Goodbye, Columbus | |
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Directed by | Larry Peerce |
Screenplay by | Arnold Schulman |
Based on | Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth |
Produced by | Stanley R. Jaffe |
Starring | Richard Benjamin Ali MacGraw Jack Klugman Nan Martin |
Cinematography | Enrique Bravo Gerald Hirschfeld |
Edited by | Ralph Rosenblum |
Music by | Charles Fox |
Production company | Willow Tree |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.5 million [1] |
Box office | $22,939,805 [2] |
Goodbye, Columbus is a 1969 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw, directed by Larry Peerce and based on the 1959 novella of the same name by Philip Roth. The screenplay, by Arnold Schulman, won the Writers Guild of America Award. [3]
The story's title alludes to a phonograph record played by the brother of MacGraw's character, nostalgically recalling his athletic career at Ohio State in Columbus. The film was essentially MacGraw's film debut, as she had previously had only a "bit part" in the previous year's A Lovely Way to Die .
Neil Klugman is an intelligent, working-class army veteran and a graduate of Rutgers University who works as a library clerk. He falls for Brenda Patimkin, a wealthy Radcliffe student who is home for the summer. They meet by the swimming pool at Old Oaks Country Club in Purchase, New York, a private club that Neil visits as a guest of his cousin Doris. Neil phones Brenda and asks her on a date. She does not remember him, but agrees. He waits as she finishes a tennis match that ends only when it gets too dark to play.
They face obstacles from Brenda's family (particularly her mother), due to differences in class and assimilation into the American mainstream. Brenda's family are nouveau riche , their money having come from the successful plumbing supply business owned and run by her father. Brenda herself is old enough to remember "being poor". Other conflicts include propriety and issues related to premarital sex and the possibility of pregnancy, and Mrs. Patimkin's envy of her daughter's youth.
After a few dates, Brenda persuades her father to allow Neil to stay with them for two weeks, angering her mother, who feels that she should have been asked instead. While Neil enjoys being able to sneak into Brenda's room at night, he has misgivings over her entitled outlook, echoed by her spoiled and petulant younger sister, and her naïve brother Ron, who misses the hero worship he enjoyed as a star basketball player at Ohio State University. Neil is astonished when Brenda reveals that she does not take birth control pills or use any other precautions to avoid pregnancy, angrily waving off Neil's concerns. He prepares to leave, but she decides to persuade him to stay by agreeing to get a diaphragm.
At the end of his stay, Neil attends Ron's wedding to Harriet, his college sweetheart from Ohio. Brenda returns to Radcliffe in the fall, keeping in touch by telephone. She invites Neil to come up to spend a weekend at a Boston hotel. However, once they're in the hotel room, Brenda tells Neil she just received letters telling her that her mother found her diaphragm and that her parents know about their affair. They argue, with Neil asking why she left it to be found unless she wanted it discovered. Siding with her parents, Brenda ends the affair as abruptly as she allowed it to commence. Neil walks out of the hotel, leaving her crying in the room.
The film was shot in Westchester County, New York, The Bronx in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The interior library scenes were filmed in Gould Memorial Library on the campus of Bronx Community College and the exterior library scenes were filmed at Yonkers Public Library in Westchester County (which was controversially demolished in 1982). The film was shot on location on the campus of Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The film earned an estimated $10.5 million in ticket sales at the North American box office, making it one of the most popular movies of the year. [4]
Variety magazine lauded the film upon its release, writing, "This adaptation of Philip Roth's National Book Award-winning novella is sometimes a joy in striking a boisterous mood, and otherwise handling the action. Castwise the feature excels. Richard Benjamin as the boy, a librarian after serving in the army, and Ali MacGraw, making her screen bow as the daughter of wealthy and socially-conscious parents, offer fresh portrayals seasoned with rich humor. Their romance develops swiftly after their meeting at a country-club pool." [5]
The New York Times ' film critic, Vincent Canby, liked the film but was annoyed that it strayed from Roth's work. Canby wrote:
Thus, at its center, Goodbye, Columbus is sharp and honest. However, the further they are removed from the main situation, the more the subsidiary characters, lightly sketched in the novella, become overstuffed, blintz-shaped caricatures. Jack Klugman and Nan Martin, as Brenda's parents, are very nice, but Michael Meyers, as her huge, empty-headed brother ('so exceedingly polite,' Mr. Roth observed in the novella, 'that it seemed to be some affliction of those over six foot three') borders on a cartoon figure. Also, I somehow resent the really vulgar manners that Mr. Peerce allows his middle-class Jews—especially at an elaborate wedding reception—not because of any particular bias, but because it is gross moviemaking. These reservations, however, become academic. Goodbye, Columbus is so rich with understanding in more important ways that it is a thing of real and unusual pleasure. [6]
Critic Dennis Schwartz praised the film as well, writing, "Philip Roth's prize-winning novella, a scathing satire of a nouveau riche Jewish family, has been brilliantly adapted for the screen by Arnold Schulman (received an Academy nomination) and directed by Larry Peerce (son of the great operatic tenor Jan Peerce). Somehow it slipped under the radar and as far as I'm concerned is both funnier and more perceptive than even The Graduate , an earlier drama about young adults." [7]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
