Remember when American culture ate up material like this?
Roger Ebert in his June 18, 1973 review.... gave the film four stars on a scale of four.... Vincent Canby of The New York Times described it... as "a restless, appealing, sometimes highly comic contemporary memoir." Richard Corliss of Film Comment praised Segal's performance, claiming that "No contemporary actor can touch George Segal for klutzy charm or a seriocomic capacity for suffering (he’s the Tom Ewell of the Seventies), and no film has used his manic copelessness as well as Blume in Love."
I was 22 at the time, and I remember steering clear of this one.
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82 comments:
klutzy charm or a seriocomic capacity for suffering
See also: Woody Allen
I liked him in Just Shoot Me!, the David Spade vehicle, and am working my way through The Goldbergs now. I just thought he was some guy I liked in a couple things. I had no idea he'd had such an extensive resume.
Keep seeing this and thinking it’s about George Segal, the artist, who died a long time ago. I thought I might recognize the actor if I saw his picture, but I really don’t.
Interesting language.
Somewhere there must be a list of movies/books with you have over the years actively avoided contact.
"See also: Woody Allen"
Yes, as I watched the trailer, I said, "A Woody Allen movie without Woody Allen."
And by Woody Allen movie I didn't mean that WA directed it. He didn't. It's Paul Mazursky. Script by Neil Simon.
King Rat
"Somewhere there must be a list of movies/books with you have over the years actively avoided contact."
I've never seen "Apocalypse Now," and I've had the DVD on my shelf for almost as long as there have been DVDs. Same is true of "The Last Picture Show."
I do mean to get to them, so that's not active avoidance but inability to force myself to watch.
I've never seen "Jaws" or "The Way We Were." No interest. Never saw "Wall Street." Or "Ordinary People."
Do you have any particular aversion towards “Apocalypse” and “Last Picture, or is it just that you’ve never gotten around to it?
There are certain films, like anything by Ingmar Bergman, or Goddard, that I’ve never watched. I feel some kind of pressure to watch them, because we’re told they’re important, but the pressure feeds into my aversion to watching these movies creating a kind of catch-22.
I really like George Segal and will miss him. Well not really because he is in a lot of different movies and TV plus his music so I could probably enjoy his oeuvre for quite a long time and not get through all of it. But he won't be making any more.
Another movie with a similar adult theme, from around the same time as this one, that he starred in and which I really like is "A Touch of Class", for which Lynn Redgrave (Vanessa's sister) won an Oscar for Best Actress.
"Fun with Dick and Jane" the original, not the less funny and more political remake with Jim Carrey, Segal is hilarious in that.
I don't see any connection to Woody Allen, other than that they are both Jewish kids from NY who made good (and in Segal's case without the unsavory accusations that now accompany Allen's resume).
I wonder what material American culture is eating up now?
Today, the I-brought-my-work-home-with-me black woman, would be a guy.
No, these movies were never interesting.
I never saw BLUME IN LOVE but I always liked George Segal.
he’s the Tom Ewell of the Seventies
The only thing that means now, is that in 30 years he will mean as little to people as Tom Ewell does now.
I've never seen "Jaws" or "The Way We Were." No interest. Never saw "Wall Street." Or "Ordinary People."
"Jaws" and "The Way We Were" and "Apocalypse Now" were hard not to see in the Seventies. "The Last Picture Show" might mean more to you now than 50 years ago. You made the right choice with the other two. Most of the chatter about "Wall Street" and "Ordinary People" is about how not good they are in retrospect.
@Sally327: Glenda Jackson
'@Sally327: Glenda Jackson
3/24/21, 10:01 AM"
You're right, I always get those two confused!!
@Ann, I liked The Last Picture Show and I do not like films like that. It's been 20+ years since I've seen it, I am gonna go watch it again and probably be disappointed.
Apocalypse Now did not stand the test of time, nor did Deer Hunter. For me anyway.
_XC
I remember him in "Where's Poppa?" and "California Split", two films I enjoyed when they came out, but have no idea how I'd like them now.
He was the type of guy you'd enjoy seeing in a film, but wouldn't go to see a film just because he was in it.
I've definitely heard his name, but looking thru his filmography, it turns out I've never seen any movie or tv series that he was in, including even his voice in the Simpsons since I quit watching them before 2018.
Oops, I lied: "King Rat", he was the rat.
I absolutely adored him. my mom's favorite movie of all time was "A Touch of Class" with Glenda Jackson. I saw her on Broadway 3 years ago in "3 Tall women" amazing. My mom just loved the movie and George Segal.
