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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 23 reviews in total |
29 out of 32 people found the following review useful:
I Love You Peter Sellers, 3 April 2005
Author:
angelsunchained from United States
" I LOve You Alice B. Toklas " is a 60s gem. Peter Sellers is
out-standing as an uptight, highly successful, Jewish lawyer, engaged
to be married, who falls in love with his hippie brother's hippie girl
and "drops out".
For those too young to remember the 60s this film will probably appear
to be meaningless, but it's a classic example of what thousands of
Americans went through during this revoltionary decade.
The film however is stolen by the incredible beauty of Leigh
Taylor-Young who was making her film debut. What a beauty! A real 10.
Nothing fake about her. I recall seeing this movie when it first came
out in 1968 when I was 10 years old. Everyone in the theater was
rolling in the aisles with laughter. And every guy there had a "crush"
on Leigh Taylor Young.
So, turn on the lava-lamb, put on some love-beads, put some pillows on
the floor, take off your shoes, and go back to time and enjoy this
1960s comedy classic.
16 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
A soul searching movie! Great fun, 27 November 2004
Author:
kulaboy (williambevill@gmail.com) from United States
I was born 8 years after this film came out, so I'm a little out of
touch with the generation. BUT! Look closely at this film. Sure, it
stereotypes hippies and seems a bit out of date. What this film really
is becomes a search for one man (Petter Sellers) to find out who he is,
and to avoid the traps of life that he suddenly sees as conventional.
As Harold Fine, he questions what life and marriage have to offer and
he seeks to discover what else is out there. The pot brownie sequence
opens up his world to new dimensions, he breaks off his marriage to be
with a hippie chick, he drops out, he tries to free himself. Do I
relate to Harold Fine? Heck yes! The film mirrors much of Peter
Seller's life himself, confunsed, unsure, searching. The scene with his
guru cracks me up- Sellers face is priceless as he tries to stop trying
and learn who he is.
This film deserves a lot more attention then what it receives. This
isn't just a time capsule into the dropout 60s world- it's a good time
capsule into soul searching.
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
One of the best comedies of the 1960s, 8 March 2006
Author:
pljewkes from Boston, MA
One of the best comedies of the 1960s and one of the most subversive as well...it's difficult to believe that Warner Bros. released I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS. Peter Sellers, in his most American role, plays Harold Fine, an uptight mama's boy putting off any commitment to girlfriend Joyce Van Patten. He falls head over heels for free-spirited Leigh Taylor Young and all hell breaks loose. Sellers is brilliant, Van Patten is pretty funny, and Taylor-Young is striking. The movie is nearly stolen by Jo Van Fleet as Sellers mother, a shrike to be sure, and hysterical eating a "special" brownie. She's priceless...once again giving a great performance as a character of a substantially more advanced age...she was 54 playing 43 year old Sellers mother! Hy Averback's direction is clever and the film is filled with a lot of funny gags...a highlight is Sellers and crew driving ALL OVER Los Angeles in search of a funeral.
10 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Sellers drops out in charming time capsule, 28 February 2000
Author:
Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) from United States
Harold Fine (Peter Sellers) is an uptight lawyer, a member of the Establishment. His longtime girlfriend Joyce finally has pinned Harold down on a wedding date, and his life seems to be settling down. But wait! Harold meets Nancy, a friend of his hippie brother, at a family funeral. Turned on by her free thinking, free loving, and free living, Harold leaves Joyce at the altar to be with Nancy. He drops out of society and into hippiedom! Sellers isn't the most likely person to play this role, but he's very good in it. Leigh Taylor-Young, as Nancy, is positively ravishing. The movie takes you back to the late sixties, even if you've never been there. All the sights and sounds are lovingly created by director Hy Averback. And the script! Nearly every aspect of counterculture society in the late sixties is covered, and there's hardly a stagnant scene. In particular, the wild parties at Harold's apartment and the scene where the policeman come upon Harold and Nancy in the backseat of his car are real gems.
10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Hilarious Peter Sellers Vehicle, 11 November 2001
Author:
zetes from Saint Paul, MN
This is a very funny send up of the flower child generation. Peter Sellers plays an uptight, Jewish lawyer who falls for one of his hippie brother's girlfriends. After that, he descends into hippiedom. The film is filled with some of the funniest scenes around. The funniest part of the movie is Sellers as a hippie with hair down around his cheeks and psychedelic clothing, but still wearing horn-rimmed glasses. The musical score, which uses sitars as satire, is really great, too. It's very much worth seeing, although it overstays its welcome. Its humorous observations (and imaginations) about hippies get a bit repetitive in the film's second half. 8/10.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Kiss My Ahnk, 17 November 2009
Author:
binaryg from CA
I saw this in '68 when I was about in the same place Harold Fine was,
in his social development. I was already married and had kids though.
