Made for Each Other **** (1971, Joseph Bologna, Renée Taylor, Paul Sorvino, Olympia Dukakis, Norman Shelly, Helen Verbit, Louis Zorich) – Classic Movie Review 5911

A year after their breakthrough Oscar-nominated success writing Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), Joseph Bologna and his wife Renée Taylor again collaborate to write, and this time perform too, in Made for Each Other.

Director Robert B Bean’s hugely engaging, first-class 1971 New York-set romantic comedy is unusually sharp, witty, funny and affecting.

Taylor and Bologna play eccentric dupes Pandora Gold and Giggy ‘Gig’ Panimba, who fall for each other during group therapy, despite their apparent unsuitability and incompatibility. The amusing real-life husband and wife stars wrote the sweet script, and their playing is just as cheering and delightful as their writing. It is their second screenplay and marks Bologna’s film debut.

It is entirely their show, but also in the cast are Paul Sorvino (as Gig’s father), Olympia Dukakis (as Gig’s mother), Helen Verbit (as Pandora’s mother), Louis Zorich (as Pandora’s father), Norman Shelly (as Doctor Furro), Ron Carey Despo, Adam Arkin, Doreen Miller, Mitchell Spera, Fred Nassif, Paul Dumont, Regina Baff, Candy [Candice] Azzara, Connie Snow, Carmel Altomare, Eddie Barth, Armand De La Garza, Barbara Carson, Sammy Smith, Jeanne Kaplan, Adam Paul, Bobby Alto, Sully Boyar, Nancy Andrews and Doyle Newberry.

RIP Joseph Bologna (December 30, 1934 – August 13, 2017) notable also in My Favorite Year, Big Daddy and Blame It on Rio.

Louis Zorich (1924–2018).

RIP Louis Zorich, who died on 30 January 2018, aged 93. He was known for Coogan’s Bluff (1968), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), For Pete’s Sake (1974), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) and Detachment (2011). He was married to Olympia Dukakis. They married on 5 December 1962 and had three children.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5911

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