One of those ‘can’t miss’ ideas that miss badly, critically and commercially, moving director Mark Rydell permanently off the A-list he’d only recently hopped on, dropping James Caan two billing spots away from leads, and losing tens of millions for 20th/Fox. And yet, it is a ‘can’t miss’ idea: Bickering pair of UFO entertainers* go thru three major wars (WWII, Korea, Vietnam) blindly unchanging while war and world move past them. Okay, I’m cheating. That’s what the film should have been about. Instead, it’s a two-sided soap opera for both entertainers (each separately married), structured like THE SUNSHINE BOYS (Neil Simon’s play-to-film about a pair of estranged vaudevillians forced back together for a celebratory tv special). The film peaks early with Bette Midler’s high stakes audition/debut at a London UFO show where she’s so good, with a song or an ad-lib, putative partner Caan wants her immediately out. A full-reel exhibition of everything Bette does best; and she’s a legit wonder. Surely what got her the film’s sole Oscar® nom; it also leaves the film with no place to go other than in-fighting interrupted by the occasional personal tragedy. Two peculiarities: Caan morphing from shit to pretty decent guy; Midler going from tart/sassy doll to pain in the tuchus. Their always at odds personalities especially noticeable because of the real life antipathy between these two leaking off the set and onto the screen. (Check the name NOT on the LP cover above.). You need to go back to Walter Matthau and Barbra Streisand in HELLO, DOLLY!/’69 to find the like on display in the final cut.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Bob Hope and Martha Raye are the usual suspects as the real people behind Caan and Midler’s characters. Raye certainly thought so, unsuccessfully suing the producers for damages. Hard to buy either as a serious inspiration beyond the obvious UFO connection.*
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