Walter Matthau

Set in New York City, the film follows three Mozell sisters, who deal with their self-obsessed lives and hang up on others in phone conversations. The eldest sister Georgia (Diane Keaton), age 50, is single and runs a successful women's magazine in NYC. The youngest sister Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), age 34, is also single and a not-very-bright nobody who has just landed her big break as a soap opera actress. Middle child Eve (Meg Ryan), age 39, is an event planner living in Los Angeles with a husband named Joe Marks (Adam Arkin) and their young teenage son Jesse, and spends most of her time worrying that her ailing and cantankerous 79-year-old father, Lou Mozell (Walter Matthau), will die at any minute. Much of the story proceeds around phone calls the three sisters make to each other (rudely hanging up on each other without saying good-bye), and calls that Lou makes to Eve. Eve places Lou in the hospital for tests because he has been having memory problems. He recalls his days writing a screenplay with his wife for a John Wayne movie. His wife, the daughters mother, left them in the 1980s because she no longer loved him and felt she did not make it as a mother. Eve tends to Lou in the hospital, whose senility is becoming more evident. At one point, Lou even comes on to Eve, thinking she is a past love named Cleo. In a flashback to 11 years ago in 1988, Eve remembers when she and her sisters came to visit Lou for Christmas at his house in L.A., and found him in bed with their female dental hygienist. Afterwords, Lou gets sad and says he misses his wife. Eve goes off to visit her mom Pat (Cloris Leachman), asking her to return to Lou, but she is adamant about her reasons for leaving. She does not care that Lou recently tried to kill himself. Eve returns to their house and goes out with Lou to get a Christmas tree, which cheers him up. In the present day, Maddy brings a huge St. Bernard dog to visit Eve. Some hilarity ensues. Meanwhile, Lou wanders out of the hospital back to their old house, and Eve comes to pick him up. In another flashback to six years earlier, Eve remembers Halloween in 1993. She throws a big costume party for her son Jesse, but Lou shows up drunk and ruins the party. He insults her and she throws him out. In the present, Lou has a "mini-stroke" as Eve is dealing with planning a speech Georgia will deliver to a women's group. Georgia suggests to Eve (by phone) that Lou should sign a blank check for their needs because he has plenty of money in the bank, but he refuses. After the mother of a doctor tells Eve that she needs to let go of her estranged mother, Eve goes to Lou and lies that his wife died in an earthquake. He whispers to her, "I won." Eve gathers up all cell phones in her house and puts them in a cupboard. Georgia makes a big entrance at the women's event, then makes a surprising and insincere speech about her father dying, leaving her sisters aghast. She concludes that her generation of women are dealing with the death of their parents as they face their own mortality. Eve gets upset at Georgia and Maddy because she deals with their dad more than them. The three of them then bicker at length. They get a call that Lou has gone into a coma and rush to the hospital. After more tension between the sisters, Eve tells Georgia that she needed her help. The sisters sit by Lou's bed as Eve tries yet again to recall the name of a short blonde actress from the 1950s who always played sad roles. Lou becomes conscious for a second and says, "June Allyson." The sisters are thrilled that he is right, but just as suddenly as he spoke, his heart stops beating. A nurse comes in to find he has no pulse, and he dies before their eyes. In the final scene, some months later at Thanksgiving, the three sisters make turkey, and get into a mild food fight. Eve has another memory of her father, this time dancing with his daughters and wife.

30 years later... Oscar has settled in Sarasota, Florida, where he reports on a weak minor league baseball team and plays cards with other senior citizens. His son notifies him from California that he's getting married in a few days, to the daughter of Felix Ungar. Oscar and Felix happily reunite at the Los Angeles airport, 17 years after living together in New York City, but having not seen each other since then. They rent a car and drive off together, promptly teasing each other about their annoying differences: Felix was always fastidious and clean, Oscar was always unkempt and casual. Oscar soon gets irritated with Felix for needing to stop to pee, and later needing to stop for food, and to take pills. Felix laments that his third wife left him a few years earlier. Within a couple hours of driving, the two lose the directions to the wedding, realizing that Felix's suitcase was left back at the car rental agency. Making matters worse, the empty rental car rolls down a hillside and explodes. Felix and Oscar set off on foot along the desert highway, and no other cars come by for hours. They finally get picked up by a Mexican farmer, who asks them to drive his truck to a nearby gas station. They are soon stopped and arrested by a phalanx of police who find many illegal immigrants in the back of the truck. The local sheriff deduces that the two are not criminals and lets them go. Felix calls relatives at the wedding site and learns that they are five hours off course, so he and Oscar decide to spend the night in their current town. Felix and Oscar go off to a local bar, where Oscar charms a couple ladies somewhat younger than they are, named Thelma and Holly, and Felix goes along. The two couples dance, until the ladies suddenly need to leave. The next morning, they get a ride with an older man who is heading to the town where the wedding is being held. Alas, he soon dies after driving the car very slowly for a few miles. Police show up and take Felix and Oscar back to town, where the same sheriff from before again deduces they have committed no crimes and lets them go. Felix and Oscar get a bus out of town, and Felix says he feels happy and youthful. Along a stop, Thelma and Holly get on the bus, but soon after, the ladies' husbands hijack the bus and take all of them hostage on a wild car ride. Soon the police stop them and take them back to the same town where the same sheriff from before becomes so frustrated that he offers to transport Oscar and Felix to the wedding by a regional airline. While getting on the plane, Felix meets a friend of Oscar's named Felice, whom he is sure is his soulmate. Oscar convinces Felix to chat up Felice, and the three continue on to the wedding. When they arrive, they immediately learn that Oscar's son-- the groom-- has gotten cold feet and is hiding on the roof. Oscar tries to talk him out of getting married, in reverse psychology that convinces his son to go through with the wedding. After the service, Felix dances with Felice. Oscar gives his son extremely valuable baseball cards as a gift. That night, Felix tells Oscar that he plans to spend some time in San Francisco with Felice. Felix and Oscar depart at the airport with restrained emotion. Back in Sarasota, Felix shows up at Oscar's house to tell him that things did not work out with Felice. Oscar is hesitant, but agrees that Felix can stay with him for a while. As Felix begins cleaning the place, Oscar goes back to playing poker with his old friends.

Two old men - a white former radical, and a black retired janitor - strike up an unusual and funny friendship on a park bench in New York, where they deal with family, drug dealers, and the pitfalls of age. Old Nat Moyer is a talker, a philosopher, and a troublemaker with a fanciful imagination. His companion is Midge Carter, who is half-blind, but still the super of an apartment house. When he is threatened with retirement, Nat battles on his behalf. Nat also takes on his daughter, a drug dealer, and a mugger in this appealing version of a really 'odd couple'. —Derek Picken <dpicken@email.msn.com>

Just as John and Max resolve to save their beloved bait shop from turning into an Italian restaurant, its new female owner catches Max's attention. Things don't seem to change much in Wabasha County: Max and John are still fighting after 35 years; Grandpa still drinks, smokes, and chases women; and nobody's been able to catch the fabled "Catfish Hunter", a gigantic catfish that actually smiles at fishermen who try to snare it. Six months ago John married the new girl in town, Ariel, and people begin to suspect that Max might be missing something similar in his life. The only joy Max claims is left in his life is fishing, but that might change with the new owner of the bait shop. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

