Goodbye, Columbus (1969)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Larry Peerce

Writers:

Philip Roth (novel)
Arnold Schulman (writer)

Release Date:

21 May 1969 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Every father's daughter is a virgin.

Plot:

A Jewish man and a jewish woman meet and while attracted to each other find that their worlds are very different...

Plot Keywords:

Jewish | Librarian | Jewish Princess | Wedding | Jewish Wedding

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Richard Benjamin	...	Neil Klugman
Ali MacGraw	...	Brenda Patimkin
Jack Klugman	...	Ben Patimkin
Nan Martin	...	Mrs. Ben Patimkin
Michael Meyers	...	Ron Patimkin
Lori Shelle	...	Julie Patimkin
Monroe Arnold	...	Uncle Leo
Kay Cummings	...	Doris Klugman
Sylvie Strause	...	Aunt Gladys
Royce Wallace	...	Carlotta
Anthony McGowan	...	Boy in Library
Mari Gorman	...	Laura Simpson Sockaloe
Chris Schenkel	...	Voice on Columbus Record (voice)
Jay Jostyn	...	Voice on Columbus Record (voice)
Jan Peerce	...	Uncle Manny

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 | USA:PG (re-rating) (1972) | USA:R (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | Ireland:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Willow Tree

Trivia:

Early in the film, Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw's characters go to a cinema which is playing the film The Odd Couple (1968). Their costar in the film, Jack Klugman, went on to star in the TV series based on that film.

Goofs:

Factual errors: At the dinner table, Julie is told that it is earlier in Columbus, where Harriet is calling from, than where she lives in New York. In fact both cities are in the same Eastern Standard Time Zone. In the book, Harriet is calling from Milwaukee in the Central Time Zone, which is correct. However, when the screenplay changed her location to Columbus, the writer failed to realize this fact and change the dialog or the city.

Quotes:

Neil Klugman: [discussing birth control] What do you take?
Brenda Patimkin: Nothing. Turn off the water.
Neil Klugman: Nothing?
Brenda Patimkin: Listen, I tried the pills, but they made me fat and made me sick, and besides every single day you read something new about them in the paper, so I decided I was better off with nothing.
Neil Klugman: [pause] Brenda, I'd like to talk to you about nothing.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Get Smart: Hello, Columbus - Goodbye, America (#5.24)" (1970)

Mildly interesting social commentary.

Many of Philip Roth's novels plough the same furrow. A sane, rational, sensible Jewish man has a difficult life because of oppressive Jewish society amongst well-off New Yorkers, in which women are capricious, malevolent, and obsessed with frippery and social position. This one is an example.

Richard Benjamin, often looking remarkably like Rowan Atkinson, plays Philip Roth (under the name of Neil Klugman), opposite Ali McGraw in her first cinema role. She's a Jewish-American Princess - and this was probably the movie which exposed this species to the world outside New York State.

Everybody except Roth is incredibly shallow and boneheaded, although the father, nicely played by Jack Klugman, is allowed a certain rough honest grace and decency.

The main message one gets from the film is that the wealthy of Westchester County are unpleasant people, Jewish-American Princesses especially so, but even they pale in comparison with their ghastly mothers.

In the book, Roth's ability as a writer enlivens the proceedings, but his verbal felicity isn't translated into the visuals of the screenplay, and the film is laboured.