At the time of its release this seemed like an important movie. It was
funny and satiric but it ended in a positive note for someone ready to
drop out. If we'd only known where that was going to lead, but it was
fun for a time.
I'm so glad I revisited this over 40 years later (yikes!!) Some of the
film I remembered as if I saw it yesterday. Some scenes I had no
recollection of. Peter Sellers is marvelous and the rest of the cast is
fine. It is a time capsule of a film and really blends film styles. It
has a definite TV flavor. Hy Averback mostly worked in TV so that's not
a surprise. The film though, is authentic to the time and it was fun to
watch for this old hippie.
9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Seller's Life Story, 1 March 2005
Author:
caspian1978 from Boston, MA
Peter Seller's (modern) comedy is set in early 70's California. In many ways, this coming of age comedy is the story of Peter Sellers. Leaving his wife for the single life and "swinging" with several women until marrying his 5th or 6th wife, Sellers kept moving, searching for something else. Much like the final scene, Sellers is seen alone running after the unknown as he continues to find himself. While this is a comedy, the movie has many (hidden) dramas among the mix of laughter and jokes. Also, the movie uses many stereotypes to get laughs. Not that PC for today's audience, it is still funny. Having 10 Mexicans in 1 car, having the Jewish family ask how much the bumper cost at the garage, the hippies preaching peace and the yuppies talking about sex all get laughs in this Peter Sellers comedy.
7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Mister Everyday joins the flower crowd, 10 November 2001
Author:
helpless_dancer from Broken Bow, Oklahoma
Entertaining film with lots of 60's memories like psychedelic cars, hip, cool, groovy lingo, long hair wigs, and, naturally....pot. Mr. Uptight just couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to be a straight or be hip, which caused him to alienate himself from both circles. Fun and funny picture.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Wild contrasts--as opposed to funny comparisons--between the squares and the drop-outs, 10 January 2010
Author:
moonspinner55 from redlands, ca
Screenwriters Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker have a deft idea here--but it only takes an hour on the clock to use up the essence of their idea, leaving nothing but dead space on the screen for thirty more minutes. Milquetoast Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles, about to marry his domineering secretary (an idea which is approved by his demonstrative mother), is reunited with his estranged brother, a flower-child circa 1968. Through the brother's sometime-girlfriend, a comely lass who knows a great recipe for hash brownies, the lawyer realizes he's living an existence without love or freedom. It's wonderful watching bespectacled, buttoned-up Peter Sellers learn how to be liberated...yet, once the lawyer grows his hair out and dons love beads, the picture has nowhere in particular to take us. The satire is unsubtle in its prodding of targets, while writers Mazursky and Tucker ultimately bite off more than they can chew (while leaning precariously on pretentiousness). Still, there are some mild, breezy laughs early on, and the production is bright. ** from ****
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
An interesting relic of the 1960s, 10 January 2010
Author:
planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is a film that I strongly think your opinion of it will depend on
your age. Younger folks who have no recollection of the 1960s will
probably find this film less interesting. Those who vividly remember
this strange decade will probably get more from the film. Me, I was
only a young kid during this time, so my opinion seems to fall
somewhere in the middle.
The movie begins with Peter Sellers playing a Jewish attorney living in
Los Angeles. His life is very "normal" and he is on track to be quite
successful and marry his sweetheart (Joyce Van Patten). However, when
his brother's lover (Leigh Taylor-Young) slips Sellers and his fiancé
and his parents a dish of hashish-laced brownies, Sellers'
straight-laced veneer vanishes and now the 35 year-old "square" wants
to drop out and become a hippie. Much of the rest of the film concerns
the ins and outs of such a life and by the end of the film, it seems
that Sellers isn't content with either life...and still longs for a
deeper sense of meaning.
I noticed that many people called this film a comedy. While there are
some mildly funny moments, I wouldn't describe it as this at all and
it's NOT much like Sellers' other films. I am NOT saying it's a bad
film--just not exactly a comedy. Instead, it's like a time capsule--an
interesting one, but one that many probably won't find all that
compelling unless they lived during this time. Generally, the film is
well made and acted and it's worth a look--and that's really about all.
FYI--The reference to Alice B. Toklas regards her being the first to
publish a recipe for marijuana or hashish brownies. You hear her name
sung repeatedly throughout the film but otherwise the film has nothing
to do with her nor her lover, Gertrude Stein.
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