California Suite

I know that this film does not get much acclaim, and it is indeed a rather inconsistent affair, but the fourth segment featuring the late great Walter Matthau (whom we unfortunately lost last Saturday)is absolutely hilarious and is by far and away the best in the film. Matthau is able to pull off the "hide the hooker" from my wife skit so convincingly that one could almost view this as actually happening in real life. I know of few comic actors who would not overplay this scene, and it is a great testament to the man himself.

That's the one thing I remembered about this Neil Simon comedy, Maggie Smith saying "That's not funny, that's bizarre" I had never heard the word "bizarre" like that. Bee-zaaaarr, or something like that but Maggie Smith uses it brilliantly as an irresistible comic tool. I remember being kind of put off because Maggie won an Oscar for this over Meryl Streep for The Deer Hunter but, watching it now. I understand. Maggie Smith is fantastic and her marital banter with Michael Caine is a total delight. The movie, as a movie is a whole other story. Flimsy and dated with a musical score that may remind you of some of most generic TV movie. Jane Fonda is great, Elaine May and Walter Matthau, hilarious but it also has Bill Cosby, hard to watch now and a hilarious Richard Pryor. Herbert Ross directs respectfully but without any cinematic ambitions. Maggie Smith and Michael Caine however make the whole thing worth it.

Neil Simon received an Oscar nomination for adapting his own hit play to the screen, though his writing seems to be caught in a perpetual time-warp. No subject discussed seems fresh, and all his one-liners and tiresome penchant for name-dropping would fall flat without the help of some talented actors to keep things afloat. Hotel in Beverly Hills houses Jane Fonda and Alan Alda as bickering ex-marrieds; Walter Matthau as a husband trying to hide a hooker from wife Elaine May; Michael Caine as the put-upon husband of Oscar-nominated actress Maggie Smith (who really did win an Oscar); and Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor as accident-prone husbands vacationing with their wives. Aside from the acidic verbal jousting from Caine and Smith (in the film's best episode), this comedy directed by Herbert Ross pretty much congeals midway through. Matthau's exaggerated angst is funny, but this seems rote material for the actor (though he and Elaine May are well-matched as ever). Fonda easily upstages Alda after changing into her bikini (her figure is so fabulous, one gets the feeling the actress may have accepted her dim role for the sole excuse to show it off). The Cosby-Pryor segment is a slapstick torpedo. Overall, there's too much physical shtick and not enough humanity in "California Suite" to make it the sophisticated laugh-fest Simon buffs were touting it as. **1/2 from ****

Neil Simon focuses his attention on a variety of people at a hotel in this 1978 comedy hit.

Walter Matthau certainly has a penchant as a hotel guest. Remember him with Maureen Stapleton and several other ladies in another hotel farce comedy-drama?

Matthau, as always, is hilarious when he attempts to hide a hooker from his wife. It seems that Elaine May is always the naive victim in films. Remember her in 1972's "The Heartbreak Kid?"

The real acting kudos here goes to Maggie Smith for a gem of a supporting Oscar-winning performance in this film. Smith plays an actress at the hotel who has been nominated for an Oscar. A win would mean a tremendous comeback for her. Naturally, she loses. How many people have won Oscars for playing an Oscar loser in a film? Judy Garland accomplished the opposite in 1954 in "A Star is Born." In the film she is an actress who wins the academy award but in real-life competition lost it to Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl." Only the lord knows why.

Smith is just grand as she prances around the room delivering memorable one-liners. This is just a gem of a film.

Neil Simon's 1978 film, California Suite, is four vignettes of couples descending upon Los Angeles at Oscar time: one couple (Maggie Smith and Michael Caine) for the Oscar ceremonies, two couples for vacation (Richard Pryor, Gloria Gifford, Bill Cosby, Sheila Frazer) one couple for a bar mitzvah (Walter Matthau and Elaine May), and one divorced couple (Alan Alda and Jane Fonda) to discuss their daughter.

The film is a mix of comedy, slapstick, and drama, with the Fonda-Alda segment witty but serious, the Matthau-May segment hilarious, the Cosby-Pryor segment slapstick, and the Smith-Caine segment a classic. Their conversation in the hotel suite before the Oscar ceremony is one of the best acted, best written scenes ever written. "I'm a dark horse," Smith says of her Oscar nomination, entering the room in a gown. "They must have seen the dress," Caine concludes.

This is probably the most fully fleshed-out story, with the truth behind their marriage emerging as Smith descends into drunkenness later on. That and the Matthau-May vignettes are the best, with the Alda-Fonda scene coming off as somewhat dated today. The weakest is the Pryor-Crosby.

Entertaining - if you don't feel like watching the whole thing, just watch the Caine-Smith and Matthau-May.

Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor try their best as doctor friends who are having an awful time on their vacation with their wives. It's just not that funny, despite them both being extremely likable.

Alan Alda and Jane Fonda do well in their dramatic story of separated couple meeting after nine years to discuss their child. Their segment is too short to really have an impact, might have worked well as a feature film. It's not all that involving.

Michael Caine and Maggie Smith are both excellent in their little segment, with Smith portraying an actress who's up for the academy award. Caine plays her show off gay husband. The two stars really shine in an otherwise average story, not all that interesting.