During the film opening, we see a man, presumably Einstein (Walter Mathau) playing a violin, as another man walks past a poster advertising Boyd's comet. We then see Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan) with her fiance James Moreland (Stephen Fry). She's working on some math referring to the comet. He comments that she's babbling when she tries to tell him a story. The scene cuts back and forth with a group of elderly men arguing about whether time exists. Meg and James are in his convertible when it develops engine trouble. We see Einstein discussing with his friends (the elderly men), whether there are 'accidents' and he says, "I do not believe God plays dice with the universe." Catherine and James pull into a garage, where Ed Walters (Tim Robbins) is arguing with his boss, Bob (Tony Shalhoub), about the car they hear coming into the shop, what make and model it is and what the trouble with it is, based on what they can hear. Bob sends out Ed to check because he sees the couple and assumes they're "college people" meaning they come from Princeton College. As soon as Ed sees Catherine, he falls for her. James, obnoxiously asks if someone there can work on a British engine, and Ed says, "May I look under the bonnet?" James, reassured by the use of the word 'bonnet' consents. Ed looks at it, looks at Catherie and pronounces, "You have no spark." There's clearly a double meaning here, referring to her relationship with James. James insists, "But what's wrong with it?" and Ed adds, "My guess is that you have a short stroke and premature ignition." He turns to Meg Ryan and says, "Does it ever feel that way?" She replies, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean" but it's clear that she gets the double entendre. Ed says he'll go check with his boss about fixing it, and goes in to tell his boss that he's in love, that time and space stopped, that he could see himself kissing Catherine in the future. Ed tells Catherine that fixing the car will take days, and she uses his phone to call a cab, giving the cab company and Ed her address for the invoice. In the process, she leaves behind a pocket watch. There's a brief moment where you see a hand move the watch under some magazines, but whose hand? And is it an accident? Or deliberate? The theme of accident versus deliberate intervention occurs repeatedly in the film. Ed goes to return the pocket watch and discovers that the address is the home of Albert Einstein, who is Catherine's uncle. Ed helps Einstein and his friends retrieve a badminton racket and in the process befriends them. It's clear to them that Ed likes Catherine. Einstein sees that his niece is unhappy with her fiance and wonders how to help Ed date her. She will only date a very intelligent man, and Ed is an auto mechanic. Ed says, "That's easy, lend me your brain for a couple of days." Einstein gets an idea. Einstein and his three friends hatch a plot to make Catherine think that Ed has developed cold fusion as a way to power a rocket to reach the stars so she'll desire him. They help Ed appear hyper-intelligent, helping him present a paper on cold fusion at a symposium and then helping him pass an IQ test administered by Catherine's fiance. Catherine, as a mathematician, is trying to figure out "Ed's" theory on cold fusion, but she struggles with it. Ed wants to tell Catherine he's a fake, but he can't quite seem to. Einstein and his buddies interfere with Catherine's relationship with James, and encourage Ed. James is presented as a sadistic, sexually cold man who puts Catherine down subtly. Of course, there's always a happily-ever-after ending, even though it takes President Eisenhower's appearance in the film, a convertible, a motorcycle, waltz music, engineered automotive troubles and a comet, to make it all come about.

John and Max are elderly neighbors in a cold Minnesota town. They both live alone in their homes since their wives have died, and exchange stories about how their friends are now dying when they are not busy insulting each other. They have a contemptuous rivalry that goes back over 50 years. A very attractive woman named Ariel, who is a little younger than them, moves in across the street during the days before Thanksgiving. She is so adventurous that she rides a snowmobile on the streets at night. Johns daughter Melanie has a baby girl but is separating from her husband. Maxs son Jacob is running for mayor of their town. Melanie and Jacob have an ongoing flirtation with each other. John is trying to evade the IRS, to whom he owes back taxes. One night he thinks the IRS has come for him, so he jumps out his bedroom window, and Ariel surprisingly shows up, asking to use his bathroom for no particular reason. She discloses that she has been watching how John and Max both ogle her. The next day, John tries to convince Max that his visit from Ariel was amorous in intent. Their bitter bickering at each other continues apace. Chuck is another older man who runs a local bait shop. He challenges John and Max to think about how attractive they actually are to women anymore. Johns father, known as Grandpa, goes ice-fishing out on a frozen lake, where his son and Max (and many other local men) also have their own little fishing shacks. Grandpa is a blithe spirit at the age of 94, enjoying a bounty of liquor and non-filtered cigarettes. One evening Chuck goes to visit Ariel at her home, which John and Max intently spy upon. When later asked why he was with her, Chuck says they did not have sex but something more like a spiritual awakening. John and Max thus both plan visits to Ariel and spend much time making themselves presentable. As we learn, Ariel used to teach art and now teaches classics, and her tastes are revealed through her houseful of eccentric pieces. She also had a husband who died five years earlier, and keeps a life-size sculpture of him, naked, in her studio. Max is next to visit Ariel, and she is mildly bemused by his accounts of being a television repairman. Later she visits him in his ice-fishing shack and they try to pull in a legendarily enormous fish together. The sound of Max and Ariel loudly fighting and grunting to bring up the prize fish is overhead by the other men on the lake, who assume they are having wild sex. As it turns out, they actually do land the fish, but to the shocked dismay of Max, Ariel throws it back in the water. Thereafter, Ariel tells Max they will be great friends, but her chaste kiss reveals it will not be a romantic relationship. In a sincere moment, John tells Max that Chuck has died suddenly. They still end up fighting with each other again. Later, Ariel shows up at Johns house unexpected, and offers to cook dinner. John is quite charming in their conversation, telling her stories of his days as a teacher. John goes to visit his father, who tells him that after you turn 90, you begin realizing that all you have in life are experiences. He motivates John to pursue Ariel, which he soon does by joining her on a snowmobile ride to further evade an IRS agent waiting at his house. Ariel even lures John into making snow angels on the ground, and they hold hands. Over another dinner. Ariel asks John about the pictures in his house. He had a son who died in the Vietnam War, and as it turns out, he and Max were much closer friends when they were younger. He begins to tell the story of how the two of them became enemies when they fought over a woman. Somehow finding inspiration, John moves in to give Ariel a deep kiss, and she is receptive. Soon thereafter, Ariel invites John to bed. He remarks that he has not made love since October 4. 1978, so Ariel suggests that theres no need to worry about sexual diseases. The next morning, Max gives Ariel flowers to apologize for his rakish behavior before. Meanwhile, John is dancing around his house, so energized that he adds Tabasco to his eggs. John and Max return to their ice-fishing rituals, but now Max is so angry and jealous of him that he drives a truck into Johns shed and forces it out onto thin ice. This leads to a very physical yet comical fight between them, in which we learn that John had married a woman whom Max had always loved. John then confesses that he thought Maxs wife was a better woman than his wife. John goes on to say that he had the greatest sex ever with Ariel, which provokes Max to try stabbing him with a frozen fish. Of all people, Grandpa intervenes to break up these two delinquents. Downtrodden, John feels that Max should have Ariel because he stole Maxs true love when they were younger. Ariel brings John one of her paintings, but explains that they will not work as a couple. Ariel is disappointed, and tells John that the only things you regret in life are the risks you dont take. Johns daughter Melanie shows up for Christmas Eve with her estranged husband. John privately repeats to her what Ariel told him about living with regrets, and then Maxs son Jacob shows up. Jacob later pushes his dad to make peace with John. John and Max meet at a bar and John reveals that he pitied Max and gave up Ariel for him. They argue again, and on the way back from the bar, John has a heart attack. While he is in the hospital, the IRS moves to claim Johns house, although Jacob, who has been elected mayor, gets an order to save the property. We next see people gathering for what appears to be a solemn event at a church, which is not a funeral as we may expect, but actually a wedding for John and Ariel. Much time has done by, during which Jacob arranged to clear Johns IRS debt, with Maxs help. John and Max have reconciled, and their children are clearly falling in love with each other. Grandpa gives away Ariel at the ceremony, and all is joyous as the couple head off in their limo... but Max has left a fish in the back just as a little revenge.

