Steambath (TV Movie 1973) Poster

(1973 TV Movie)

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8/10
Not surprised
eronavbj-122 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that most comments about this play center on Valerie's nudity and not on the play's content. Valerie is a babe, all right, but can we get past the nipples and butt to the show's dialog? It's pretty clever. Was Freidman saying that God is capricious? Mean? Enigmatic? Just? Was the old sailor the one who made the most sense by stating that he at least "lived" his life? When the individuals finally left the steamroom, were they walking into oblivion? Or to their reward? I always thought Valerie had a great body (remember Superman), but she also played a damn good part in Steambath. What impressed me most about the play was not nudity, but that the damn show was entertaining, and it made me think. A good figure can take your thoughts only so far.
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7/10
oddity from the 1970s.
ksf-22 July 2015
Bill Bixby stars in this weird adaptation from the Broadway show Steambath. It opens with Tandy (Bixby) going into a steambath for the first time, and talking with the odd characters found there. Herb Edelman (Stan, from Golden Girls !) is in there, and is a crusty, disagree-able type. Valerie Perrine is the chick who walks into the steamroom and takes a shower...showing some side-boob. Valerie will go on to be "Samantha" in Can't Stop the Music.... and of course, the Superman movies. Then two gay guys come in and do a dance routine (of course.) Their dance routine is also provocative, and they slowly lose their towels. Don't forget Kenneth Mars, from Young Frankenstein, What's Up Doc?, and my favorite, The Producers. There IS cussing, and plenty of what are now incorrect slurs of the time. Bill Bixby, already 40, runs around in his tighty whities. I knew him from "Incredible Hulk", but apparently he was also in "Magician" series. Stephen Elliot is the old guy, who seems to know what's really going on here. Elliot was the chief in "Beverly Hills Cop", and also Bert in "Arthur". Jose Perez is "Morty", the steambath attendant; I won't say too much about him, or that would give away important plot points.

Lots of 1970's references -- All in the Family, psychedelic music, automats, roller skating rink. The writer, Bruce Friedman, was also one of the writers of Splash (1984), and was nominated for an Oscar for that. Very good, but LOTS of talking.. Long, wordy speeches by Tandy and The Attendant. Clever idea, though - some of the experimental stuff from the 1960s and 1970s. The last 20 minutes are one long diatribe by Bixby. So serious. and L O N G. Directed by Burt Brinckerhoff...started as an actor. Looks like he did TONS of TV movies and series.
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8/10
The Seventies Great Examiner
bkoganbing2 March 2011
Steambath starts out with a whole cross section of the human race waking up in a steam room, wrapped in nothing but towels and wondering just how they got there. These people are not an easy fit with each other, but the clue should have been that this particular steam room also has a woman in it, not something usual in the Seventies or now, and definitely not something that the two gay men in the place would have found inviting even with the woman being Valerie Perrine.

It's Perrine and Bill Bixby who realize the situation and also the various waiters are not quite human. Where is God in this whole affair and he makes his appearance shortly in the form of Jose Perez, the washroom attendant.

What author Bruce Jay Friedman has done is given us a Seventies version of the old after life classic Outward Bound which got two big screen versions under its original title and later as Between Two Worlds. The majestic figures of Dudley Digges and Sydney Greenstreet as the Great Examiner are replaced here by Jose Perez who has a sardonic view of the highest life forms on the pecking order he's created.

There is no great moralizing here, death is merely a process whereby you transition from one existence to another. The Steambath is merely a synonym for purgatory like the ocean liner was in those two films Only Bixby really does want to go back and he and Perez get into a bit as to just what he's going back to.

