All Night Long

This small comedy with a galaxy of Jupiter sized personalities became the comedy Armageddon of it's day. Actually quite funny and now a curiosity piece - albeit forgotten, it is even a surprise to Streisand fans that it exists. I saw it on a 'rescue mission' double feature with CONTINENTAL DIVIDE where these two brief comedies that had a brief release mopped up whatever box office was possible as a duo. Sreisand and Belushi together! Well the box office in Australia actually played a happy tune and this double feature became a sleeper hit for a month or so early in 1982. Then video struck, cinemas closed and that was the end of that. As a suburban farce with "ordinary people characters" played by Oscar winners, it was slumming it a bit (like Fred and Ginger in FOLLOW THE FLEET) but odd enough and with a sprinkling of good laughs worked well enough. Like FOR PETE'S SAKE in 1974, seeing Streisand coupled with ungainly love interest, all set in low income apartments and with blue collar jobs, seems strange after the DOLLY and Fanny glamour...but.... ALL NIGHT LONG as 'the other Streisand film you've never seen' does deserve a better profile... and compared to Adam Sandler comedies is positively a masterpiece of hilarity. Actually it's a wonder we don't get the ANL remake with him and Drew Barrymore... stranger things have happened (MR DEEDS anyone? no? funny about that...) Apparently Streisand was paid $8million, upping the budget to $12 million......!! work that production cost out!

Hackman is a demoted chain store executive who is banished to the grave yard shift at one of the chain's drug stores. Just when it seems things couldn't get any worse for him he discovers his teenage son (Dennis Quaid) is having an affair with a sexy relative (Streisand). When Streisand starts making the moves on an already depressed Hackman it's only a matter of time before his jealous son let's the cat out of the bag. This is a very dark comedy. There are no real laughs. It is also not one of Barbra's best performances. She even sings a song purposely bad. Not one for the time capsule, though members of the Streisand Fan Club may make excuses for it.

When It was first released in 1981, this film was dismissed as a disaster !! Most critics disliked and or dismissed it.. audiences stayed away...STREISAND was criticized for not only being miscast but replacing Lisa Eichorn who was fired... Streisand was repaying a favor for agent Sue Mengers/ & this was not a typical Streisand film..no singing. no hit record associated with it/ no directorial or producing chores done by Babs here..This was a small movie,about the mid life crisis of the main character played very well by Gene Hackman ! He needs a change from his job, his nagging wife, played by Diane Ladd, and his annoying son, Dennis Quaid... Along comes,sexy, blonde, Cheryl riding her motor bike..an atypical role portrayed by Streisand.. and Hackmans life progressively is altered. Streisand is excellent in this role, she totally loses all the Streisand mannerisms& personna that she is famous for,: she is not Fanny, not Dolly, not Katie or even Esther, she is Cheryl, with a hint of Marilyn Monroe, even sings off key... gives a very believable performance..much underrated!!!The film is short,sweet and to the point not a great movie, but certainly not the disaster thought to be..nicley directed by Jean Claude Tramont with a European flair...Hackman is really wonderful in his role and there is a nice chemistry between the leads...Give it a chance you wont be disappointed!!

A huge box office bomb upon release, ALL NIGHT LONG has been criticized by many for it's uncomfortable mix of odd-ball comedy and quaint slice-of-life drama. Though it received some positive reviews (most notably from Pauline Kael and ROLLING STONE magazine), most mainstream critics hated it and audiences all but completely ignored it. It is also often cited by most of Streisand's die-hard fans as their least favorite film of the actress. While the film is certainly not without it's flaws, I have interestingly always thought ALL NIGHT LONG contained somewhat of a bizarre charm, and I've always wished it would receive a re-evaluation from the film-going public.

As mentioned before, the film has it's problems. It's paced too leisurely (it's only 90-minutes in length, but feels more like two-and-a-half hours), Jean-Claude Tramont's direction is too light (the film needs more of a thematic punch in several scenes), and much of it's humor is surprisingly too subtle (odd seeing that most film comedies have the opposite problem). Having said all of that, the film is still worth checking out. Though Tramont's direction may be a tad too limp, his skewed perception of the American dream gives the film a dreamy, almost art house-like feel that makes the film more inherently interesting than the screen play would merit alone.

Also, the varied cast is a lot of fun, almost all of them playing against type. Gene Hackman brings a equal mix of unusual serenity and touching pathos to his role of the would-be inventor who manages to find his true self by losing nearly everything that was once-important in his life. In an early role, Dennis Quaid throws himself completely into part of Hackman's airheaded son, making the intelligent personae he would develop in later films like DREAMSCAPE and THE BIG EASY even more impressive. Barbra Streisand is clearly miscast the role of the bimbo housewife who woos both Hackman and Quaid (Streisand replaced Lisa Eichhorn, who was fired from the film after two weeks of production), but her performance is still worth catching. Though she's never totally believable as Cheryl (a role that was poorly-defined in the screenplay to begin with), she is still a very likable, always watchable, and occasionally an endearing presence in a unusual little film that deserves a second chance.

Gene Hackman plays a man who was just fired from his executive job. He's demoted to being the night manager at a 24 hour drug store. He doesn't get along with his wife (Diane Ladd) or his 18 year old son Freddie (played by 26 year old Dennis Quaid). Freddie is sleeping around with his 4th cousin Cheryl (Barbra Streisand). George tries to put a stop to it and Cheryl dumps Freddie and starts sleeping with him! This is a strange one. It came out in 1981 and bombed immediately. It had a lot of bad publicity with Lisa Eichorn being fired and replaced with Streisand. Also Streisand re-wrote the entire script to make her part bigger. She wanted to try something different with this movie. That's fine but why redo the script? This story was about George and his dealing with being fired and being middle-aged--Streisand should have left the script alone. As it is it's a terribly uneven movie--veering wildly from drama to comedy. The drama is pretty heavy and the comedy is, at best, subtle. It was pushed as a romantic comedy which it certainly was not. However it was never dull and works as a mild dramady. W.D. Richter wrote the original screenplay and he always writes (and directs) offbeat movies so this being a strange movie makes sense.

Acting is all over the map. Streisand (wearing a blonde wig) plays her role in a muted way. She only sings one song (badly) and doesn't play the tough-acting role she's well known for. She tries for something different but it doesn't work. Hackman is just great in his role--he really brings the movie to life. Ladd is hardly in this and Quaid is WAY too old for his role--and looks it. So it is uneven and strange but worth a look. I give it a 5.