Join us on "Style Code Live" daily to connect, shop and chat live with fashion designers, beauty experts and celebrities! Discover today's best beauty hacks and the top style secrets!
Three separate stories concerning relationship issues are presented, each largely taking place in suite 719 of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. In story one, suburban New Yorkers Sam and ... See full summary »
Director:
Arthur Hiller
Stars:
Walter Matthau,
Maureen Stapleton,
Barbara Harris
A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s Edinburgh ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable 12 year old charges with her over-romanticized world view.
Director:
Ronald Neame
Stars:
Maggie Smith,
Gordon Jackson,
Robert Stephens
At his mother's funeral, stuffy bank clerk Henry Pulling meets his Aunt Augusta, an elderly eccentric with more-than-shady dealings who pulls him along on a whirlwind adventure as she ... See full summary »
Director:
George Cukor
Stars:
Maggie Smith,
Alec McCowen,
Louis Gossett Jr.
Charley is a surgeon who's recently lost his wife; he embarks on a tragicomic romantic quest with one woman after another until he meets up with Ann, a singular woman, closer to his own age... See full summary »
Grandmother has nothing to say when Libby tells her that she is off to LA to look up Dad, a Hollywood screenwriter. Grandmother has been in a New York cemetery for six years and Dad has ... See full summary »
After being dumped by her live-in boyfriend, an unemployed dancer and her 10-year-old daughter are reluctantly forced to live with a struggling off-Broadway actor.
Director:
Herbert Ross
Stars:
Richard Dreyfuss,
Marsha Mason,
Quinn Cummings
Paul, a conservative young lawyer, marries the vivacious Corie. Their highly passionate relationship descends into comical discord in a five-flight New York City walk-up apartment.
A Vietnam vet returns home from a prisoner of war camp and is greeted as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and soon discovers how tough survival is in his own country.
Can a bickering odd couple in Manhattan become friends and maybe more? Owlish Felix is an unpublished writer who vents his frustration by reporting to the super that the woman in a ... See full summary »
Director:
Herbert Ross
Stars:
Barbra Streisand,
George Segal,
Robert Klein
Four totally different and separate stories of guests staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Maggie Smith and Michael Caine come from England to attend the Oscars; Jane Fonda comes from New York, Alan Alda is her ex who lives in California; in the slapstick part Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and their wives come to the hotel to relax and play tennis, only to find there is only one room vacant; in the fourth segment Walter Matthau arrives a day before his wife for his nephew's Bar Mitzvah while his brother (Herb Edelman) sends a prostitute to his room. Written by
Jonathan (jrd@netvision.net.il)
The play 'California Suite' featured four acts with the four main actors doubling-up playing two or three parts each. In this movie version, ten actors play the main ten roles. See more »
Goofs
Sidney Cochran admonishes his wife that they have a 10:00 AM flight. He also loses count of his Librium, quipping "if I'm not up at 9:00 AM, I've overdosed." It would not be possible to wake up at 9:00 AM and travel from Beverly Hills to LAX FOR A 10:00 AM departure. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
[a two-seater plane is flying over snow-capped mountains]
Harold:
For heaven's sake, Wendy - look for an airport. Will you look for the airport?
Diana Barrie:
Oh don't make such a fuss. Just put it down on a mountain.
Harold:
What do you mean 'just put it down'? I'm lucky I can keep it up. I told you I never flew before.
Diana Barrie:
Don't shout at me - I'm a first-class passenger.
Harold:
You're a first class lunatic. It's all over Wendy - our relationship has a quarter of a tank to go.
Diana Barrie:
Yes, but - you do love me, don't you Harold? ...
[...] See more »
Crazy Credits
In the opening credits, famous 70s artworks of British artist David Hockney are featured. The painting before Elaine May's name is entitled "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures), 1972" and features a swimming pool with the Hollywood hills in the backdrop. The "two figures", both male, one swimming and the other standing over watching have been mysteriously edited out of the picture for some unknown reason. See more »
I've always liked this movie, ever since I saw it in the theater as a 12-year-old. (With my church youth group, no less -- what were they thinking??) It's flawed, but generally fun, and I like the sun-soaked, palm-fringed atmosphere.
Maggie Smith is the undisputed standout. Her portrayal is brilliant and she and Michael Caine fling one-liners at each other with biting abandon. I've always liked both Jane Fonda and Alan Alda, so I enjoy their storyline too, though their exchanges seem forced and a little too clever. I'm a Cosby fan, but his scenes with Richard Pryor are uncomfortable -- it's troubling that the film's only black characters are relegated to brute physical comedy. Walter Matthau and Elaine May do a great job, but I never liked the hooker skit -- not sure why.
I buy very few films, but I do own this one, and over the years I've watched it so many times I know all the lines...
20 of 24 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
I've always liked this movie, ever since I saw it in the theater as a 12-year-old. (With my church youth group, no less -- what were they thinking??) It's flawed, but generally fun, and I like the sun-soaked, palm-fringed atmosphere.
Maggie Smith is the undisputed standout. Her portrayal is brilliant and she and Michael Caine fling one-liners at each other with biting abandon. I've always liked both Jane Fonda and Alan Alda, so I enjoy their storyline too, though their exchanges seem forced and a little too clever. I'm a Cosby fan, but his scenes with Richard Pryor are uncomfortable -- it's troubling that the film's only black characters are relegated to brute physical comedy. Walter Matthau and Elaine May do a great job, but I never liked the hooker skit -- not sure why.
I buy very few films, but I do own this one, and over the years I've watched it so many times I know all the lines...