I remember him playing the banjo on The Tonight Show in the '70's. So so talented
Vicki from Pasadena
No contemporary actor can touch George Segal for klutzy charm or a seriocomic capacity for suffering
Keywords: charm and serio-. Woody Allen was klutzy and had a comic capacity for suffering, but was only funny when he tried to be charming, and while he was always comically suffering, he didn't do the bittersweet, bemused sort of unhappiness as well as Segal did.
Fifty years ago, Jewish actors (and Italian actors) were seen as such a break from the older WASP (and I suppose, Irish) leading men that there was a tendency to lump them all together. Dustin, Woody, Elliot, Alan, George. But Segal did a pretty good non-ethnic in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Mazursky. He really wasn’t a good director, but he did try to be more substantial than the usual Hollywood formula du jour.
I feel a sense of loss. The relationship between the Grandpa (Segal) and Adam the youngest son is one of the nicest aspects of THE GOLDBERGS. And one of my favorite parts of any episode was when Adam, an aspiring film maker, does a documentary about Grandpa's service in World War II. After the first version of the documentary is exposed as bogus--a rip-off of HOGAN'S HEROES--Adam makes a second, more accurate video, and in the do-over version these's a montage culled from Segal's war movies of 1960s. The young Segal was quite good-looking.
I have seen most of AA's never seens. I have never seen Ordinary People or The Way We Were ( Nor On Golden Pond. ) But I do recommend Last Picture Show, and (not as much) Apocalypse Now, which is kind of a mess but has some interest.
Recently saw Look Who's Talking again, for the first time in decades. Segal was quite good as Mollie's just-about-to-leave-his-wife lover, Mikey's absentee father.
(It was a little unsettling, with the power of the internet, to realize his awful character was probably based in part on someone I always liked.)
No mention of Carbon Copy? Denzel Washington's first real movie role?
Couldn't be made today.
Remember when American culture ate up material like this?
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No, it never did outside of film critics and the NYT/New Yorker set. It had a box office of $2.6M. Compare and contrast:
Rank Movie Release; Date Distributor Genre 1973 Gross
1 The Exorcist Dec 26, 1973 Warner Bros. Horror $193,000,000
2 The Sting Dec 25, 1973 Universal Comedy $159,616,327
3 American Graffiti Aug 11, 1973 Universal Drama $115,000,000
George Segal was terrific in a number of roles. He had a great comedic acting ability. Not a joke teller, but someone who had timing and facial expressions that worked in comedy movies or tv shows. You all remember comedy, don't you? It's what we used to have before Trump and White People jokes took over everything.
By the way, Ordinary People was a very good movie. As was Jaws, which changed Hollywood. Apocolypse Now was...well, I'm not sure I ever loved it, but I'm glad I sat through it. It had some classic, memorable moments and lines. Wall Street was entertaining, also with some classic lines. The Way We Were...I never saw it.
I was just asking my wife the other day if she saw The Last Picture Show. I was reading something about Peter Bogdanovich and was reminded of how good that movie was. I'm going to re-watch it in the near future. I want to see how its held up.
"By the way, Ordinary People was a very good movie."
Agreed. I never saw Mary Tyler Moore the same way again. Excellent and underrated actress IMO because she was so identified with comedic roles. She was in a movie with George Segal just to complete the circle here, "Flirting With Disaster", a guilty pleasure of mine, watching that and laughing so much, very very funny. Great acting all the way around and well-written.
"I've never seen "Apocalypse Now," and I've had the DVD on my shelf for almost as long as there have been DVDs."
Too bad you never saw AN on a huge screen with a good sound system.
It is a spectacle best seen on the big screen.
Maybe wait for a revival showing...sneak a couple of cocktails in or some edibles : )
Enjoyed him in "A Touch of Class" and "The Hot Rock." After that, more miss than hit.
They should just re-cast Pops on the Goldbergs with Peter Riegert. I won't know the difference, since I've always confused them, probably because of Riegert's role in Crossing Delancey, which was a George Segal role.
By the way, Ordinary People was a very good movie.
Bah! Superficial. Heavy-handed. It was all mom's fault.
“ Do you have any particular aversion towards “Apocalypse” and “Last Picture, or is it just that you’ve never gotten around to it?”
Just feels like work.
AN does seem like a theater movie. Gotta commit and be immersed.
I’ve never seen the Sting.
Even though for most of my adult life, I have felt compelled to see highly praised movies, there’s a kind of high praise that turns me against a movie. Lots of the Oscar movies I have avoided.
