Woodyanders Review of The Battle of Love's Return

The Battle of Love's Return (1971)

An enjoyably oddball early 70's comedy curio

[8/10 · 3 January 2010]

Nice, but hopelessly awkward and bumbling nerd Abarcrombie (an amiable performance by Lloyd Kaufman) blunders his way through life and makes various faltering attempts to meet the girl of his dreams (the film debut of delectable 70's cult siren Lynn Lowry in various neat multiple roles). Writer/director Kaufman astutely captures the infectiously easygoing irreverence of the early 70's with a series of random goofy vignettes that range from extremely broad and funny (Abarcrombie attempting to help a feisty old lady across the street, Abarcrombie hanging out with a bunch of groovy hippies at a funky crash pad and toking on a joint for the first time, a meddlesome little girl undermining Abarcrombie's job putting tap on wires on a bridge) to just plain weird (a sequence that's filmed and scored just like a slapstick silent movie reel, a hysterical trip to a dirty book store). Moreover, there are a bunch of strange black and white interviews shot hand-held cinema veritate style interspersed throughout the rambling narrative. Popping up in nifty bits are Andy Kay as a blithely lazy longhair, Stanley Kaufman as Abarcrombie's stern boss Mr. Crumb, Ida Goodcutt as a fierce elderly woman, Roderick Ghyka as pretentious psychiatrist Dr. Finger, and Bonnie Sacks as a pregnant gung-ho distaff army sergeant. Oliver Stone has a hilarious cameo as a mincing homosexual (!). The jaunty'n'jazzy score by Kaufman and Andre Golino further adds to this picture's considerable sweet and good-natured cockeyed charm. A genuinely offbeat and interesting period piece.