House Calls **** (1978, Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Art Carney, Richard Benjamin) – Classic Movie Review 5,395

Director Howard Zieff’s 1978 screwball comedy film House Calls stars Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, who make an unlikely but delightful romantic comedy team, in this funny doctoring satire set against a hospital background.

Matthau plays Charley, a lecherous, just-widowed surgeon who wants to indulge himself after 30 years of faithful marriage, and so romances spunky divorcée Ann (Jackson), who wants to find someone faithful after years of her ex’s promiscuity.

House Calls is comfortably old-fashioned and very entertaining, with the shaggy Matthau on his very best form, cannily teamed with an expert Glenda Jackson, and ideally supported by Art Carney as a dotty doc, Dr Amos Willoughby, and Richard Benjamin as a smooth intern, Dr Norman Solomon.

In truth, the movie is slightly patchy, with hesitancies in the screenplay and in some of the supporting performances. But that is minor and not enough to spoil the enormous fun and the real merits of an often joyous piece.

Also in the cast are Candice Azzara, Thayer David, Dick O’Neill, Anthony Holland, Reva Rose, Brad Dexter and Sandra Kerns.

House Calls is directed by Howard Zieff, runs 98 minutes, is released by Universal, is written by Max Shulman, Julius J Epstein, Alan Mandel and Charles Shyer, is shot by David M Walsh, is produced by Jennings Lang, Alex Winitsky and Arlene Sellers, and is scored by Henry Mancini.

The original story is by Max Shulman and Julius J Epstein.

A TV series based on the characters followed, with Lynn Redgrave.

Matthau and Jackson re-teamed in 1980 for Hopscotch.

Zieff’s critically lauded and popular films are part of the vanished section of the great era of Seventies movies: Hearts of the West (1975), Slither (1972) and Private Benjamin (1980).

Howard Zieff (October 21, 1927 – February 22, 2009).

Glenda Jackson died on 15 June 2023 at her home in Blackheath, London, after a brief illness, with her family at her side, aged 87. She was one of the few to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, winning two Academy Awards, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. She was made CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978. She won Best Actress Oscars for Women in Love (1970) and A Touch of Class (1973), and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971). Her other notable films include Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Romantic Englishwoman (1975), Hedda (1975), The Incredible Sarah (1976), House Calls (1978), Hopscotch (1980) and The Rainbow (1989).

Glenda Jackson was born on 9 May 1936 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, and her mother named her after the Hollywood film star Glenda Farrell.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,395

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