He had a lot of charm. But then, there was that banjo.
Steve Martin + banjo = I'll stay.
George Segal + banjo = See ya later!
They made us read — and watch — Ordinary People in high school. Our hippy English teacher said it was more relevant than Shakespeare.
"AN does seem like a theater movie. Gotta commit and be immersed."
I saw 'Alien' after it was out for a couple of weeks.
It was in one of those giant, domed theaters and the screen was enormously wide.
I was the only one in the entire place (loser!) for some reason.
Talk about immersive...zero distractions.
For 'Chariots of Fire,' me and my date snuck in the requisite ingredients and made gin and tonics...lots of fun. Hip hip, cheerio and all that rot.
Yeah, that trailer portends a lot of suffering in theatres.
Susan Anspach though... she really captured the zeitgeist of mid-life 1970s womanhood. I grew up outside Detroit and many a younger but settled-down suburban mom and many more school teachers of the era had her look, if not quite as fully-realized as lead-role film actresses are wont to make themselves.
The Sting is a must see movie just for the cast alone.
Never saw this either, but delighted to watch the preview version just to see a young Kris Kristofferson stretching out to the movies. awww, so dear, and still kickin.
George Segal did just fine for that era of American moviedom.
G*dspeed.
The day before Segal's death, I came across and watched the 1969 film, "The Bridge at Remagen" in which he played the stereotypical grizzled war sergeant as likely to shoot his lieutenant as he is the enemy.
Most people of my generation probably knew him best as the absentee dad from Look Whos Talking.
He had a long, successful career. He was never memorable, but he was always good. Looks aren't everything. Woody Allen was more memorable in Woody Allen roles than George Segal.....I'd like to see Where's Poppa again, but mostly for Ruth Gordon. He was in some good movies, but he didn't really stand out. Well, he made the all-star team of his era even though he never batted clean up or hit it out of the park.
Good looks are probably a draw back if you're playing a neurotic intellectual.
Zeitgeist seventies. Bob&carol&ted&alice. Hollywood did a yeomans job normalizing fornication. We separated sex from procreation, then from marriage, and now from any kind of commitment at all. I am thinking of the phrase, “banality of evil.” You can see the evil that was wrought from such harmless seeds of entertainment. Marriage and family nearly extinct. Sorry to be Debbie downer, I know this is supposed to be about hip, swinging George.
BTW, didn’t Paul Mazursky atone, at least artistically, with An Unmarried Woman?
Interesting that the Tom Ewell of the 70s was still working nearly 50 years later. By the way, who's Tom Ewell?
Apocalypse Now is a collection of interesting set pieces. As a movie, it's an incomprehensible slog, full of false profundity. I thought Last Picture Show was dull, but I'm only 50, so maybe I'm too young to appreciate it. The Sting seemed like all setup with a disappointing payoff.
I have seen very few movies in the past 15-20 years after being an avid moviegoer for 35-40 years.
Maybe it's because good actors like George Segal are dying off.
It also helps when good actors stick to acting and stay out of public politics.
"Apocalypse Now is a collection of interesting set pieces. As a movie, it's an incomprehensible slog, full of false profundity."
Sounds like somebody didn't smoke a fatty before viewing at the local cineplex circa 1979 : )
Not that I empathize with cheaters, but this movie looks pretty good, sensitive, and adult to me. If you're in the mood for that kind of thing, minus the Allen goofiness and self-abasement. These days I'm excited at the thought of any serious (as in non-BS) movie aimed at adults. Just don't get made much anymore. Probably because people don't really act much like adults anymore.
Incomprehensible? Have you seen Redux?
The Sting is fun.
The Sting is long and corny. It does have a great cast and catchy music, but I wouldn't care to sit through it again. Apocalypse Now, Redux or otherwise, not that is a fucking movie. Hold the phone and get the popcorn popping when that's on.
"The Sting" was my favorite movie back in the day. Saw it recently, and it still holds up. Great fun.
My avoidance movies were the Godfather series. We even have the DVD set, and I had seen clips on YouTube, but didn't really want to get into it.
We finally did as part of our "working through our DVD library" phase (we usually get them from the library).
Turns out I loved them, I and II of course. It wasn't really about the Mob, but about family and ambition, and how the pursuit of one destroys the other.
And Sofia wasn't really that bad. Not good, but not terrible, which highlights why you should experience things yourself and not rely on critics (or, worse, Rotten Tomatoes, which is a cancer on the culture).
