Columbia (Frankovich)

Co-written by Paul Mazursky (who directed) and Larry Tucker (who produced), “Bob &Carol & Ted & Alice” is a zeitgeist comedy that reflected the sexual mores of the late 1960s but quickly became outdated when the zeitgeist changed.  Intermittently funny, this movie concerns mate-swapping among a quartet of best friends.

After Bob and Carol visit a retreat in California, they return home with new slogans and new psychobabble about the Love and the Me Generation.  In short order, Carol (Natalie Wood) has an affair with tennis pro, and husband Bob (Robert Culp), dutifully living up to his new standards, congratulates her.

Alice is the most conservative of the group, but when her husband Ted (Elliott Gould) admits to having had an affair, she suggests that the four of them have an orgy in their trip to Las Vegas.  Tensions and expectations build up, but when the foursome finally ends up in bed together, none knows what to do, what to say, or how to start having fun.

The dialogue is occasionally sharp, and in one of the film’s funniest scenes, Ted is wildly turned on while Alice is of course in opposite state of mind.  Andre Phillipe, who is in almost every Mazursky film, plays Oscar here.

Mazursky established his reputation with this very first film, which opened the l969 New York Film Festival.  A “sociological” director, Mazursky has captured the mores of the nouveau riche better than any filmmaker I can think of.  What was interesting about Mazursky was that he was a quintessential Jewish, New York director, but, unlike Woody Allen, he didn’t hate Los Angeles and the West Coast.  He could understand what attracted people to the city–the weather, the lifestyle, the eccentricities and the fads that it encouraged.  And unlike Allen, Mazursky enjoyed L.A. for what it was–at least he didn’t fight it as Allen, who never really gave the city a chance to exert its charm on him.

Mazursky’s best films are light satires, imbued with the kind of universal humanism that was more common in European than American films.  Down and Out was in fact a loose remake of Jean Renoir’s Boudu Saved from Drowning.  Mazursky went on to produce a series of elegant comedies, each providing a sharp, often witty, commentary on the mores of the new middle class.

If Mazursky’s films don’t hold up so well, it’s because they are too grounded, too reflective of their immediate social contexts.  In l978, An Unmarried Woman, which made Jill Clayburgh a star, was almost a mirror to the problems of young divorced women. 

Every once in a while, Mazursky would make a sentimental movie, like Moscow on the Hudson, a bitter-sweet portrait of a Soviet defector (Robin Williams) and his adaptation to life in Manhattan. In The Pickle, possibly his worst endeavor, Mazursky returned to an earlier concern, a semi-autobiographical picture about a director’s problems.  You may recall Mazursky’s 1970 film, Alex in Wonderland, which was his response to Fellini’s 8 1/2.

Oscar Nominations: 4

Story and Screenplay (Adapted): Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker

Supporting Actor:  Elliott Gould

Supporting Actress: Dyan Cannon

Cinematography: Charles B. Lang

Oscar Awards: None

Oscar Context:

The writing (William Goldman) and cinematography (Conrad Hall) Oscars went to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”  The Supporting Actor winner was Gig Young for “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” in a contest that included Rupert Crosse in “The Reivers,”
Jack Nicholson in “Easy Rider,” and Anthony Quayle in “Anne of the Thousand Days.”

The Supporting Actress Oscar went to Goldie Hawn, who won at her first nomination for the comedy “Cactus Flower,” in a race that included Catherine Burns in “Last Summer,” Sylvia Miles in “Midnight Cowboy,” and Susannah York in “The Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

Cast:

Carol (Natalie Wood)

Bob (Robert Culp)

Ted (Elliott Gould)

Alice (Dyan Cannon)

Horst (Horst Ebersberg)

Emelio (Lee Bergere)

Psychiatrist (Donald Muhich)

Sean (Noble Lee Holderread, Jr.

Phyllis (K.T. Stevens)

Susan (Celeste Yarnall)

Credits:

Produced by Larry Tucker

Directed by Paul Mazursky

Camera: Charles Lang

Music: Quincy Jones

Choreography: Miriam Nelson

Costumes: Moss Mabry

Running Time: 104 Minutes