At Long Last Love (1975)

This film was Peter Bogdanovich's homage to musical comedies of the 1930s. A millionaire named Michael Oliver Pritchard III and a singer named Kitty O'Kelly meet and fall in love. Meanwhile... See full summary »

Director:

Peter Bogdanovich

Writer:

Peter Bogdanovich

Stars:

Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Burt Reynolds	...	Michael Oliver Pritchard III
Cybill Shepherd	...	Brooke Carter
Madeline Kahn	...	Kitty O'Kelly
Duilio Del Prete	...	Johnny Spanish
Eileen Brennan	...	Elizabeth
John Hillerman	...	Rodney James
Mildred Natwick	...	Mabel Pritchard
Quinn K. Redeker	...	Kitty's Boyfriend (as Quinn Redeker)
J. Edward McKinley	...	Billings (Poker Party)
John Stephenson	...	Abbott (Poker Party)
Peter Dane	...	Williams (Poker Party)
William Paterson	...	Murray (Poker Party)
Lester Dorr	...	Doorman
Liam Dunn	...	Harry
Elvin Moon	...	Elevator Boy

Storyline

This film was Peter Bogdanovich's homage to musical comedies of the 1930s. A millionaire named Michael Oliver Pritchard III and a singer named Kitty O'Kelly meet and fall in love. Meanwhile, an indigent woman named Brooke Carter and an Italian gambler named Johnny Spanish meet and fall in love. All four people meet each other and become friends (actually, Kitty and Brooke had been friends since high-school), and soon, Brooke's crude, fun-loving maid Elizabeth falls in love with Michael's valet Rodney James. Later on, Michael and Brooke fall in love, and Kitty and Johnny decide to follow them around. In order to make Brooke and Michael jealous, they try to look like they are falling in love as well. Eventually, Michael and Johnny get into a fight but then immediately make up. Soon, Brooke and Kitty make up. The two couples pair off successfully and they live happily ever after.

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Plot Keywords:

neo screwball comedy | love | friend | singer | italian | 

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Taglines:

IT'S THE TOP!

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 March 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Peter Bogdanovich's At Long Last Love

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$3,270,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,450,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Copa del Oro, Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min 124 min (restored)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Only one song in this movie is not a Cole Porter song. Cole Porter wrote the lyrics to "Poor Young Millionaire" but never composed the song. Bogdanovich had the musical director compose music for the lyric in a Porter-esque style.

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Quotes

Man at Racetrack: Dames don't belong down here!
Elizabeth: Ah, go suck an egg!

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Crazy Credits

The Camera begins on a silver music box on which rest bas-reliefs of the 4 principals, they dance to a song and then the camera pans around Kitty Kelly's sumptuous black-and white art deco penthouse.

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Alternate Versions

The director's re-edited television version of the movie includes, among other things, an extra musical number for actress Eileen Brennan. Immediately following the scene between Brennan and Cybill Shepherd outside of the racetrack, Brennan sings "It Ain't Etiquette" (from Dubarry Was a Lady) to Shepherd. Clues to this excised number can be found in a rather abrupt and obvious edit in the theatrical version.

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Connections

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

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Soundtracks

You're The Top
(uncredited)
Words and Music by Cole Porter
Performed by Burt Reynolds, Madeline Kahn, Cybill Shepherd and Duilio Del Prete

User Reviews

Underrated, Ambitious Musical

This is definitely a case of people running around saying a film is terrible they've probably never seen. Upon release, the film was trashed, probably partially because of its type of cinema being out of favor (this was Scorsese/Altman time) and because of people's annoyance with Bogdanovich and Shepard on talk shows and such. But with time as a distancer, watch this film and dare to tell me it isn't superiour to "Everyone Says I Love You" in every way! I LIKE "Everyone says..." but this film, with its cinematography, and its use of Cole Porter tunes to advance the plot, while uneven, is much more ambitious than the charming Allen film. If you didn't like the Allen film, you may well not like this -- but Reynolds, Shepard, Eileen Brennan singing, which got trashed upon release, is just as good as Roberts, Norton et al warbling in "Everyone." This is a funny, unique work that does occasionally suffer from the cutes -- but so what? Polly Platt, Bogdanovich's ex-wife, always talks about this as one of his "he's no good after he left me" examples, but at least his musical retains its music (she's one of the creators of James L. Brooks' "I'll Do Anything"). This film is a target from so many for no good reason. I recommend this and "Nickelodeon", another overlooked Bogdanovich picture, to be rediscovered as the just plain good films they are!