Dennis Mitchell (Mason Gamble) is a five-year-old boy who lives with his parents Henry (Robert Stanton) and Alice (Lea Thompson) and is the bane of next door neighbor George Wilson's (Walter Matthau) existence. One day, George pretends to be asleep to avoid Dennis, who mistakes this for illness and shoots an aspirin into his mouth with a slingshot. Dennis's parents Henry and Alice learn of the incident, and are both dismayed about it, but they can't immediately deal with it, as they both have to work, so they leave Dennis with his best friend Joey McDonald at the home of their impetuous classmate Margaret Wade, much to Dennis's dismay. Despite Dennis and Joey's dislike of Margaret, the three work together to fix up an abandoned tree-house in the woods. Because of his trouble-making but unintentional behavior, his parents often struggle to find suitable babysitters to deal with him. While vacuuming spilled paint in the garage, Dennis inadvertently shoots a glob of it onto George's barbecue grill. Tasting the paint, George suspects Dennis for the mischief. On one night, they manage to get one named Polly (Natasha Lyonne) and her boyfriend Mickey (Devin Ratray) to babysit him, but repeated doorbell pranks from Dennis push the two too far (not knowing he is behind this). Mickey tapes a thumbtack to the doorbell. George investigates the vacuum in the Mitchells' garage and accidentally shoots himself in the buttocks with a golf ball. Hoping to confront the Mitchells, George rings the doorbell, but pricks his thumb on the tack, and Polly and Mickey, mistaking him for the prankster, douse George with water and flour, much to the amusement of George's wife, Martha. While all of this and the rest of the events in town go on, a burglar named Switchblade Sam (Christopher Lloyd) arrives in town and begins robbing houses, as well as striking fear into the children that he meets. Dennis plays with George's dentures, loses the two front incisors, and replaces them with Chiclets before George has his picture taken for the local newspaper. Dennis' parents are both called away on business trips at the same time, and when everyone they know refuses to look after him, they turn to George and his wife Martha (Joan Plowright) to look after him. Martha loves Dennis and sees him as a surrogate grandson. George is further irritated by him spilling bath water on the bathroom floor, swapping chemicals, and bringing his pet dog, Ruff, into the house for a while. George, however, is infuriated that Dennis has replaced his nasal spray with mouthwash and the latter with toilet cleaner. In the attic, Dennis's carelessness causes George to slip on mothballs. All of this is happening around the time the Summer Floraganza, a long-awaited event, is scheduled to happen. As a longtime member of the local garden club, George is chosen to host it. He is excited to have this honor, as he has been growing and nurturing a rare plant for forty years. After growing for the said length of time, its flower finally blooms, only to die several seconds later. Alice gets stuck at the airport due to a storm, thus forcing Dennis to stay with the Wilsons for an extra night, which coincides with the unveiling of the plant and its blooming to the members of the garden club. While that is happening, he is sent away for causing trouble, namely overturning the dessert table when he pushed a black button, which he found out opened the garage door. When he hears Switchblade Sam robbing the house. He goes downstairs and finds George's gold coins missing. He runs outside to tell him just as the flower is beginning to bloom, which causes him and all the guests to miss its entire lifespan of the blooming flower. Not knowing about the robbery, George severely scolds Dennis, tells him that he has no use for him, and that he doesn't want to know or see him anymore. Shortly thereafter, Dennis gets on his bicycle (with a wagon attached) and rides off into the night, eventually bumping into Switchblade Sam in the woods. Sam then abducts him, intending to use the child as a hostage. Dennis' parents return home and learn of his departure, and they, the authorities, his friends Joey (Kellen Hathaway), Margaret (Amy Sakasitz) and all the neighborhood kids, and George search all night for him. George feels intense guilt and remorse after remembering all the things he said to him and having now discovered his house was burglarized and that Dennis actually had good intentions when he tried to tell him. Switchblade Sam prepares to leave town with Dennis as an unsuspecting hostage but grows annoyed with Dennis's constant talking. Showing Sam the proper way to tie him up, Dennis handcuffs Sam, loses the key, unintentionally bludgeons him multiple times, and sets him on fire. As Dennis discovers George's stolen coins and realizes that Switchblade Sam is a thief, Sam attempts to stab Dennis but is snared in a rope that is caught by a passing train and stabbed in the buttocks by his own knife, subduing him too much to do anything further. Dennis returns to George's house the next morning with Switchblade Sam in his wagon, having also recovered George's gold coins, and Sam is taken into police custody by a slightly amused sheriff Bennett (Paul Winfield) who had previously advised him to leave town. Switchblade Sam is arrested, and Dennis naively returns his knife. Sam attempts to stab Dennis again, but Chief Bennett accidentally closes the police car door on his hand, causing him to drop his knife into the storm drain and wince in pain before being driven away, with all the neighborhood children taunting him. Dennis and George make up, and the Mitchells and Wilsons become friends on better terms. Alice mentions that she will not be traveling for work anymore and can bring Dennis to work with her because her office now has a day-care center. That night, George explains that he's learned some things about kids: kids are kids, and that one has to play by their rules, roll with the punches, and expect the unexpected, in which afterward Dennis, trying to get a flame on a marshmallow to go out, then accidentally hits him in the forehead with it. The film's end credits are accompanied with Dennis inadvertently humiliating his mother's egotistical coworker, Andrea (Melinda Mullins), while she is using a photocopier. Dennis impishly whacks the "PRINT" button and runs away, with other workers looking on. Andrea loses her balance, and her head gets pinned face-down on the scanner-bed, and the machine relentlessly flashes its blinding light in her eyes as it repeatedly "takes her picture" and spews out page after page of black-and-white "photos" showing her various agonized facial expressions as she squirms about on the scanner bed.

When a burnt-out shrink needs a temp, a charming escaped convict takes over his practice and radio show. Escaped delinquent John W. Burns, Jr. replaces Dr. Maitlin on a radio show, saying that he is a psychiatrist named Lawrence Baird. His tactless radio show is a hit, and he becomes very popular. But then Dr. Maitlin meets the real Dr. Lawrence Baird at a conference in London.

Having both lost their jobs, two strangers become unlikely friends after a run in with a would be robber, who is actually a hitman with a grudge against the two. Sonny Paluso and Donald Quinelle are two unfortunate people who have just lost their jobs; Sonny's gas station has been blown away and Donald has just been fired by his boss's parrot! But that day, their lives change when they prevent a robber from holding up a bar, and they become heroes. Unfortunately, Jack (the robber) gets away, and when he sees Donald's face on the TV, he decides to go after them. In the meantime, Donald becomes obsessed with guns and leaves for the mountains to join a survivalist group... —Chris Makrozahopoulos <makzax@hotmail.com>

For the first time in history a woman is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she becomes a friendly rival to a liberal associate. Ruth Loomis becomes the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court. A staunch conservative, she immediately runs into conflict with Dan Snow, the high court's resident liberal. Although they never agree on the issues before the Court, they develop a respect and affection for each other after several comedic encounters. —Dave Gan <longbow@bigfoot.com>

A gruff bookie's life is turned upside-down when he gets a 6-year-old kid as collateral for a bet. Sorrowful Jones (Walter Matthau) is a cheap bookie in the 1930s. When a gambler leaves his daughter as a marker for a bet, he gets stuck with her. His life will change a great deal with her arrival and his sudden love for a woman also involved in gambling operations. —Steve Richer <sricher@sympatico.ca> Sorrowful Jones (Walter Matthau) is a cheep bookie in 1930s New York City who grudgingly accepts a six-year-old girl (Sara Stimson) as collateral for a debt. The sprightly youngster soon has a positive effect on her curmudgeonly guardian, adding a little sunshine to his life.The little girl decides to play matchmaker for Sorrowful and lonely widow Amanda Worthington (Dame Julie Andrews) by setting her up with Jones on a date. —Larry B.

Casey is a young boy in a family that trains racehorses. His best friend, a foal they call "Casey's Shadow", looks to be a loser, but comes out a champion. —Martin Lewison <lewison+@pitt.edu>

