Just Tell Me What You Want

King is a really great comedian, virtually unknown to audiences in Europe. In this „late screwball" comedy he plays a tycoon, and for this kind of movie part he sets a mark nobody has surpassed. He brings the right mix of competence and freakishness to the role. He is a ladies man, a hypochondriac (goes well together), is cunning and can be utterly ruthless and cruel. Of course, the character has a great egotistical mind - and yet he is oddly likable. There's more: The movie also includes great performances by Keenan Wynn as competing tycoon and also by Myrna Loy, famous screen beauty of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She plays King's loyal secretary and surrogate mom. Ali McGraw is kind of beautiful but seems to be made of granite (the set design of her ritzy apartment is beautiful and interesting, though), Peter Weller's talents are wasted here.

This movie really boasts many, many memorable lines. The character played by Wynn tries to convince the tycoon that he should donate for a wing for special diseases of a hospital. This makes King quip „I can't wait to see those poor guys die of special diseases in my wing!" Also great are the final sequences in which the main character stays in hospital because of an imaginary heart attack. His little, stumpy body lies in a white shroud on an examining bed while he berates the high priced specialists standing around him, telling them in a choked voice that he knows exactly what's wrong with him and they should better read the „f***ing literature"! People are like that! Life is like that! It's great to be able to laugh about it sometimes.

I have seen this movie several times, and the interplay between Alan King and Ali McGraw never fails to make me smile. There is no confusion as to which genre this movie was meant to be or in how it turned out. It's clearly a romantic comedy, and a funny one. Some younger viewers may have a hard time understanding the humor, because none of it involves body fluids, toilet humor, eating disgusting things or other gross-outs. We know that love and war are sometimes the same thing. This time, it's business, too!

King shines as a hard-nosed business tycoon who is romantically involved with his executive assistant, Bones (McGraw). He likes the informal arrangement just fine, but Bones is to the point where she either wants marriage or to move on. When she seems to fall for a young writer and moves in with him, it's not clear if she is truly in love with him, or if she is using him as leverage to make King jealous enough to propose. King, of course, retaliates. The war between the two, using under-handed business tactics is very funny, with each trying to top the other. The winner can either move on in triumph or dictate the terms of their reconciliation. King is probably best known for his stand-up comedy, but this movie shows him to be a fine comedic actor as well.

Myrna Loy's last great theatrical film role comes in this comedy starring Ali McGraw and Alan King. This the story of a girl Friday mistress and her campaign to make it legal with her boss.

King's role is a combination of William Randolph Hearst and Louis B. Mayer and like them he's the head of a communications/entertainment conglomerate which he rules by fear and intimidation. His normal conversational tone is a soft bellow. His assistant and mistress is Ali McGraw ho if she can't make it legal would like to get out from under.

The problem is King Already has a wife, the beautiful but fragile Dina Merrill. So like Marion Davies she has to be content with being a rather public mistress. But McGraw is running out of patience.

Loy is King's ever so efficient secretary and keeper of the keys to his kingdom. During her years at MGM Loy had the perfect role model. Ida Koverman was Louis B. Mayer's secretary and she functioned the same way that Loy does vis a vis King.

As for King the tantrums he throws are the stuff that made Louis B. Mayer a legend among the moguls. He certainly had Myrna there to give him pointers.

King and McGraw are a well matched pair of leads. Sidney Lumet got some great performances out of all the cast he assembled.

Best scene: McGraw encountering King at Bergdorf-Goodman's. Can't say more this has to be seen.

Just Tell Me What You Want, one great comedy.

Saw this years ago when it came out. Now seeing it again through older eyes makes it even better. While the relationships depicted are predatory--eat or be eaten--they still have a certain sweetness to them. It's a uniquely well-done commentary on the rich. Fitzgerald was right: they're different.

Can't understand why there's no "memorable quotes" part of this entry.

This slightly jaded look at the film industry, and at love, is the work of Jay Presson Allen, who also wrote "Marnie", "Cabaret", and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie". You will find her trademarks: fascinating characters and witty, insightful rapid-fire dialog.

Her 20th Century women lack sugar-coating. But here, a lot of the action concerns the close ties of an unconventional family. This, along with the heroine's ironic first-person narration, give the story a lighter, less distant feel. However, the direction and pacing are uneven and the picture has been overlooked.

A year after this film was released, Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet wrote and produced Prince of the City, a much darker film about police corruption. It found a far warmer reception. And Alan King has a cameo, playing himself.