California Suite *** (1978, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Herb Edelman) – Classic Movie Review 4021

Maggie Smith is on Best Supporting Actress Oscar-winning form as an English theatre star nominated for an Oscar, in the 1978 Neil Simon comedy film California Suite.

Director Herbert Ross’s 1978 comedy film California Suite presents four fairly sharp, mostly funny playlets linked only by their setting at the Beverly Hills Hotel, in Los Angeles, and by coming from a stage play by Neil Simon, based on his 1976 Broadway hit. Simon writes his own screenplay.

In the most endearing of the stories, Maggie Smith is on Best Supporting Actress Oscar-winning form as an English theatre star nominated for an Oscar and fighting with her gay husband (Michael Caine) after they have come over from England for the Academy Awards.

But Walter Matthau and Elaine May score strongly too in their comedy about a hung-over husband who wakes up to find a passed-out hooker (Denise Galik), whom he has now got to remove pretty darned quick before his wife (May) arrives that day. Matthau’s brother (Herb Edelman) has sent the hooker to his room where he has arrived a day before his wife for his nephew’s Bar Mitzvah.

In the considerably less successful also-ran tales, ex-marrieds Jane Fonda and Alan Alda fight after Fonda comes from New York and meets California-based Alda, and doctors Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby do battle when they find there is only one room vacant after they have come with their wives to the hotel to relax and play tennis.

Uneven though it may be, overall the result is bright and entertaining.

It is Smith’s second Oscar after her Best Actress win for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. There were two other Oscar nominations – for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Neil Simon) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Albert Brenner, Marvin March).

She also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, while the film was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Matthau and Edelman are also in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. Matthau and May also star together in A New Leaf.

Given that there are four playlets, the film could have been called Quartet, and then Smith would have made history by appearing in three unconnected films with the same title, following Quartet (1981) and preceding Quartet (2012).

The film was shot in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center, and along Rodeo Drive. Diana and Sidney (Maggie Smith and Michael Caine)’s arrival at the film’s Academy Awards was shot at the arrivals for the real Oscars in April 1978.

David Hockney created the California-themed paintings in the opening credits.

While the play has two actors and two actresses playing several roles, the film features a different actor for each role.

The play ran from April 23, 1976 till June 5 at the Ahmanson Theatre at the Los Angeles Music Center, with Tammy Grimes as Hannah, Diana, and Gert; George Grizzard as William, Sidney, and Stu; Barbara Barrie as Millie and Beth; and Jack Weston as Marvin and Mort. It opened on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre with the same cast on June 10, 1976 and closed on July 2, 1977 after 445 performances and four previews.

The cast are Alan Alda as Bill Warren, Michael Caine as Sidney Cochran, Bill Cosby as Dr Willis Panama, Jane Fonda as Hannah Warren, Walter Matthau as Marvin Michaels, Elaine May as Millie Michaels, Richard Pryor as Dr Chauncey Gump, Maggie Smith as Diana Barrie, Herb Edelman as Harry Michaels, Sheila Frazier as Bettina Panama, Denise Galik as Bunny, Gloria Gifford as Lola Gump, Dana Plato as Jenny Warren, James Coburn as Pilot in Diana Barrie’s Film on Airplane and Richard Burton as himself.

Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018)

The late great Neil Simon.

The legendary Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Neil Simon was born on 4 July 1927 in The Bronx and died on 26 August 2018, aged 91. He was nominated for four Oscars but surprisingly never won. California Suite is the last of the four, following The Odd Couple (1968), The Sunshine Boys (1975) and The Goodbye Girl (1977).

He received three Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award, He wrote around 30 plays and around 30 screenplays.

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024)

Dame Margaret Smith (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024) won two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4021

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com