Steambath is an amusing and existential take on life and death and man's ultimate place in the universe. Maybe a Steambath is what our souls need, a place to dry out and relax before moving on.
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10/10
This film needs to be re-released.
desact16 January 2000
I agree wholeheartedly with those who like this movie. I too watched it on PBS in the early seventies with a group of my friends and we all thought it was hilarious--even profound. Bruce Jay Friedman is one of the cleverest and most imaginative writers around. Check out his stories in the volume Black Angels if you want to see more of his work. Steambath is an unacknowledged gem. It ranks right alongside the black humor of Vonnegut, John Irving and T.C. Boyle. It should be resurrected.
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10/10
Why has this wonderful movie disappeared?
flamingo-318 April 1999
I watched this 3 times in one month on public TV nearly 28 years ago. Then it vanished. It remains one of the best shows I have ever seen. It was funny and touching and totally unexpected. Support public TV and ask for it!
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At long last
Copret29 November 2002
I saw this on PBS in the 70s. I have talked about it and tried to find it over the years. For all you fans, I found it on Discount DVD. It was one of Bixby's best and it was spellbinding. It is truly wonderful to see that classics like this are getting a chance to be viewed by new generations.
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10/10
Possibly the greatest play/program/show ever shown on TV and apparently lost for all time.
atisch5 July 2002
When I happened to tune into KQED in San Francisco in 1972, I was blown away by this truly outstanding program. I've never seen such a successful combination of mystery, comedy and tragedy presented in any medium or in any production. That show alone made me a life-long supporter of PBS television. I was fortunate to have seen it a couple times in the mid 1770's as it was occasionally shown during subscriber drives while I was living in Milwaukee. I have never seen any trace of it since. Believe me, I've tried.
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10/10
Are you listening PBS?
Eekamaus29 December 2001
I was fifteen when this movie originally aired. I watched it because I was a Bill Bixby fan, of all things (I was a big My Favorite Martian fan, and "The Courtship of Eddie's father was THE antidote to my real father). OK, I was fifteen, and the sight of Valerie Perrine in a towel made a big impression on me, but so did the themes and thought of this play. A lifelong agnostic, sometimes the sense of humor is the only sense that makes sense. PBS, if you won't re-air this, please make it available on video.
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7/10
An excellent play that badly needs to be updated!
bgordon12348 December 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I came across this play after hearing a reference to it in a conversation I had with one of my gay friends. I immediately went online and found a DVD version. I've since watched it half a dozen times or so.

People keep going back to Valerie Perrine's "nude" appearance in the play but really it's a distraction from the actual content. The dialogue written by Bruce Jay Friedman is sharp, poignant but badly needs revising to meet today's world as opposed to 1973. The two gay characters are not how you would portray the gay community today. Yes, queens exist in the gay community but I do believe they would be portrayed differently, with different songs, different attitudes and slightly different behaviors.

Valerie's character is a bit of an "airhead." And I think in today's feminist culture, that character would badly need to be updated with a kind of woman who offers more than just good looks. Bixby's character should also be revised because he's blatantly sexist and admits as much in some of his references and in his monologues. The power of this play really comes down to Bixby's character and how he realizes that he's now come full circle and is atoning before God all of this "sins" and now wants to lead a good and just life and just when he's ready to do so, he dies of a heart attack in a Chinese restaurant. It's a question we all mull from time to time. We wrestle with our own personal and spiritual demons. Have we lived a good life? Could we have done better? What would you say to "god" if h/she actually presented him/herself to you? And is there any need for atonement? Should you even care? And what if you're stuck in purgatory. Is a steambath the opportune place for you to redeem yourself before god? And what if you have no faith to begin with? How will god convince you that h/she is god? These are the questions that Tandy's character faces and they are brilliant questions.

And the ending is powerful. We all leave this life, ultimately, ALONE, and we must prepare ourselves and hopefully, we have enough time to have done so before our lives end.

It's just that Tandy's character needs to be updated and revised to reflect today's world and not 1973.

Some of Bruce Jay Friedman's dialogue is just dated, pure and simple. People today wouldn't understand or get references to the 1930's at all and I would update some of the other characters as well.

God as a Puerto Rico janitor is brilliant and I wouldn't change much other than having him work with an Apple computer instead of the piece of junk that's used in the '70's version.

This play at its core is fantastic. It just needs an rewrite to reflect the times we live in TODAY. Matter of fact, I'd love to rewrite this play and see it get produced!
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10/10
If you like good dialogue you will love this
bel-3915 August 2007
I saw this a long time ago and never forgot it. I think it was some sort of take off of Jean Paul Satrtes "No Exit"....

But won't spoil it for you, watch the play, folks. The acting, the script, the characterizations, all were excellent. My personal favorite was "Jesus". Very funny, not for the religiously rigid, I must say!!!

Bruce Jay Friedman was the author, this was his second play, and very intelligently written. Wish all comedies were so. Great thinking on a touchy subject, it is not to be missed by the mystically flexible. And really fun to watch.

I am going to make it a part of my collection, been telling people about it for years.
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10/10
Everyone Should Try to Find and Watch This Adaptation
wall199921 May 2007
The intriguing and imaginative plot, the excellent acting, and the tragedy of this TV adaptation of Bruce Jay Friedman's play not being available for today's audiences have been repeated by several reviewers. They are, in my opinion, all correct in their views about this wonderful, thought-provoking "black" comedy.