On a flight to Los Angeles, California, British actress Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) watches herself on the in-flight movie in the role for which she has received an Academy Award nomination. She expresses her nervousness about the upcoming Oscar ceremony to her husband, Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine), as the plane lands. Elsewhere, on a Los Angeles freeway, Dr. Willis Panama (Bill Cosby) and Dr. Chauncey Gump (Richard Pryor), physicians from Chicago, Illinois, vacationing together with their wives Bettina (Sheila Frazer) and Lola (Gloria Gifford), bicker with each other constantly as their rental car first breaks down, then collides with two other vehicles. As Diana and Sidney check into the Beverly Hills Hotel, Hannah Warren (Jane Fonda) paces her room in the hotel while waiting to meet with her ex-husband, Bill Warren (Alan Alda). When he arrives, they note that it has been nine years since they saw each other, then they leave to keep the lunch reservation he made. At the Los Angeles airport, Harry Michaels (Herbert Edelman) picks up his brother, Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau), who has come to town to attend Harry's son's bar mitzvah. Marvin explains that he and his wife Millie (Elaine May) always fly separately, so she will arrive the next morning. Marvin notices that Harry still ogles and wants to proposition every beautiful woman he sees. Harry drops Marvin off at the Beverly Hills Hotel and they arrange to meet for dinner later. Meanwhile, Hannah and Bill reminisce over lunch and later at his beachfront home. She is an editor for Newsweek magazine in New York City and dating a writer for the Washington Post. He is a former journalist, now working as a screenwriter, and contemplating marrying his girlfriend. Then they discuss the real reason Hannah has flown to Los Angeles: their seventeen-year old daughter, Jenny (Dana Plato), unhappy living with her mother in New York, ran away to stay with her father and wants to spend the next year with him in Los Angeles. Hannah doesn't want her daughter living in southern California but she is nervous about seeing Jenny and getting her to return to New York. Back at the hotel, Diana continues fretting over the likelihood of winning the Academy Award and exchanges witty banter with Sidney. Later, she has a couple of drinks to calm her nerves as she gets dressed for the awards ceremony. As Hannah and Bill return to Hannah's hotel room, Jenny calls and informs her parents that she will abide by whatever decision they make. Hannah announces to Bill that Jenny will return to New York with her. Bill is disappointed but trusts Hannah's instincts. When Hannah expresses how afraid she is of losing Jenny, Bill remarks that he has never seen his ex-wife so vulnerable. Then Hannah says Jenny can stay with Bill in Los Angeles, but only for six months. Hannah watches Jenny drive off with Bill. At the hotel's front desk, the doctors learn there is a reservation for Willis but not for Chauncey. The hotel has no extra rooms because it is Academy Award week. The only thing available is a small single room undergoing repairs. Chauncey agrees to take it. Later, Willis tells Chauncey that he has made a dinner reservation at a Japanese restaurant and booked them a tennis court for a doubles game the next day. While the Gumps struggle to get ready in their tiny room, Chauncey complains about having to eat Japanese food. As Willis and Bettina wait for their friends in the lobby, Willis complains that Chauncey is always late. When the two couples finally gather at the hotel's front door, the doctors argue about who will drive to the restaurant, until Bettina insists she will drive. On the way to the Academy Awards, a nervous Diana begs Sidney to be nice to her and wish her luck. He reminds her how talented she is and gives her a kiss. They exit the limousine and greet the crowd outside the venue. Elsewhere, paramedics arrive at a collision in which a car is on top of the one Bettina is driving. While a policeman questions her, Chauncey insists to the officer that his legs are paralyzed from sitting down at the Japanese restaurant. After the Academy Awards ceremony, Diana observes Sidney speaking with an attractive young man. Drunk, she takes her disappointment about losing the Oscar out on her husband. At the hotel, as Harry drops his brother off after dinner, Harry teases Marvin that "the night is not over yet." Marvin goes to his room and finds that Harry has hired a hooker, Bunny, to entertain him. Later, Chauncey wakes up in the middle of the night, sick from the Japanese food. Lola calls Willis and insists he tend to Chauncey. Willis angrily acquiesces. Back in their hotel room, Diana jealously insists that Sidney was flirting with the young man that she saw him speaking with earlier. Sidney asks her why they cannot lie to each other about the nature of their relationship the same way they lie to everyone else about it. He reminds her that he has never hidden who he is... that he is homosexual. Diana asks why Sidney doesn't love her anymore. He insists he never stopped loving her. She says his kind of love doesn't do her any good, then begs him to "screw" her before immediately apologizing. She loves him but she doesn't understand why he stays with her when he could share the company of other gay men exclusively. He explains he enjoys his proximity to her minor celebrity and tells her he loves her more than any woman he's ever known. They acknowledge they have fun together, then share a kiss. She comes to bed and they make love. The next morning, Marvin wakes up to find himself in bed with Bunny. He tries to get her up and out of the room but she has passed out after drinking a bottle of tequila. Calling the front desk, Marvin learns that his wife, Millie, has just arrived and is on her way to his room. He tries to keep Millie from discovering the nude, unconscious hooker in his bed but finally reveals his indiscretion. Incensed, Millie leaves. Elsewhere at the hotel, Willis, Bettina, Chauncey and Lola play doubles tennis. Bettina accidentally smashes her racket on Willis' head, loses her balance and injures her ankle as she falls. Lola stumbles over a basket of tennis balls trying to come to Bettina's aid and Chauncey trips over the net trying to help Lola. Outside the Michaels' room, Millie hurries away as Marvin tries to explain his infidelity. At first, Millie doesn't see how she can attend the bar mitzvah knowing Harry paid for Marvin's hooker, then she decides to forgive Marvin and forget it ever happened. She also plans to spend all of his money. The Panamas and the Gumps return to the Panamas' room to care for Bettina's ankle. Lola breaks a bottle of perfume in the bathroom, then cuts her finger on one of the glass shards. While they tend to Lola, Bettina trips and falls through the room's French doors, breaking the panes of glass. Then Lola bangs her head on the door of the medicine cabinet while rinsing off her bleeding finger and passes out. Willis goes to the bathroom to soak a wet towel for her, but steps on the broken glass. Willis and Chauncey put both women on the bed then start fighting each other, damaging the room in the process. After shopping in the hotel boutique, Millie returns to the hotel room. Marvin tries to embrace her but she wants no signs of affection from him in front of the still-unconscious hooker on their bed. In the Panamas' room, Chauncey swears it has been the worst trip ever and Willis tries to force Chauncey to say it is the best time they ever had and that the Gumps will love going on vacation with the Panamas again. In front of the hotel, the taxi that the Michaels were going to take to the bar mitzvah has been given to Bunny, who is awake and fully dressed. She generously allows them to ride with her to their destination. At the airport, Hannah is surprised to see Jenny, who has come to say good-bye and thank her mother for letting her stay with Bill. In another part of the airport, the Panamas and the Gumps, who are bruised and covered in bandages, limp towards their flight. As Diana and Sidney's plane takes off, they learn that the in-flight movie is the same as on their flight to Los Angeles and Diana begs Sidney to get them off the plane.

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), an alcoholic and former minor-league baseball player, is recruited by a city councilman and attorney who filed a lawsuit against an ultra-competitive Southern California Little League which excluded the least skilled athletes (including his son) from playing. In order to settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team - the Bears - which is composed of the worst players in the whole Little League. Buttermaker becomes the coach of the unlikely team, which includes (among others) a near-sighted pitcher, an overweight catcher, a foul-mouthed shortstop with a Napoleon complex, an outfielder who dreams of emulating his idol Hank Aaron, and a motley collection of other "talent". Shunned by the more competitive teams (and competitive parents), the Bears are the outsiders. They play their opening game, and do not even record an out, with the score at 26 to 0 before Buttermaker forfeits the game. Realizing the team is nearly hopeless, he recruits a couple of unlikely prospects: First up, is sharp-tongued Amanda Whurlizer (Tatum O'Neal), a skilled pitcher (trained by Buttermaker when she was younger) who is the 12-year-old daughter of one of Buttermaker's ex-girlfriends. At first, she tries to convince Buttermaker that she has given up baseball, but then she reveals that she had been practicing "on the sly". Before agreeing to join the team, Amanda makes a number of outlandish demands (such as imported jeans, modeling school, ballet lessons, etc.) as conditions for joining. Upon hearing her demands, Buttermaker asks, "Who do you think you are, Catfish Hunter?" Amanda responds by asking, "Who's he?" Rounding out the team, Buttermaker recruits the "best athlete in the area," who also happens to be the local cigarette-smoking, loan-sharking, Harley-Davidson-riding troublemaker, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley). With Whurlizer and Leak on board, the team starts gaining more confidence, and the Bears start winning games. Eventually, the unlikely Bears make it to the championship game opposite the top-notch Yankees, who are coached by aggressive, competitive Roy Turner (Vic Morrow). As the game progresses, tensions are ratcheted up as Buttermaker and Turner engage in shouting matches, directing their players to become increasingly more ruthless and competitive against each other, going as far as fighting, spiking on slide, or the batter getting hit on purpose. The turnaround point of the game comes after a heated exchange between Turner's son (and Yankees pitcher) Joey (Brandon Cruz) and the Bears at-bat catcher Engelberg (Gary Lee Cavagnaro). Turner orders his son to walk Engelberg, the only Bears hitter he cannot overcome, despite Joey's wish to give it a try. In response, Joey intentionally throws a wild beanball nearly striking Engelberg in the head. Horrified, Turner goes to the mound and slaps his son. On the next pitch, Engelberg hits a routine ground ball back to Joey who exacts revenge against his father by holding the ball until Engelberg has an inside the park home run. Joey then leaves the game dropping the ball at his father's feet. Buttermaker - realizing that he has become as competitive as Turner - puts the benchwarmers on the field, thus giving everyone a chance to play. In spite of this, the finish-up brings up the best team-play from the Bears. After loading the bases with smart tactics (two walks and a bunt) they nearly recover a four run difference, with the last runner getting taken out at the last moment. Having narrowly lost the game at 7 to 6, Buttermaker gives the team free rein of his beer cooler. Although they did not win the championship, they have the satisfaction of having come a long way. The condescending Yankees congratulate the Bears (in a sarcastic tone implying that they really not mean it) telling them that although they are still not that good, they have "guts." Tanner, the shortstop, replies by telling the Yankees where they can put their trophy. The Bears cheer and Lupus overcomes his chronic shyness enough to yell "Wait 'til next year!", then they spray their beers all over each other. The movie ends with a field celebration by the Bears that makes it look as if they won the game.