I'll even extend that to "Blume in Love," although I'm put off by the adultery. Not for the act, but for my suspicion that someone who commits adultery and gets caught is not going to reform. You don't "accidentally" fall into bed with another partner. You don't forget that you're married or that you promised to love and honor them.
You don't reform unless you've hit rock bottom.
Maybe I'm wrong, but life and experience has taught me otherwise.
Segal was a pro-- good at a lot of things but not spectacular; I was going to mention Remagen but see I was beat to it.
I never saw Blume, and since we're talking about must-sees and never-saws:
Exorcist. Nope. I hate that stuff, and always have.
Apocalypse Now: Twice is enough; maybe someday I'll watch the director's cut, but this is not that day.
Deerhunter: Once is more than enough. Ponderous and ridiculous, it's a bad sign when war itself isn't dramatic enough and a subplot involving Russian Roulette as a spectator sport has to be trotted out as profound commentary.
Last Picture Show: Nope, despite the supposed hotness of homegirl Cybill.
Ord Peeps: Upper-middle suburban angst with Pachelbel. Forget it.
Jaws: One bite is plenty.
The Way We Were: No way in hell.
Wall Street, or anything about Wall Street: They should pay me to watch.
Narr
No Fields of Dreams nor Days of Summer . . .
Never really liked the movies George was in, but am a big fan of his son Steven's karate movies.
I liked Segal a lot. Glad somebody else has seen Carbon Copy, which was a good movie. The villains were a bit one dimensional, but Segal and Denzel were both great IMO. Another fun, if stupid movie of his, is Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox.
re: Apocalypse Now. It was a weird movie, but you should watch it. As mentioned, it's episodic right up until the point they find Brando, so you can actually take breaks pretty easily. Once they get to that point you'll need to stay. There are several brilliant performances - Sheen is great, Duvall is genius, Hopper is Hopper at his best; Laurence Fishburne is young and great, and there are any number of other ensemble parts (Chef, Roach) that you'll remember forever.
Don't watch Redux, it's awful.
AA surprised you never saw Wall Street given your pedigree. One of the minor characters caught up in insider trading was supposedly modeled on a guy a year ahead of me in law school.
A new book by a former LA Times reporter looks at LA popular culture in 1974, the year Blume, set in LA, released. For films, things were swept away the next year by Jaws.
Remember when American culture ate up material like this?
If by "American culture", you mean that part of the American culture that nominates movies for awards, when did it stop? If you mean American culture in a popular sense, I don't think you can point at a movie that grosses about $2.5 million dollars as something it ate up. If it took a bite, it apparently spit it out.
Best line in Wall Street
Roger: Still seeing that sexy french chick?
Bud: No, No. She asked the wrong question.
Roger: What was that?
Bud:"What are you thinking?"
King Rat--great James Clavell short novel.
Ultimate self referential boomer movie:
The Big Chill (great soundtrack though)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAacHfRrWEo
Best line in "Apocalypse Now":
Robert Duvall as Col. Kilgore: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like ... victory"
Second best line was also Robert Duvall, "Charlie don't surf"
I strongly recommend the movie. It is a great mix of intense music, emotion and comedy. Coppola was as brilliant as in The Godfather I & II.
The Big Chill was an unsatisfactory rip-off of The Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980).
George Segal was one of those late 60s/70s actors who kept popping up in movies in star roles and getting awards. And I kept wondering why. Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland, Alan Arkin, Ryan O'Neal, all mediocre.
watched him in "Ship of fools" and "Who's afraid of Va Wolfe?" and I just wondered - was he somebodies Brother in law?
He was good in that sitcom, he was in. Also good in "Calf Split" and as a hood in "St. Valentine's day Massacre".
RIP to George Segal. I thought he was pretty damn good in almost everything he did. I don't think that I ever saw Blume. But it does have Kris Kristoffersen in it. He's awfully good in almost everything he does. Maybe, I'll give it a look.
On Apocalypse Now. It's an odd one that I've seen two or three time. It's gorgeous to watch. Acting is great. Some of the scenes are unlike anything ever made beforehand. The story itself though, gets off balance fast and wobbles from there into a mess.
I've never seen "Apocalypse Now," and I've had the DVD on my shelf for almost as long as there have been DVDs. Same is true of "The Last Picture Show."
Given your dislike of "loud soundtracks" and "senseless action", not sure what you'd get out of Apocalypses now, since that's the main attraction. Take out the action and war scenes and there's not much left, except an incredibly obese Brando babbling to himself.
Apocolypse Now = $100 million dollars in search of a script.