I know that at least one reviewer lamented the fact that many reviewers seemed to talk more about the "nudity" than the merits of the play/movie. I have not found this to be so. And, of course, in the version shown in the United States, there is not really any frontal nudity. However, I was fortunate enough to see Ms. Perrine not only when she was performing in Las Vegas, but in the uncut version of "Steambath" that was shown in the UK and on Armed Forces Television throughout the European continent in 1973.

Quite some time ago, after months and months of searching, I finally found the censored American version of "Steambath" on VHS at www.kultur.com. I could not find it at a site mentioned by another reviewer. Kultur now has this on DVD for $24.99 as of May 2007. I do not know whether it was in response to the requests here and elsewhere to re-release this fine film, but it is now available on such sites such as Amazon.com and for rental on www.netflix.com.

If ANYONE knows where I can obtain the uncut version shown outside the US, would you please contact me?

Maybe it's just because I'm a guy, but I think that the uncut version should be made available today because it adds to the impact of this insightful character study of the various personalities of the men (and one woman) who are "trapped" in the steam bath room. The uncut version is still very mild compared to what is available today, and it was all done very innocently. However, you knew that you were in for something unusual when Ms. Perrine suddenly appeared in what was apparently a men's shower/steam bath facility and dropped her towel! (You only see her from the waist up whenever she is turned toward you, of course. After all, this was 1973. Nevertheless, Ms. Perrine was facing the camera enough in the uncut version to make a lasting impression on this reviewer!)
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I miss this film too
harlanghoffman-16 April 2003
I only saw this film once, but I have never forgotten the warm and deeply Spiritual connection I felt to it. I have been asking video stores for years to get it, but to no avail. Would love to own a copy of it someday.
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10/10
Original PBS version is superb, censored DVD is useless
stfrsc11 September 2017
I was amazed by this production when it originally aired on Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET in 1972, and for years afterward as they would drag it out at fund raising time. Then it disappeared down a black hole!

The reason IMO is the portrayal of the unison-speaking gay guys, with perhaps some Perrine nipples mixed in. In this oh so politically correct era we can't have any of that, now can we? Steambath retains its relevance in that it highlights how much less freedom of expression we enjoy today compared to the early 1970s.
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10/10
Q: "What is life ???"
livingevernow12 August 2012
Seeing this "play" on PBS when first aired, I was left with questions ranging from character development, story location, interpersonal exchanges, etc. After (fortunately) viewing this masterpiece on several occasions I decided "Steambath" & my questions have individual answers to everyone. So, "What is Life?" and After remains a question with an infinite number of solutions; each your own. "Steambath" was & remains in my top most influential "plays/movies" ever! On par with this "10" is Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun"(~1969 movie) which describes the individual horror of War (WWI) from the perspective of a soldier - quadriplegic who also has lost sight & speech. He can only "Hear" who/what happens to & around him in the aftermath of man's inhumanity to man.
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10/10
Steamy in many ways
Bernie44447 February 2024
The basic story has been told in many ways and also some variation. Much more popular when purgatory was a real place. This is a story of a hand full of characters that find themselves at a crossroads or a steambath in their afterlife. Seams that the deity (José Pérez) is the attendant who replaces towels and enjoys a good story.

The attraction on an esoteric level is how the people get along with each other. Then we have individuals contemplating the past present. The steamy part of the play is Valerie Perrine; the first woman to show off her accouterments on U. S. TV (4 May 1973) being in the altogether and filmed showing from the side.