In New York City, four heavily armed men with code names (Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Brown), wearing disguises of eyeglasses, fedora hats, and fake mustaches, board at different station stops (the Green Line at 59th Street, Grey Line at 51st Street, Brown Line at Grand Central, and finally Blue Line at 28th Street) on the Pelham 123 subway train run of the 6 Lexington Avenue Local service. The men take the train, securing a group of hostages, whom they isolate in one car of the train, then disconnect this car from the rest of the train. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau), a cynical and curmudgeonly yet light-hearted New York City Transit Authority police lieutenant, begins his day by leading four visiting Tokyo Metro directors on a tour of New York's subway command-center. This is interrupted by Blue's radio announcement to the command center that "your train has been taken." Blue (Robert Shaw), the British-accented leader of the hijackers, tells Garber they are demanding a ransom of one million dollars, to be delivered to them within one hour; otherwise they will kill one passenger per minute, starting when the hour has passed. Garber, the sarcastic Lieutenant Rico Patrone (Jerry Stiller), and other transit workers cooperate while trying to guess how the criminals intend to escape the subway tunnel and get away. Various clues soon surface for Garber to figure out, first with his hearing Blue's very distinctive English accent over the radio. It later turns out that Blue was a ruthless British mercenary, and Green (Martin Balsam) is a former transit worker who from time to time sneezes over the radio and is heard by Garber, who responds by saying "Gesundheit." Garber also learns that one of the hostages is an undercover police officer. The mayor finally agrees to pay the ransom at the urging of his deputy mayor. The police dispatch a squad car carrying the ransom money. When the car is wrecked in a collision, Garber daringly bluffs to buy some time, telling the takers that the money already has been delivered to the 28th Street Station and only the walk down the tunnel is delaying it. A reluctant Blue agrees to the delay. A police motorcycle completes the trip from the scene of the collision to the subway station and two unarmed officers are sent down the track on foot to deliver the money to the hijackers. With the money finally in hand, the hijackers demand that electric power be restored to the subway line, and that all signals in the path of the train be turned green from 28th Street to the South Ferry station, both of these being necessary for the car to move. Having overridden the subway car's dead-man's switch, which would otherwise ensure its stopping unless someone remained at the throttle, the hijackers get off the train and set it in motion. As the train starts to move, the undercover officer also jumps off the train and hides between the rails. The car begins to travel faster and faster, since no one is controlling its speed. Outside the tunnel, Garber and Inspector Daniels are convinced that the runaway train is a diversion and that the hijackers must have left the train. The hijackers divide the ransom money, discard their disguises, and start their escape into the tunnel's emergency exit; however, Grey refuses to leave his gun behind as agreed and is shot dead by Blue. The undercover officer, still hiding in the tracks, manages to kill Brown with one shot. Green escapes onto the street. Garber arrives after Green has gotten away and, drawing on Blue, orders him to surrender just as Blue is about to shoot the undercover officer. Blue asks Garber if the death penalty is available in the state of New York anymore. Told that it is not, Blue responds, "Pity", then promptly electrocutes himself by stepping onto the third rail while a horrified Garber watches. Entering the South Ferry Loop, the runaway car finally encounters a red signal. The car's emergency brakes are tripped and it grinds to a halt; the remaining hostages are all safe. Green, the only hijacker to escape, has left as a clue only Garber's surmise that one of the hijackers must be an ex-motorman of the New York Transit Authority (owing to the hijackers' knowledge of the car's operation). With the dead three all identified, Garber realizes that the hijacker still at large must be the former transit employee. Garber and Patrone, working their way through a list of former motormen "discharged for cause" (and, by implication, disgruntled), pay a visit to Harold Longman. Longman, known to the audience as Mr. Green, is shown rolling in the packs of ransom money on the bed in his seedy efficiency apartment when Garber and Patrone knock on his door. He hides the money quickly, then opens to the officers and bluffs his way through their questioning. The officers find Longman's alibi weak, but start out the door, until Longman sneezes and Garber says "Gesundheit." Garber then re-opens the door, the expression on his face in the door opening (the film's final frame) telling the audience that he knows he has just found the final hijacker.

