...e tutti risero

Everybody seems to be following everyone in this caper from Bogdanovich. Some really big names: Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, and of course, 33 year old John Ritter, while he was still making Three's Company. Minimal speaking, at least the first part of the film. Turns out, private-eyes are following spouses who may be playing around. Some pretty good singing by Colleen Camp, who plays the jealous Christy. Great street scenes of New York city. Patti Hansen (now MRS. Keith Richards in real life! ) is taxi driver Sam, who pals around with Russo (Gazzara). although everyone is pretty much hitting on everyone in this tangled bowl of spaghetti. lots of following people around the streets of new york. Bogdanovich explores married people flirting and fooling around. and partners and new friends keep meeting the other partners. Bogdanovich really explores un-expected new relationships, and people having multiple partners. Why does Christy keep saying Charles?? quite odd. and "Jose" is Hepburn's real-life son. lots of similarities to What's Up Doc, but that was just one person trying to steal the engaged guy away from his fiancee. As goofed up as director Bogdanovch's personal life was, he sure made some great films. My personal favorite is What's Up Doc? really interesting info him on wikipedia, as well as a full interview in New York Magazine March 2019. Good character study.

This film is supposed to be pure escapism, unfortunately it is merely irritating. Ben Gazzara wanders round as if we're meant to think he's the ultimate in cool, when in fact there's no conceivable reason I can see why every woman within a radius of 10 miles should be lusting after him.

In fact this is a problem with all the characters - John Ritter's geeky act is a pain in the butt after about the first 10 minutes, yet somehow the Stratten character fall for him. As does the annoying country & western singer.

And even Audrey looks as if she's going through the motions - painfully thin in looks as well.

And finally the script - it tries for that laconic sharp Woody Allen/Neil Simon style but falls miserable short of that quality.

Bring back Paper Moon!

There is a certain French farcical charm, however calculated, about director Peter Bogdanovich's 1981 urban valentine to romantic entanglements in Manhattan; but just released on DVD a quarter-century later, the film still feels half-baked in execution. Perhaps because Bogdanovich has too innate a familiarity with Hollywood's golden era, there is just too much pastiche and not enough depth to the shenanigans of three private eyes, their put-upon boss and the various women with whom they intertwine most predictably. The characters come in and out of this omnibus tale like Robert Altman's "Nashville" and Jean Renoir's "Rules of the Game", but the results are not nearly as resonant.

Unfortunately, the movie was jinxed immediately when co-star Dorothy Stratten, who became romantically involved with Bogdanovich during filming, was infamously murdered by her husband right after its completion. If the film was meant as the director's launching pad for Stratten as he did previously for Cybill Shepherd in "The Last Picture Show", he is only partially successful this time as the pretty starlet makes a comparatively modest impression as Dolores, the innocent object of obsession for bumbling detective Charles. These two are part of a larger ensemble, which includes Arthur, a long-haired shamus constantly on roller skates, and John, the veteran investigator who finds himself drawn to Angela Niotes, the possibly philandering wife of an Italian industrialist.

Bogdanovich had the good fortune of casting Audrey Hepburn, in her last feature film starring role, as Angela. Even though her story does not even get going until an hour into the movie, a fiftyish Hepburn looks radiantly stylish and is the epitome of resigned grace as an unhappily married woman. In an apparent nod to Bogie, Ben Gazzara performs too close to the vest as world-weary John, while a young, bespectacled John Ritter seems to regale in all his slapstick business as the smitten Charles. Less successful are Blaine Novak as the overly hip Arthur, model Patti Hansen (long since married to Rolling Stone Keith Richards) as bromide-spouting taxi driver "Sam", and a particularly unctuous Colleen Camp as motor-mouthed country singer Christy Miller insinuating herself into everyone else's lives.

