Loving (1970 film)

Last updated
Loving
Loving (DVD cover art).jpg
DVD cover
Directed by Irvin Kershner
Screenplay byDon Devlin
Based onBrooks Wilson Ltd.
by J.M. Ryan
Produced byDon Devlin
Starring George Segal
Eva Marie Saint
Sterling Hayden
Keenan Wynn
Nancie Phillips
Cinematography Gordon Willis
Edited by Robert Lawrence
Music by Bernardo Segall
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 4, 1970 (1970-03-04)(New York)
Running time
89 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Loving is a 1970 American comedy-drama film released by Columbia Pictures and directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on the novel Brooks Wilson Ltd. written by pulp magazine illustrator John McDermott under his pen name J.M. Ryan. The movie starred George Segal in the lead role of a philandering illustrator and Eva Marie Saint as his wife. The cast included Sterling Hayden, David Doyle, Keenan Wynn, Roy Scheider, and Sherry Lansing. Broadway actress Betsy von Furstenberg has a small uncredited role, one of only two motion pictures she ever appeared in.

Contents

Plot

Brooks Wilson is a busy man, juggling his work as a commercial artist with a marriage to Selma, and two young daughters. He also has a girlfriend on the side, Grace, who wants him to commit to her, but he cannot do it.

Brooks is trying desperately to land an elusive account from Lepridon, but this is seeming harder to achieve than he thought. One evening they attend a party at a grand Connecticut home. Feeling his life is falling apart, Brooks seduces flirty Nelly, wife of his associate Will. They go to a children's playhouse outside the main house, and their indiscretions are caught on closed-circuit television. Selma and Will are devastated. Brooks and Will fall into a fist-fight. After the commotion dies down, the harried Brooks tells Selma that he finally landed the Lepridon account. She smacks him with her handbag, and they stare at each other in silence, seeing their marriage honestly for the first time.

Cast

Production

The film was shot completely on location in New York. [1]

Release

The film opened March 4, 1970 at Cinema Rendezvous and Loew's Cine in New York City. [1]

Critical reception

The film has generally been well received by critics. Steven Scheuer found the film "quietly intense" and "humorous, human, and insightful", but found the film's final scene "incongruous in its farcical mayhem," (Scheuer, 1990: 641). On the other hand, Leonard Maltin found the film's climax "superb" and praised the director on his "great feeling for day-to-day detail [of the characters' lives]" (Maltin, 1991: 730).

Roger Ebert found the film "an amusing and intelligent comedy of manners" (Ebert, 1970) with a great central performance by George Segal. Clive Hirschhorn noted that while the film was "well-observed", and was truly "Segal's film", it was still "uneven" in content (Hirschhorn, 1989: 285). Perhaps the review that most sums up the film comes from Leslie Halliwell, "smart New York sex comedy, typical of many but better than most," (Halliwell, 2000: 496).

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Col Opens 'Loving' March 4". Variety . February 18, 1970. p. 5. Retrieved April 13, 2024 via Internet Archive.