Partners * (1982, Ryan O’Neal, John Hurt, Kenneth McMillan) – Classic Movie Review 10,424

The 1982 crime comedy Partners is a disappointing, wrong-headed comedy-drama from American TV’s sitcomic mastermind James Burrows in his bewildering film début. John Hurt and Ryan O’Neal play an odd couple as LA cops probing the case of the killing of a gay man, one of a series of murders in the gay community.

There is stereotyped casting in stereotypical characters: Hurt plays mousey homosexual Kerwin, a gay police clerk and O’Neal plays uptight heterosexual Sergeant Benson, a straight police detective who is ordered to go undercover by pretending to be his gay lover.

Partners is a misfire, not at all smart or amusing, either in the writing, playing or handling, and it is faintly offensive too, maybe very offensive.

It is written by Francis Veber, who had just worked on the screenplay of La Cage aux Folles (1978) and La Cage aux Folles II (1980).

Also in the cast are Kenneth McMillan, Robyn Douglass, Jay Robinson, Denise Galik, Joseph R. Sicari, Michael McGuire, Rick Jason, and James Remar.

Partners is directed by James Burrows, runs 93 minutes, is made by Aaron Russo Productions and Paramount Pictures, is released by Paramount Pictures (1982) (US), is written by Francis Veber, is shot in colour by Victor J Kemper, is produced by Francis Veber and Aaron Russo, is scored by Georges Delerue, and is designed by Francesco Richard Sylbert.

Veber described it ‘a portrait of two men expanding their horizons’. He likes to promote the idea that gays are all sex mad and effeminate.

James Burrows, born on December 30, 1940 in Los Angeles, is known for Cheers (1982), Frasier (1993-1997), Will & Grace (1998) and Taxi (1978).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,424

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