Much like a Jacques Demy film ("The Young Girls of Rochefort" comes immediately to mind), the plot unfolds after a long wordless introduction, and character motivations get filled in on an as-needed basis until the film gains some gravitas and then whimpers away. On the DVD's main extra, Bogdanovich states emphatically that this is the favorite of his films in an interview conducted with director Wes Anderson, who also admires the film (as does Quentin Tarantino, who makes it one of his top ten in "Halliwell's Top 1000" book). The details of the location shooting are interesting, as much was done on a modest scale with a minimum of extras, and Bogdanovich gratefully does not belabor the sensationalistic aspects of Stratten's death. He also provides a solid commentary track, and the print transfer on the DVD is relatively clean. I'm not sure the film is completely worthy of rediscovery in a vaunted 25th Anniversary Edition except for Hepburn's near-valedictory work and any lingering curiosity about Stratten.

I don't know about you but I thought that this movie, which Bogdanovich claimed to have written for Audrey Hepburn was overall a pretty amateurish effort. The so-called 'screwball comedy' turned out to be a little annoying for me, especially the scenes with Colleen Camp (if she said the name Charles just one more time!) which was like watching a bad school play. Now, Dorothy Stratten looked a little distant in this, but was given sound advice by the director (to keep a close eye on Miss Hepburn) She was good looking and pretty shapely but beyond that...? Ben Gazzara does just what Bogdanovich did not want his actors to do..act like they were 'acting'. Hepburn had a mighty talent for being real, and when shes on screen you feel your money's worth. Gazzara, looking a little preoccupied in his scenes only shines when Audrey is on screen with him. John Ritter brings his usual comic relief with some pleasure, after enduring some of the very bad dialog (Bogdanovich claims some of the scenes were written on the spot while filming and you get a sense of that hurried effort in a bad way) In the end I will keep a copy of this flick for myself. I love Audrey and this was her last feature film. She still had the natural beauty and class that sets her millenniums apart from the other actresses in this flick. While you may not like this vehicle as Audrey's 'swan song' as it were, you will just love to have seen her again.

Who are these "They"- the actors? the filmmakers? Certainly couldn't be the audience- this is among the most air-puffed productions in existence. It's the kind of movie that looks like it was a lot of fun to shoot— TOO much fun, nobody is getting any actual work done, and that almost always makes for a movie that's no fun to watch.

Ritter dons glasses so as to hammer home his character's status as a sort of doppleganger of the bespectacled Bogdanovich; the scenes with the breezy Ms. Stratten are sweet, but have an embarrassing, look-guys-I'm-dating-the-prom-queen feel to them. Ben Gazzara sports his usual cat's-got-canary grin in a futile attempt to elevate the meager plot, which requires him to pursue Audrey Hepburn with all the interest of a narcoleptic at an insomnia clinic. In the meantime, the budding couple's respective children (nepotism alert: Bogdanovich's daughters) spew cute and pick up some fairly disturbing pointers on 'love' while observing their parents. (Ms. Hepburn, drawing on her dignity, manages to rise above the proceedings- but she has the monumental challenge of playing herself, ostensibly.) Everybody looks great, but so what? It's a movie and we can expect that much, if that's what you're looking for you'd be better off picking up a copy of Vogue.

Oh- and it has to be mentioned that Colleen Camp thoroughly annoys, even apart from her singing, which, while competent, is wholly unconvincing... the country and western numbers are woefully mismatched with the standards on the soundtrack. Surely this is NOT what Gershwin (who wrote the song from which the movie's title is derived) had in mind; his stage musicals of the 20's may have been slight, but at least they were long on charm. "They All Laughed" tries to coast on its good intentions, but nobody- least of all Peter Bogdanovich - has the good sense to put on the brakes.

Due in no small part to the tragic death of Dorothy Stratten, this movie has a special place in the heart of Mr. Bogdanovich- he even bought it back from its producers, then distributed it on his own and went bankrupt when it didn't prove popular. His rise and fall is among the more sympathetic and tragic of Hollywood stories, so there's no joy in criticizing the film... there _is_ real emotional investment in Ms. Stratten's scenes. But "Laughed" is a faint echo of "The Last Picture Show", "Paper Moon" or "What's Up, Doc"- following "Daisy Miller" and "At Long Last Love", it was a thundering confirmation of the phase from which P.B. has never emerged.

All in all, though, the movie is harmless, only a waste of rental. I want to watch people having a good time, I'll go to the park on a sunny day. For filmic expressions of joy and love, I'll stick to Ernest Lubitsch and Jaques Demy...