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Academy Awards [8] | Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium | Arnold Schulman | Nominated |
British Academy Film Awards [9] | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Jack Klugman | Nominated |
Best Screenplay | Arnold Schulman | Nominated | |
Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles | Ali MacGraw | Nominated | |
Directors Guild of America Awards [10] | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | Larry Peerce | Nominated |
Golden Globe Awards [11] | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Won | |
Best Original Song – Motion Picture | "Goodbye, Columbus" – Charles Fox and Jim Yester | Nominated | |
Most Promising Newcomer – Female | Ali MacGraw | Won | |
Laurel Awards | Top Comedy | Won | |
Top Male Dramatic Performance | Richard Benjamin | 5th Place | |
Top Male New Face | 4th Place | ||
Top Female New Face | Ali MacGraw | Won | |
Writers Guild of America Awards [12] | Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium | Arnold Schulman | Won |
A vinyl LP record of the film's score was released in 1969 by Warner Bros. Records and a compact disc was released in 2006 by Collector's Choice Music. [13]
Three songs in the soundtrack were written and performed by members of The Association: "Goodbye, Columbus" (Jim Yester), "It's Gotta Be Real" (Larry Ramos), and "So Kind To Me" (Terry Kirkman). [14]
The film was the only acting role for Michael Meyers, who later became a physician. [15] He was cast as Ron (the brother of Ali MacGraw's character) after director Larry Peerce "discovered" him at a wedding in New York's Plaza Hotel. [16] In 1976, he published a memoir about his involvement in the film and his subsequent medical career, Goodbye Columbus, Hello Medicine. [17] Michael Meyers drowned in the ocean September 14, 2009 in Los Angeles County. [18]
Love Story is a 1970 American romantic drama film written by Erich Segal, who was also the author of the best-selling 1970 novel of the same name. It was produced by Howard G. Minsky and directed by Arthur Hiller and starred Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal, alongside John Marley, Ray Milland, and Tommy Lee Jones in his film debut in a minor role.
Goodbye, Columbus is a 1959 collection of fiction by the American novelist Philip Roth, comprising the title novella "Goodbye, Columbus"—which first appeared in The Paris Review—and five short stories. It was his first book and was published by Houghton Mifflin.
Elizabeth Alice MacGraw is an American actress and activist. She gained attention with her role in the film Goodbye, Columbus (1969), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She gained an international profile for her role in the romantic drama Love Story (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1972, MacGraw was voted the top female box office star in the world and was honored with a hands and footprints ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after having been in just three films. Despite this, she retained her leading woman status in only four films afterward. She went on to star in the popular action film The Getaway (1972). She played the female lead in Convoy (1978) and headlined the romantic sports drama Players (1979), the comedy Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), and appeared in the historical novel-based television miniseries The Winds of War (1983). In 1991, she published an autobiography, Moving Pictures.
The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949.
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The Odd Couple is an American sitcom television series broadcast from September 24, 1970, to March 7, 1975, on ABC. The show, which stars Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, was the first of several sitcoms developed by Garry Marshall for Paramount Television. The series is based on the 1965 play The Odd Couple written by Neil Simon, which was also adapted into the 1968 film The Odd Couple. The story examines two divorced men, Oscar and Felix, who share a Manhattan apartment and whose opposite personalities inevitably lead to conflict and laughter.
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The Association is the Association's fifth studio album. In the US charts, the album peaked at number 32 in the last week of October 1969. In Canada the album reached number 12. None of the singles broke into Billboard's charts, but in Canada "Dubuque Blues" did reach number 76. The single "Goodbye Forever" was reworked from the previous album project, Goodbye, Columbus, as is heard in its lyrics about the relationship between the characters played by Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw in the film Goodbye, Columbus.
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Hello-Goodbye is a 1970 British comedy film starring Michael Crawford, and was the final film directed by Jean Negulesco.
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Lawrence "Larry" Peerce is an American film and TV director whose work includes the theatrical feature Goodbye, Columbus (1969), the early rock and roll concert film The Big T.N.T. Show (1966), One Potato, Two Potato (1964), The Other Side of the Mountain (1975) and Two-Minute Warning (1976).
Marilyn Hassett is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Jill Kinmont in the romance drama film The Other Side of the Mountain (1975) for which she received Golden Globe Awards and its sequel The Other Side of the Mountain Part 2 (1978). Hassett also starred in films Shadow of the Hawk (1976) and The Bell Jar (1979).
Ash Wednesday is a 1973 American dark drama film directed by Larry Peerce and starring Elizabeth Taylor. It was produced by Dominick Dunne. The screenplay by Jean-Claude Tramont focuses on the effect that extensive cosmetic surgery has on the life of a middle-aged married woman.
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