Little Murders *** (1971, Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Donald Sutherland, Alan Arkin) – Classic Movie Review 9201

Director Alan Arkin’s ambitious and savage 1971 killing spree satirical comedy Little Murders stars Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Donald Sutherland and Alan Arkin.

The brilliant humorist Jules Feiffer adapts his own blacker-than-black comedy play about an apathetic, nihilistic New York City photographer called Alfred Chamberlain (Gould), cajoled into marriage by idealistic Patsy Newquist (Rodd), who saves him from a gang of hooligans. Gould resorts to violence when Rodd is shot dead.

Director Alan Arkin keeps remarkable control handling this hot potato, and though it finally defeats him, he goes down waving not drowning. The performers never let him down, particularly Gardenia as Rodd’s dad, Carol Newquist, and Sutherland as a freaky minister, the Reverend Dupas, while Arkin himself adds to the fun as a zany detective, Lieutenant Practice.

Also in the cast are Elizabeth Wilson, Jon Korkes, Lou Jacobi, and Doris Roberts and John Randolph (as Mr and Mrs Chamberlain).

Feiffer’s play is a comedy but also a serious reaction to his disillusionment with the state of the world and the breakdown in social order he perceived after the assassination of John F Kennedy, as well as specially the background of random shootings, electrical blackouts, paranoia and racial conflict in New York City in an era when the city was going broke.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9201

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