Chicago, Illinois, 1929. Outside a criminal courts building, police build a scaffold and bleachers for the public hanging of Earl Williams, who has been convicted of killing a policeman. Upstairs, reporters play poker in the press room. Newspaper editor Walter Burns (Walter Matthau) calls from the Chicago Examiner, looking for reporter Hildebrand 'Hildy' Johnson (Jack Lemmon) to put him on the story, but he's not there. Walter leaves word that Hildy should immediately come to his office. Later, Hildy wanders into Walter's office at a leisurely pace and informs the editor that he's in love. Walter tells Hildy he wants him to cover the hanging the next morning and snap an illegal picture of the hanged man with a hidden camera. Minutes after the execution, an ambulance will be waiting for Hildy outside so that he can type his story in the back and beat the other newspapers to press with a morning extra. Hildy tells Walter he's quitting to get married and move to Philadelphia. He plans to take an advertising job so that he can spend time with his future wife instead of continuing as a workaholic reporter. Walter resents Hildy for betraying him, insisting that he taught Hildy everything he knows. Determined to keep Hildy in town and on the Williams story, Walter tracks down Hildy's fiancee, Peggy Grant (Susan Sarandon), an organist who works at a movie theater. Posing as Otto Fishbein, a probation officer, he tells Peggy that Hildy is on probation and cannot legally move to another city. Hildy then calls his fiancee, and, over the phone, realizes that Walter is playing a trick. Hildy explains to Peggy that Fishbein is actually Walter, and she sends him away. At the criminal courts press room, Hildy's replacement, Rudy Keppler (Jon Korkes), arrives and informs the others that Hildy has left the business. Mollie Malloy (Carol Burnett) arrives moments later, and yells at the reporters for writing lies about her, claiming she is Williams' girlfriend. Mollie confesses that she had befriended Williams but was not his girlfriend. Unlike the reporters, Mollie believes that Williams didn't intentionally kill anyone. As Mollie leaves, Hildy shows up with drinks to celebrate his new advertising job. Just then, the sheriff (Vincent Gardenia) visits the press room to hand out tickets to the hanging. Hildy accuses the sheriff and mayor of reprieving Williams twice so that the hanging would take place just before an election. The sheriff insists that Williams is a communist who is very sane and shot the policeman to make a political statement. Hildy disagrees, claiming that Williams is "just a screwball." At the jailhouse, Williams (Austin Pendleton), a diminutive, soft-spoken man, is escorted to the sheriff's office for his final psychological examination. Williams calmly explains to Dr. Eggelhofer (Martin Gabel) that he once sent a bomb to J. P. Morgan's office on Wall Street, then contradicts himself by saying he loves people and would never abuse anyone. Eggelhofer borrows the sheriff's gun to demonstrate his theory about why Williams shot at the police officer. Upstairs, Hildy's celebration is interrupted by gunshots. Sirens blare, more shots are heard, and the reporters realize Williams has escaped. Hildy gets on the phone to tell Walter the news. The editor laments that Hildy is no longer reporting, but Hildy promises he's "right on top of it." Downstairs, the sheriff tells reporters about Williams' escape, but insists he doesn't know where the prisoner got a gun. Hildy runs into Jennie (Doro Merande), the building's janitor, who overheard the incident. She tells Hildy she had better not reveal what she overheard, as the sheriff would fire her. Meanwhile, the injured Eggelhofer's stretcher falls out of an ambulance. As the stretcher speeds down the street, Eggelhofer yells repeatedly that Williams is a "fruitcake." Hildy phones Walter to tell him what he's learned from Jennie, that Eggelhofer used the sheriff's gun to reenact the crime, and Williams stole it, shot Eggelhofer, and made his escape. Hildy then informs Walter that Peggy is picking him up in 15 minutes and he can no longer follow the story. The Mayor (Harold Gould) addresses reporters in his office and tells them he has utter faith in the sheriff. After the reporters leave, the Mayor reprimands the sheriff for letting Williams get away. A man named Plunkett (Paul Benedict) arrives and delivers a reprieve for Williams, sent by the Governor. The sheriff receives a phone call that police have trapped Williams. The Mayor tells Plunkett that the reprieve is not applicable because Williams has escaped custody, but he may try to serve the reprieve again tomorrow. The Mayor then sends orders, via the sheriff, for the police to "shoot to kill," now that Williams is in their sights. Headed for a night train to Philadelphia, Hildy joins Peggy in a taxi outside the courthouse. However, when he realizes he left the wedding rings, he runs back inside. There, Hildy finds the rings moments before Williams falls through a window and points a gun at him. Hildy reminds Williams that he conducted an interview with the convict at his jail cell a few days ago. Williams then passes out, and Hildy drags him to the bathroom, draws the curtains, and calls Walter to tell him that he has Williams in his custody. Mollie shows up, and Williams emerges at the sound of her voice. Hildy sends Peggy to pick up their luggage while he finishes up some last-minute business. Hildy hides Williams inside a roll-top desk when the other reporters demand entry to the press room. The men suspect Hildy is hiding something. To cover for Hildy, Mollie claims to know where Williams is, then jumps out the window. The reporters run outside to see if she's still alive. As the room clears, Walter appears at the door. He orders a delivery truck and six large men to move the desk, with Williams inside, to the Chicago Examiner office. Hildy types up a story while Walter takes Williams' picture and sends Keppler to develop the negative. Just then, Peggy returns to find Hildy typing away with Walter at his side. Distracted, Hildy suggests Peggy go to the train station ahead of him, and she leaves, dejected. When he finishes the story, Hildy becomes frustrated with Walter's persistence and heads off to the train station. Before he can leave, however, the sheriff shows up with the other reporters, all of whom accuse Hildy of hiding something. A policeman holds Hildy, while the sheriff demands Williams' whereabouts. The sheriff finally realizes Williams is inside the desk. Police escort Williams away, and the sheriff arrests Hildy and Walter for hiding the convict. In a jail cell, Hildy blames Walter for keeping him from Peggy. In a neighboring cell, Plunkett, who has been arrested for drunkenness, overhears Walter and informs him that he has Williams' reprieve. The Mayor arrives at the jail, and Walter presents him with the reprieve, accusing him of ignoring it so that he could hang Williams before the election. The Mayor lets Walter and Hildy out, and Walter arranges for Hildy to be rushed to the train station to meet Peggy. Just before the train pulls away, Walter gives Hildy his pocket watch as a gift for service to his newspaper. After the train pulls out of the station, Walter (crafty and evil to the end) arranges for Hildy to be arrested at the next stop for stealing his watch! The film closes with a series of texts that say that some time later, Hildy returned to the Chicago Examiner to become Managing Editor. Walter retired, lecturing from time to time at the University of Chicago on the ethics of journalism. Williams, now freed, got married to Mollie, and the two run a health-food store together.

Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau), an innocent looking husband, and his wife plan a small bank robbery in a small bank with a younger friend. But it goes wrong, it turns bloody, the wife dies. Then, wrong again, the amount is far far more than expected. Charley realizes it's the mob's money. They have now the police AND the mob looking for them. The difference is that even if you give the money back to the mob, they kill you... Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau), an innocent looking husband, and his wife plan a small bank robbery in a small bank with a younger friend. But it goes wrong, it turns bloody, the wife dies. Then, wrong again, the amount is far far more than expected. Charley realizes it's the mob's money. They have now the police AND the mob looking for them. The difference is that even if you give the money back to the mob, they kill you...

When Henry Graham's lawyer informs him that his playboy lifestyle has consumed all of his funds, he must avoid sliding down the social ladder. He plans to marry wealthy scientist Henrietta Lowell--and kill her. Henry Graham has a problem: he has spent his entire inheritance, and is completely broke. With no skills, the only option is to make money the old-fashioned way: marry in to it. With a temporary loan to tide him over, Henry has only 6 weeks to find a bride, marry her, and repay the money, or else he must forfeit all his possessions. —Drew from Baltimore This dark comedy stars writer/director Elaine May in one of the 1970s' best but least-known films. Wealthy Henry Graham, whose only interest is being wealthy, is bankrupt. In a deal with his uncle, he borrows $50,000, which he must repay within 6 weeks' time or forfeit everything. His plan is to marry a rich heiress with no family..... but he meets the most helpless, discombobulated person imaginable. —Huggo Examines the vapid life of a born-to-wealth New Yorker. After he spends all of what was left to him, his questing after more (without bothersome labor) changes him. The main agent of change is a phenomenally passive and unassuming lady known as Henrietta Lowell. —The_Kid in Bellevue Playboy Henry Graham squanders his wealth and must seek a new source to maintain his idle rich lifestyle. The easy alternative to work is to find a rich woman, marry her, and murder her. Klutzy, nerdy Henrietta Lowell is the ideal candidate. But in dealing with his klutzy, nerdy, trusting new botanist wife and her ill-managed estate, Henry unwittingly begins to assume some sense of responsibility, not realizing this while planning to do away with Henrietta on one droll camping trip. —NYK

Three vignettes, each set in room 719 of New York's Plaza Hotel, make up this comedy. Three separate stories concerning relationship issues are presented, each largely taking place in suite 719 of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. In story one, suburban New Yorkers Sam and Karen Nash are spending the night in the hotel as their house is being painted, but more importantly for Karen because it is their twenty-"something" wedding anniversary, the hotel where they spent their honeymoon. While Karen wants to recreate the romance that she remembers of their wedding night, Sam is preoccupied with business matters. But it is other issues that highlight their fundamental differences that may demonstrate if they will make it to twenty-something plus one. In story two, womanizing Hollywood movie producer Jesse Kiplinger has exactly two hours free during his whirlwind stay in New York, which he wants to fill with a quickie. Of the many women he calls, the first to agree to meet at his suite is his old hometown flame, married Muriel Tate. Muriel, who knows what Jesse wants, he who she has not seen in fifteen years, is a bundle of nerves as she continuously second guesses herself in whether she should have come. And in story number three, there are a roomful of people in the Baroque Room of the hotel for the wedding and following reception of Borden Eisler and Mimsey Hubley, the event which is being paid for by Mimsey's penny-pinching father, Roy Hubley. What the people in the Baroque Room are unaware of is that Mimsey has locked herself in the bathroom of the hotel suite, but not saying a word to either her father or mother, Norma Hubley, as to the reason for her cold feet. As Roy and Norma try whatever they can to get Mimsey out of the bathroom while stalling the Eislers in the Baroque Room, Roy and Norma also focus on issues in their own relationship and how they raised Mimsey, which may be appropriate if they learn the reason for Mimsey's cold feet. —Huggo Film version of the Neil Simon play has three separate acts set in the same hotel suite in New York's Plaza Hotel with Walter Matthau in a triple role. In the first, Karen Nash tries to get her inattentive husband Sam's attention to spruce up their failing marriage. In the second, brash film producer Jesse Kiplinger tries to get his former one-time flame Muriel to see him for what he stands for. In the third, Roy Hubley and his wife Norma try and try to get their uncertain-of-herself daughter out of the bathroom before her approaching wedding. —Matthew Patay

