsy in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), and Nancy in Woody Allen's Alice (1990).
Peter Bogdanovich was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started his career as a film critic for Film Culture and Esquire before becoming a prominent filmmaker as part of the New Hollywood movement. He received accolades including a BAFTA Award and Grammy Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
The Last Picture Show is a 1971 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and co-written by Bogdanovich and Larry McMurtry, adapted from the 1966 semi-autobiographical novel by McMurtry. The film's ensemble cast includes Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd. Set in a small town in northern Texas from November 1951 to October 1952, it is a story of two high school seniors and long-time friends, Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Bridges).
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was an American actor, most famous during the 1970s and 1980s. Reynolds first became known well as a result of featuring in television series, such as Gunsmoke (1962–1965), Hawk (1966), and Dan August (1970–1971). He had leading roles in movies, such as Navajo Joe (1966) and 100 Rifles (1969), and his breakthrough role was as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance (1972).
Madeline Gail Kahn was an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is known for comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including What's Up, Doc? (1972), Young Frankenstein (1974), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), and her Academy Award–nominated roles in Paper Moon (1973) and Blazing Saddles (1974).
Moonlighting is an American comedy drama television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 67 episodes. Starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis as private detectives, Allyce Beasley as their quirky receptionist, and Curtis Armstrong as a temp worker, the show was a mixture of drama, comedy, mystery, and romance, and was considered to be one of the first successful and influential examples of comedy drama, or "dramedy", emerging as a distinct television genre. The show's theme song was co-written and performed by jazz singer Al Jarreau and became a hit. The show is also credited with making Willis a star and relaunching Shepherd's career after a string of lackluster projects. In 1997, the episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" was ranked number 34 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2007, the series was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time". The relationship between the characters David and Maddie was included in TV Guide's list of the best TV couples of all time.
Timothy James Bottoms is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for playing the lead in Johnny Got His Gun (1971); Sonny Crawford in The Last Picture Show (1971), where he and his fellow co-stars, Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges, rose to fame; and as James Hart, the first-year law student who battles with Prof. Kingsfield, in the film adaptation The Paper Chase (1973). He is also known for playing the main antagonist in the disaster film Rollercoaster (1977) and for playing President George W. Bush multiple times, including on the sitcom That's My Bush!, the comedy film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course and the docudrama DC 9/11: Time of Crisis.
Fifty Million Frenchmen is a musical comedy with a book by Herbert Fields and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It opened on Broadway in 1929 and was adapted for a film two years later. The title is a reference to the hit 1927 song "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong" by Willie Raskin, Billy Rose, and Fred Fisher, which compared free attitudes in 1920s Paris with censorship and prohibition in the United States. The musical's plot is consistent with the standard boy-meets-girl plots of musical comedies of the first half of the twentieth century.
Eileen Brennan was an American actress. She made her film debut in the satire Divorce American Style (1967), followed by a supporting role in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971), which earned her a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Rita Moreno and Cyd Charisse in supporting roles. It offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, with the three stars portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to "talkies".
Nickelodeon is a 1976 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and stars Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds and Tatum O'Neal. According to Bogdanovich, the film was based on true stories told to him by silent film directors Allan Dwan and Raoul Walsh. It was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival.
Texasville is a 1990 American drama film written and directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Based on the 1987 novel Texasville by Larry McMurtry, it is a sequel to The Last Picture Show (1971), and features Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Timothy Bottoms, Randy Quaid, and Eileen Brennan reprising their roles from the original film.
"Let's Misbehave" is a song written by Cole Porter in 1927, originally intended for the female lead of his first major musical production, Paris. It was discarded before the Broadway opening in favor of "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love". However, the star of the Broadway production, Irene Bordoni, performed it for a phonograph recording which was labelled as being from the production of Paris.
"Just One of Those Things" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for the 1935 musical Jubilee.
Mary Marr "Polly" Platt was an American film producer, production designer and screenwriter. She was the first woman accepted into the Art Directors Guild, in 1971. In addition to her credited work, she was known as a mentor as well as an uncredited collaborator and networker. In the case of the latter, she is credited with contributing to the success of ex-husband and director Peter Bogdanovich's early films; mentoring then first-time director and writer Cameron Crowe, and discovering actors including Cybill Shepherd, Tatum O'Neal, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, and director Wes Anderson. Platt also suggested that director James L. Brooks meet artist and illustrator Matt Groening, which eventually resulted in the satiric animated television series The Simpsons.
Daisy Miller is a 1974 American drama film produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring Cybill Shepherd in the title role. The screenplay by Frederic Raphael is based on the 1878 novella by Henry James. The lavish period costumes and sets were done by Ferdinando Scarfiotti, Mariolina Bono and John Furniss.
She's Funny That Way is a 2014 screwball comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and co-written with Louise Stratten. It stars Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Kathryn Hahn, Will Forte, Rhys Ifans, and Jennifer Aniston. It marked the first feature film Bogdanovich directed in 13 years since The Cat's Meow. In addition, the film marked Bogdanovich's final non-documentary feature he directed and Richard Lewis' final theatrical film before their deaths in 2022 and 2024 respectively.
Saint Jack is a 1979 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and based on the 1973 novel Saint Jack. Ben Gazzara stars as Flowers in the film. The film also features Denholm Elliott and Lisa Lu.
The Great Buster: A Celebration is a 2018 American documentary film written and directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film chronicles the life and career of iconic silent film star and comedian Buster Keaton. The film is narrated by Bogdanovich and features interviews with many industry figures such as Dick Van Dyke, Johnny Knoxville, Paul Dooley, French Stewart, Richard Lewis, Carl Reiner, Bill Hader, Mel Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Werner Herzog, Nick Kroll, Quentin Tarantino, Leonard Maltin, Ben Mankiewicz, Bill Irwin, and Norman Lloyd. The film marked Bogdanovich's final directorial effort and Richard Lewis' final film before their deaths in 2022 and 24 respectively.
"Friendship" is a song written by Cole Porter from his 1939 musical DuBarry Was a Lady where it was introduced by Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr. The song was once again performed in the 1943 film version starring Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly and Tommy Dorsey.