I remember thinking Love Story was one of the funniest movies I'd ever seen at the time.
Laughing uncontrollably throughout.
Annoying the bejabbers out of other theatergoers.
John Henry
I saw Apocolypse Now in a theater when it came out. I remember it moved me pretty hard.
Saw it again at home a year or 2 ago and did not think it held up well.
Currently rereading for the 50th or 75th time "Heart of Darkness" on which the movie is based.
Now there is something that really holds up. Perhaps because was writing from his experience.
Nook, which I am liking as a kindle alternative, had a bundle with youth, heart of darkness and end of the tether. (another old friend I need to revisit)
John Henry
I saw Apocolypse Now in a theater when it came out. I remember it moved me pretty hard.
Saw it again at home a year or 2 ago and did not think it held up well.
Currently rereading for the 50th or 75th time "Heart of Darkness" on which the movie is based.
Now there is something that really holds up. Perhaps because was writing from his experience.
Nook, which I am liking as a kindle alternative, had a bundle with youth, heart of darkness and end of the tether. (another old friend I need to revisit)
John Henry
Oops. Sorry about the double post.
I just noticed moderation was on. Thought it was a problem on my end.
Sorry.
John Henry
Conrad's Heart of Darkness is an intentionally dense an feverish read but is a brilliant penetration of what we often attempt to discuss here, the narrative. Apocalypse Now gets a lot of that right. It is relevant.
Am I missing something? George Segal was not in Apocalypse Now. Am I wrong about that?
"Am I missing something? George Segal was not in Apocalypse Now. Am I wrong about that?"
Nobody says he was. I guess reading the comments closely is too hard.
"Where's Poppa?" is one of the funniest movie I've ever seen. "King Rat" was excellent. I am averse to adultery and to Neil Simon so never saw "Love in Blume."
'Apocalypse Now" isn't worth the time unless you like explosions or watching Martin Sheen look troubled. It seemed like a long excuse for being anti-war. My opinion may be colored by my living in the apartment below some Vietnamese students whose entire family joined them after the fall of Saigon.
I've found "The Way We Were" useful in explaining about my Trotskyite relatives to non-New Yorkers but otherwise I could have skipped it.
The way the were is probably the most dishonest female musical film ever made. First, we're supposed to believe that Robert Fucking Redford would be attracted to Babs Streisand. Second, we're supposed to believe he'd put up with her annoying shit for 2 seconds. Third, we're supposed to believe that 1940's Hollywood was run by WASP's. Fourth, that in the 50's there were anti-communist mobs shouting nasty insults at lovable Commies like Babs. Fifth, that Striesand is a commie but a lovable one. She just is really an extreme liberal, guys. Babs is just into peace, "Helping The workers" and supporting FDR. No show trials or Gulags for Her!
The whole thing is just fake from start to finish. Imagine a film where Paul Williams is a lovable fascist married to Jane Fonda. Oh, the way we weren't.
>>The only thing that means now, is that in 30 years he will mean as little to people as Tom Ewell does now.
Tom Ewell had a short-lived TV show in, I think, the early 60's. The gimmick was that he lived in a household full of females: wife, mother-in-law, maybe a daughter or two, housekeeper, some female pets. Much later appeared as an old geezer in Bobby Blake's "Baretta."
To the extent he's remembered at all at this point, it would mostly be for his role in "The Seven-Year Itch," with an iconic performance (the subway skirt-blowing scene!) by Marilyn Monroe (does she mean anything to people now?). Was also one of the four actors who got their initial big break in the Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy (who???) vehicle "Adam's Rib" (along with David Wayne, the glorious Jean Hagen, and Judy Holliday).
Glancing through his IMDB listing, the only other things that make much of an impression are his role as the father in the remake of "State Fair" and the Frank Tashlin/Jayne Mansfield extravaganza "The Girl Can't Help It" (the one, I think, with the infamous scene of Jayne holding two milk bottles next to her more-than-ample bosom while saying something to the effect that she wanted to/had everything needed to be a mother; NTM the wonderful repeated bits of Julie London singing "Cry Me a River").
Never cared much for George Segal. Most memorable for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," where his grating performance was only saved by the always infinitely grating Sandy Dennis. Not much of a Burton fan in general, either, so that leaves La Liz in top late form. Hated those movies like "Blume in Love," whether he was in them or not.
My never-saw list coincides to a large extent with Althouse's in another post, but I draw a more-or-less arbitrary line around 1950 or so. If made before them, I'm interested. If later, not so much.
--gpm
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