A dentist pretends to be married to avoid commitment, but when he falls for his girlfriend and proposes, he must recruit his lovelorn nurse to pose as his wife. Toni Simmons believes that the only reason her married lover won't leave his wife is because of the children. Actually, her lover, dentist Julian Winston, doesn't have any children. In fact, he doesn't even have a wife--he just tells women he does to avoid getting involved. When Julian does decide to take the plunge with Toni, she insists on meeting the first wife and Julian enlists the aid of his long-time nurse/receptionist Stephanie Dickinson to play the part. —A.L.Beneteau <albl@inforamp.net> 21-year-old Toni Simmons and middle-aged married dentist Dr. Julian Winston are in love. Toni values honesty above all else, but their relationship is based on a lie: Julian is not married. He initially told her this lie to avoid making a long-term commitment to her, but now he feels he might be ready to marry her, but her respect of honesty would keep him from telling him that he lied before, and he isn't actually married. Then, not wanting to be a homewrecker, Toni wants to meet the first Mrs. Dr. Winston to ensure that their marriage is over. So Julian asks his efficient, no-nonsense, loyal, devoted nurse/receptionist Stephanie Dickinson to pose as his wife. She's the logical choice in his mind, as she already does many personal chores for him. Stephanie, a middle-aged spinster who hides any aspect of her femininity, reluctantly agrees to the ruse. Toni has more questions about her own relationship with Julian after meeting Stephanie than are answered. But in posing as Mrs. Dr. Winston, Stephanie begins to bloom much like the cactus plant on her desk. Conversely, Toni's next-door neighbor, writer Igor Sullivan, has his own thoughts about what Toni should do with her life. —Huggo In Manhattan, dentist Julian Winston works with his efficient nurse/receptionist Stephanie Dickinson, whom he compares to a cactus flower because she represses her emotions. He spends the first anniversary of his affair with 21-year-old Toni Simmons on a date with an Australian air-hostess. Believing that Julian is married with three children and chose to spend the evening with his family, she attempts suicide, but her next-door neighbor, young aspiring writer Igor Sullivan saves her life. When Julian learns what Toni did, he decides to marry her. Toni does not want to be a homewrecker and asks to talk to Mrs. Winston to be sure that she wants the divorce. Julian does not want her to know that he is a liar, so he asks Stephanie to pose as Mrs. Winston. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dr Julian Winston--successful Fifth Avenue dentist, and easygoing middle-aged bachelor--finds himself between a rock and a hard place, when his convenient, well-orchestrated lie paired with a failed act of despair force him to make a promise. As a result, Julian swears to walk down the aisle with his fresh young mistress Toni; however, when she insists on first meeting his nonexistent soon-to-be ex-wife, things take a turn for the unexpected. To get a divorce, Winston must invent a spouse--and who better than his highly competent, devoted, and stiff nurse Stephanie? This is the perfect plan, but what if things aren't what they seem? —Nick Riganas

Fussy Felix Unger moves in with his divorced poker buddy, sloppy Oscar Madison. Felix's (Jack Lemmon) wife has left him and he is contemplating suicide. His friends sense his depression and one of them, Oscar (Walter Matthau), volunteers to take him in until he is fine again. The two of them are like chalk and cheese - Oscar is fun-loving, gregarious and slovenly, Felix is a shy, stay-at-home, obsessive-compulsive neat-freak. Being around Oscar brightens Felix up, but he quickly starts to irritate Oscar. —grantss Felix Ungar has just broken up with his wife. Despondent, he goes to kill himself but is saved by his friend Oscar Madison. With nowhere else to go, Felix is urged by Oscar to move in with him, at least for a while. The only problem is that Felix is neat, tidy, and neurotic, whereas Oscar is slovenly and casual. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

Warren Black lives in New York City and suffers a recurring nightmare about attending a bullfight that ends in a piercing shrieking noise. The nightmare fills him with doubts about his job as a Brigadier General in the US Air Force who is assigned to nuclear weapons. Walter Groteschele is a professor with some audacious ideas about nuclear warfare - namely that the common conception that any exchange of nuclear weapons will inevitably and imminently lead to an all-out exchange and the annihilation of the world is wrong. He is a civilian advisor to the Defense Department and Defense Secretary Swenson. Frank Bogan is commanding general of Strategic Air Command, the nuclear weapons arm of the Air Force, and he possesses faith in the vast array of high-tech equipment at his disposal, enough that he leads a short-notice tour of a visiting Congressman, Hubert Raskob, of SAC headquarters - though he must roust his executive officer, Colonel Warren Cascio, from an unplanned visit with his elderly father, a drunken hillbilly who lives in a basement apartment and whose alcoholism periodically leads to violence. Jack Grady, a Colonel in the Air Force, leads Group Six, a squadron of Vindicator nuclear bombers, supersonic jet aircraft derived from the B-58 Hustler bombers of the latter 1950s and based near Anchorage, AL. Grady and his wingman Billy Flynn debate the utility of their fellow pilots, young men who seem more like machines than the pilots they flew with in the Second World War. All of these men are soon caught up when a computer malfunction at SAC headquarters results in replacement of a faulty control piece. The replacement is routine but momentarily freezes up SAC's mainframe as the array of computers reboots. It appears of no concern - except the glitch activates the Fail-Safe box aboard Group Six; at the same time all radios aboard Group Six are jammed by Soviet Russia, and when the fail-safe signal aboard the planes is verified, it leaves Grady and his men thinking that nuclear war has broken out and they must execute their final order - penetrate Soviet Russia from the North Pole and launch multi-megaton explosives onto Moscow. The President Of The United States now must become involved as he and his translator, Peter Buck, travel deep underground to the White House command bunker, where a "Hot Line" direct voice communicator with the Soviet Premier awaits, with Buck hearing the Russian's voice and translating his words to the President. The President, the Secretary of Defense, and General Bogan work to try and stop Group Six, but the power of the planes and the crews' unshakable working orders - orders that include disregard of all outside voice communication on the suspicion of enemy disinformation - means that the six bombers penetrate Soviet Russia and overcome the Soviet Empire's vast antiaircraft grid. Making matters worse, when The President innocently asks the Soviet Premier about jamming of Group Six's radios, the Russian initially lies about it, and when he finally tells the truth the President still cannot convince Group Six to disengage. A direct communication link to Soviet air defense headquarters is opened and General Bogan is forced to dragoon one of his technical sergeants into telling the Russians how to detonate nuclear-armed air-to-air missiles, thus blowing up their own planes. With all indications being that the bombers will reach Moscow, the President makes a deal with the Soviets - a deal so stunning as to shake even the Soviet Premier into realizing that the President's pleas that the attack is an accident are manifestly the truth, but with the sickening realization that the President's proposal is the only way to avoid omnicide.

After her husbands death, Reggie finds herself being chased by three men who stake a claim to her husbands fortune, but a mysterious stranger named Peter helps her get away.