The hinge point of this story is watching Tandy (Bill Bixby) who refuses to believe that the Attendant is the deity and is determent to get back to his former life. One can believe if he does not perturb the Attendant, Tandy just might pull it off.
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God is actually a slightly-built Puerto Rican janitor, making life and death decisions via an old-fashioned "computer"
penny-261 July 1999
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this movie over 25 years ago on TV. Several times as a matter of fact...the late, late, very late show! It really got under my skin. I've been looking for it forever, because the film really made an impact on me. I was beginning to doubt I had actually seen it. The film opens in a steam bath. Bill Bixby, confused in a towel, is told that he has died and the steam bath is the holding pen before moving into the netherworld (there's actually a door leading to eternity (heaven or hell??). He eventually determines that the skinny little Puerto Rican janitor on the other end of the room is God. "God" stands at a computer terminal making fateful decisions for those on earth (ie, Mary drives down Rt 1 in San Francisco, makes a fatal driving error and goes off the cliff). This film was highly thought-provoking and eerie. The entire film took place in the steam bath. Creepy. Makes you think.
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surprising oddity for TV
EyeAskance14 October 2003
People inside a public steambath realize that they have passed on...and God is their Latino mop-boy! A genuine oddity in the world of TV, this shot-on-video production is certainly not going to appeal to everyone...but for anyone with an interest in strange teleplays, this comes highly recommended. 7/10
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this is a terrific play! where can i get a copy [video, etc.]?
jsteved23 July 2000
A very metaphysical, light-hearted play I saw on PBS 28 years ago and have not seen since. I really, really would like to view it again and give it as a stocking-stuffer to all my friends this Christmas. It is a must on how not to take life or yourself too seriously. Anybody know where I can get a copy?
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Wonderful movie
maxley27 March 2001
This is an incredible movie. PBS needs to pull this one out of the archives and release this on DVD/VHS just as they have done with "The Lathe of Heaven", another wonderful picture. If anyone knows where this film can be purchased, please let me know.
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Humorous, irreverent, thought provoking, stellar, and yes, nudity!
FinalChange1 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This is basically a play without audience laugh track (thank the steamroom attendant for that!) on DVD. There is basically only one location in the entire show: the steambath! And to make matters worse, it's a satire! Now this combo would normally be enough to keep me from watching, but since it's starring Bill Bixby, I had to get this!

Well, I was really glad I picked this one up! Bill Bixby is sublime in the role of Tandy, a man who walks into the steamroom to find out he's just died and he's trapped here for the rest of eternity! As if that weren't bad enough, he's going to have to share it with a couple of half-naked singing (and dancing!) gay guys, a cantankerous old drunk, and to top it off, an obnoxious Puerto Rican who is the steamroom attendant (José Pérez). Oh! He also turns out to be God! A God who gives outlandish commands to a machine simply to wreck havoc in the world for his pure entertainment! (How's that for satire?!)

To lighten things up a bit, in walks the necessary all-purpose blonde bimbo (Valerie Perrine). Tandy's mood perks up a bit. Especially when she takes a shower right in front of everyone!

Tandy pleads with the janitor: he just wants his life back! But this God is the classic version of a random and unjust God. (And that's what makes this a fascinating and thought provoking movie!) He just won't hear it! The end monologue, delivered by Bixby, is quite moving, and a climax that is not only impressive, but also splendidly well acted.

This is an irreverent and thought provoking DVD that is definitely not for the religious zealot! And for those who might get offended, be forewarned, there IS brief nudity: a couple of butts here (the gay guys') and a couple of breasts there (Perrine's). And no, it's no sleazy, it's just the towels coming off!

José Pérez is noteworthy and absolutely perfect for this part! Valerie Perrine is entertaining and also the right choice here. As for Bill Bixby, he delivers his lines with flair, and even though some of them are a bit edgy, he retains a primordial class through and through which softens up the impact of those words and makes his character every bit likable. Not only that, Bixby's inherent charisma unassumingly compels the audience to watch his stellar performance until the very end.

This gets my 10/10 vote. We're lucky to have this DVD. It deserves to be seen, if only to make one ponder the meaning of life, the obsolete concept of a religious "God", and for the incredible talent of every actor here, particularly that of Mr. Bill Bixby!
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Memory of the film is hazy, but not of Valerie Perrine
glssr6018 September 2004
I saw this movie/show late night on television when i was perhaps 13-15 years old (1973-1975) and while i cannot actually say whether i enjoyed it or not...i was flabberghasted when right there on my television (no HBO or Cinemax, mind you) Valerie Perrine took off her towel and her breasts were right there staring me in the face! I was absolutely shocked (in a good way, of course) to see nudity on television, albeit, late at night, but still on cable TV! Wish i could say more about the plot, but you can rest assured that 30 years later at least THAT part I can remember clearly!! :) I did watch the whole thing, so it must have held my interest...or perhaps i was just hoping to see the rest of her.(Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl? Pfft!)
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One gem of a movie
Observer-222 April 1999
Yes! Steambath was one of those dramas that deserve to be out. I wonder who has the rights to this version and can it be put out on video? Well worth watching. Especially the comment on Cuban cigars in view of Bill Clinton and Monica, heh, heh, heh...grin!;

Seriously, it and 'Nourish the Beast,' were some very good early 1970's PBS dramas.
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On Broadway HD
lorimarshall-4012417 February 2021
Many were lamenting not being able to find this gem. It's now streaming on Broadway HD
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