The Four Seasons (1981)

Three middle-aged wealthy couples take vacations together in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Along the way we are treated to mid-life, marital, parental and other crises.

Director:

Alan Alda

Writer:

Alan Alda

Stars:

Alan Alda, Carol Burnett, Len Cariou

Nominated for 4 Golden Globes. Another 1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Alan Alda	...	Jack Burroughs
Carol Burnett	...	Kate Burroughs
Len Cariou	...	Nick Callan
Sandy Dennis	...	Anne Callan
Rita Moreno	...	Claudia Zimmer
Jack Weston	...	Danny Zimmer
Bess Armstrong	...	Ginny Newley (Callan)
Elizabeth Alda	...	Beth Burroughs
Beatrice Alda	...	Lisa Callan
Robert Hitt	...	Room Clerk
Kristi McCarthy	...	Waitress
David Stackpole	...	Doctor

Storyline

Three middle-aged wealthy couples take vacations together in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Along the way we are treated to mid-life, marital, parental and other crises.

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Plot Keywords:

vacation | divorce | winter | autumn | summer | 

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Taglines:

Here's to our friends... and the strength to put up with them.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 May 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Vier Jahreszeiten

Filming Locations:

Vermont, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,365,643, 25 May 1981, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$50,427,646

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie won at least one film industry award with the picture's director Alan Alda wining a Bodil Ward in 1982 for Best Non-European Film (Bedste ikke-europæiske film).

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Goofs

After Jack's outburst, Kate is holding him on the couch. As the shots shift from them to other characters and back, Kate is sometimes stretching the neckline of Jack's sweater and sometimes not.

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Quotes

Nick: She might fall down! I can't let Ginny just wander around in the snow like that.
Jack: Why not?
Nick: Because she's pregnant.
Jack: Pregnant? You're forty-three years old! You're gonna start having babies now?
Nick: Oh, there's some real heartwarming acceptance. I have to check everything with you? As a matter of fact, I told you I wanted to start a new family.
Jack: With babies?
Nick: What, with airdales?

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Alternate Versions

CBS edited 10 minutes from this film for its 1984 network television premiere.

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Connections

Featured in Sneak Previews: This Is Elvis, Bustin' Loose, Atlantic City, The Four Seasons (1981)

User Reviews

Ingratiating Comedy Focuses on a Circle of Vacationing Married Friends

Twenty-five years since its initial release, this 1981 comedy from Alan Alda, its director, writer and nominal star, still holds up pretty well. In fact, I just saw Norman Jewison's 2001 film, "Dinner with Friends", which feels like a partial remake in following the friendships that evolve among married couples hovering around middle age. Using Vivaldi's familiar string concertos as a transitional device, Alda's film concerns itself with three upscale couples who take vacations together every season, consequently we get four vignettes over the course of a year. It's a contrived plot machination with no sense of climax, but it all seems to fit the contours of the story.

Jack is a lawyer who would like nothing more than have group therapy sessions with his friends, while his wife Kate, a magazine editor, is a no-nonsense woman who sometimes gets frustrated with Jack's constant emotional insulation. Danny is a neurotic, penny-pinching dentist married to Claudia, an artist with the hot temper of her Italian roots. Nick is a philandering insurance agent who wants to divorce his wife Anne, a housewife frozen by her self-doubts. It is the dissolution of this last marriage that provides the impetus for the group to examine the state of their relationships with their spouses and friends. The group starts out with a spring fishing trip when Nick confides to Jack about his need for a divorce, followed by a Caribbean summer boat trip when Nick brings his new nubile girlfriend Ginny, a wide-eyed stewardess. The fall has them visiting their kids in college, and a soccer match proves to be a test of wills among the men to prove their virility to Ginny much to the chagrin of the wives. The last piece takes them to a wintry cabin where true feelings are exposed, especially as Ginny exposes the women for their vindictive exclusionary tactics.

The acting is solid. Alda seems to be doing a send-up of his own sensitive male persona as Jack, and a wisely cast Carol Burnett is actually pretty subtle as Kate. These two were such huge TV icons in the 1970's that the impact of their goodwill is almost instant. As the most comic pair, Rita Moreno and Jack Weston provide most of the laughs as they banter and bicker like Fred and Ethel Mertz redux. Broadway actor Len Cariou manages the insolence and liberation of a husband set free, while Sandy Dennis brings a palpable dimension of sadness to the socially ejected Anne. Bess Armstrong plays Ginny with an apt sunniness masking a burning need for acceptance. The story leads to little beyond a funny sight gag and an implication that Ginny will become more integral to the group, but the dialogue is often shrewdly observant and sometimes cannily witty. Alda doesn't quite have Woody Allen's sharp acumen in producing genuine laughs out of the human condition, but the film generates a good time while it lasts. The 2005 DVD has no extras.