Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Tom Conti | ... | Gowan McGland | |
Kelly McGillis | ... | Geneva Spofford | |
Roberts Blossom | ... | Frank Spofford | |
Joel Fabiani | ... | Dr. Jack Haxby | |
Cynthia Harris | ... | Bobby Springer | |
Lois Smith | ... | Mare Spofford | |
E. Katherine Kerr | ... | Lucille Haxby | |
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Rex Robbins | ... | C. B. Springer |
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Kara Wilson | ... | Edith McGland |
Jack Davidson | ... | George Spofford | |
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Damon Douglas | ... | Tad Springer |
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Robert Nichols | ... | Harry Pycraft |
Ed Grady | ... | Dr. William Ormsby | |
Thomas McGowan | ... | TV Interviewer (as Tom McGowan) | |
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Dan Doby | ... | Alvin |
Gowan McGland is a half-Irish/half-Welsh Scottish poet with some renown. He is also a total s*** - a boozer, a womanizer (his conquests more frequently married than not), lazy, and a leech, with a deteriorating body and bad teeth, losing which he equates with death. He also has his charms, which, in combination with his renown, leads to him usually being able to get what he wants. His wife, Edith McGland, also a writer, is well aware of who he is, their marriage which is in name only, although they are still good friends. It is because of her profession and her connection that she has been commissioned to write his biography. Because he is lazy, he has not written anything in five years. He is on a speaking tour to earn what little money he has, currently on an extended stop in Woodsmoke, Connecticut. His reputation in almost every sense precedes him in Woodsmoke - including his womanizing where probably only the husbands of his conquests are unaware of what's going on, and his ... Written by Huggo
REUBEN, REUBEN ****1/2 Tom Conti's role--Gowan McGland, a philandering Scottish poet suffering from writer's block and a depression--is drinking away his fears and tears in wanting something more. He finds fulfillment, however, on one of his gallivanting book tours when he falls in love with a youthful, spirited college student named Geneva. The impressive turns from Conti, Kelly McGillis (debuting here as Gowan's girlfriend), and Roberts Blossom (as Geneva's grandfather) are a must-see, but it's Julius J. Epstein's screen writing that drives the picture. This film, which opened in New York with a bang but petered into obscurity extremely quickly, will intrigue, humor, and often surprise you. Rated R. 1983
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