The movie opens with modern day cowboy Jack Burns (Kirk Douglas) stretched out beside a dying campfire at dawn, awakened by the roar of fighter jets above the vast, open scrub-lands of New Mexico. Burns is a cowboy ill at ease with the modern world of the early 1960s. He rolls his own smokes and cuts through fences when they block his path. He carries no ID, not even the requisite draft card. He is on a collision course with the world around him. His only constant companionship comes from Whiskey, his spirited and beloved buckskin mare. Burns rides into Duke City, New Mexico, crossing a busy highway atop his spooked horse and nearly getting killed in the process. He surprises Jerry Bondi (Gena Rowlands), the wife of his best friend, in her kitchen. Her husband Paul (Michael Kane) is in jail, having been sentenced to two years in prison for assisting Mexican immigrants who have crossed into the United States illegally. Burns wants to go see him, but Jerry explains that the next visiting opportunity is several days off. Burns divulges that he has been forced to herd sheep just to earn a living. He says he started for Duke City as soon as he learned of Paul's plight. Meanwhile, a long-distance truck driver (Carroll O'Connor) exits a diner in Joplin, Missouri and climbs into the cab of his vehicle, headed for Duke City. He is hauling a load of porcelain toilets in his tractor-trailer. Burns plans to go into town, get drunk, and somehow get thrown in jail in order to see his friend. He finds a Mexican bar and heads for a back table with his beer and a whiskey chaser. On the way to his table, he trips over the intentionally outstretched foot of a one-armed man (Bill Raisch). Burns starts to complain, then notices the man's missing arm and apologizes. Burns sits down, drains a glass of whiskey, and starts nursing his beer, but the one-armed man suddenly throws a whiskey bottle across the room and over Burns' table. Burns calmly tells the man to watch himself and returns to his beer. The man then throws his whiskey glass and hits Burns with it. Burns once again tries to avoid a confrontation, but the man gets up from his table and approaches threateningly. He obviously has a chip on his shoulder and wants Burns to fight him. He kicks the chair out from under Burns, dumping him onto the floor. Amazingly, Burns still tries to avoid a fight, offering the truculent man a drink. The man calls Burns a coward, provoking Burns to slap him. Burns offers to even things up by putting one arm behind his back, and a savage fight ensues. The one-armed man is more than a match for Burns, using his good arm, the stump of his missing arm, a chair, a billiard ball, and a cue stick to attack Burns. A wild melee erupts with a group of patrons before the police arrive. Burns is taken to the police station, only to discover that the cells are overloaded and he is therefore being released. When he realizes he won't get to see Paul, he intentionally slugs a policeman, earning a one year jail sentence.. Sheriff Morey Johnson (Walter Matthau) arrives at the police station, where he is greeted by his deputy (William Schallert). Discipline at the police station and jail is noticeably lax. A sadistic deputy named Gutierrez (George Kennedy) enjoys riding roughshod over the prisoners. Burns quickly earns the attention of Gutierrez. Burns confides in Paul that he intends to spring him from the jail, but Paul says he doesn't intend to escape and risk a longer sentence. Burns reveals that he has smuggled two hacksaw blades into the jail. He and two Navajo cellmates spend the night sawing through one of the bars before Gutierrez shows up and calls Burns out of the cell for a supposed phone call. Gutierrez brutally beats Burns and knocks out a tooth before bringing him back. The two Navajo have escaped and Burns hurriedly resumes his escape efforts before daylight can arrive. As Burns slithers through the opening in the bars, Paul once again declines to escape. Burns is disappointed but understands the difference in their situations. Paul has a wife and child to think of; Burns is all alone. Burns climbs down the side of the jailhouse with the aid of a blanket for a rope and returns to Jerry's house. Jerry packs him some food before he gathers up spare ammunition and puts a saddle on Whiskey. It is now revealed that Burns and Jerry were once in love before Jack selflessly backed away in favor of Paul. Burns kisses Jerry goodbye and rides off, certain that his pursuers won't be far behind. Sheriff Johnson soon learns that escapee Jack Burns served in the army during the Korean War, earning a Purple Heart and the DSC, along with jail time for striking an officer. Up in the foothills, Burns watches over his shoulder for activity down below and heads for a distant mountain ridge that promises safety. The route gets steeper and more difficult with every switchback. Burns spots several armed deputies in pursuit far below. He is forced to dismount and lead Whiskey up the slippery and treacherous mountain face. Sheriff Johnson is lent the use of a helicopter by a general at the local army base to locate Burns. The skittish horse causes Burns considerable delay, allowing the helicopter crew to spot him. Burns expertly puts a rifle bullet through the tail rotor to cause the helicopter to have to land and it spirals down and crashes without killing the crew. Deputy Gutierrez, involved in the chase, eventually comes across the tethered horse and thinks he has gotten the drop on Burns, but he feels a rifle barrel pressed up against his face. Burns repays his earlier vicious beating with a rifle butt across the face of the sadistic deputy, knocking him out cold. Burns now leads Whiskey up an incredibly steep talus slope where the horse nearly plunges down the mountainside. They are rapidly approaching the summit and freedom, but the deputies are closing in. Just as the deputies are able to get a clean shot at him, Burns reaches the crest and quickly mounts up, spurring his horse into a thick stand of timber on the other side with complete concealment. Burns discovers that a bullet has passed through his boot and into his lower leg. He gingerly slides off the horse and fashions a splint from his rifle stock. Mounted up again, Burns rides down to the edge of an interstate highway at night during a heavy downpour. Across the highway is Manzano Mountain and the freedom of Mexico. Barreling down the rain-slick highway is the tractor-trailer introduced earlier, carrying the load of toilets. Burns desperately tries to maintain control over his nervous horse and coax him across the highway through the heavy traffic. At the critical moment, Whiskey spooks and rears up in the middle of the highway. The truck driver cannot possibly stop in time, slamming into man and horse and hurling them onto the shoulder. As a crowd gathers and surrounds the injured Jack Burns, Whiskey screams in agony. Burns is in obvious shock, but every scream from the horse is registered on his contorted face. Sheriff Johnson and a deputy soon arrive at the accident scene. Johnson sends the deputy to dispatch the badly injured horse, and the resulting gunshot causes Burns to wince noticeably. Sheriff Johnson is asked to identify Burns as the escaped fugitive, but the sheriff declines claiming he's never seen him closeup. Burns is loaded onto an ambulance and driven away as his cowboy hat washes across the rainy highway.

Nineteen-year-old high school student Danny Fisher (Elvis Presley) works before and after school in order to support his father (Dean Jagger) and sister Mimi (Jan Shepard). After Danny's mother died, his grieving father lost his job as a pharmacist, and moved his impoverished family to the French Quarter in New Orleans. At work one morning, Danny rescues an older woman, named Ronnie (Carolyn Jones), from her abusive date. After a taxi ride to Danny's high school, she kisses him. Danny responds to some schoolmates' teasing by kissing Ronnie back and then punching one of them in the face. That earns him a trip to the principal's office. Miss Pearson (Helene Hatch), his teacher, tells Danny that he will not graduate. Principal Mr. Evans (Raymond Bailey) is sympathetic, but powerless to help, so Danny decides to drop out of school. When he leaves the school grounds, three young men take him into an alley. Their leader, Shark (Vic Morrow), wants revenge for Danny hitting his brother. Danny defends himself so well that Shark invites him to join them. Later, Mr. Fisher tries to convince his son to stay in school. Instead he helps Shark's gang shoplift at a "five-and-dime" by singing "Lover Doll" to distract the customers and staff. Only Nellie (Dolores Hart), a young woman working at the snack bar, notices his complicity in the theft, but she does not turn him in. Danny invites Nellie to a fictitious party in a hotel room; finding nobody else there, she starts crying and leaves after admitting that she still wants to see him again, but not under those conditions. That night, Danny meets Ronnie again at "The Blue Shade" night club, where he is working. At first, she pretends not to know him, as she is accompanied by her boyfriend and the club's owner, Maxie Fields, aka "The Pig" (Walter Matthau). When Maxie does not believe her, she claims she heard Danny sing once. Maxie insists that Danny prove he can sing. His rendition of "Trouble" impresses Charlie LeGrand (Paul Stewart), the honest owner of the "King Creole" club, the only nightspot in the area not owned by Maxie; he offers Danny a job as a singer. Meanwhile, Mr. Fisher gets work as a pharmacist in a drug store, but his boss, Mr. Primont (Gavin Gordon), is constantly demeaning him, much to Danny's embarrassment. That makes it easier for Danny to go against his father's wishes and take Charlie's offer. When Danny is a hit, Maxie tries to hire him. Danny declines his offer out of loyalty to Charlie. Shark, now working for Maxie, suggests to Danny they beat up Primont to help his father. When Mr. Fisher leaves the store dressed in Primont's hat and coat (lent due to a rainstorm), Shark recognizes him, but decides to mug him anyway, as that would be even better for Maxie's purposes. Danny's father is so badly injured, he needs an expensive operation; Maxie pays for a specialist to perform it. Maxie later blackmails Danny into signing with him by threatening to tell his father about his involvement in the mugging, then does it anyway. Danny pummels Maxie for the betrayal and helps Ronnie leave him. Maxie sends his henchmen after Danny. Shark and another gang member trap him in an alley. Danny knocks out one of his pursuers. Then Shark stabs Danny, but is himself killed. Ronnie finds Danny and takes him to her house on a bayou to recover. She asks him to forget her sordid past and pretend to love her. Danny replies that it would not be difficult and kisses her. Maxie drives up, accompanied by Dummy (Jack Grinnage), a member of Danny's former gang. Maxie fatally shoots Ronnie. Dummy, who had been befriended by Danny, grapples with Maxie; the gun goes off, killing its owner. Danny returns to the "King Creole". He sings the lines "Let's think of the future, forget the past, you're not my first love, but you're my last" to Nellie in the audience. Mr Fisher shows up to listen to his son sing.