Great Movie for its Time, Still Loved

I just watched this again last night. I forget how crazy and funny this movie was when I first saw it 37 years ago. We got cable in 1978 and this was the very first movie I ever watched on it. I remember walking in to my parents' room while they were watching the scene with Dudley Moore in his bachelor pad. I was 12 at the time and thought it was a pretty funny scene without understanding the sexual overtones. I stayed and watched the rest of the movie with my folks.

I still mumble "sonofabitch" like Chase does in the scene where he is going the wrong way down a one-way street. His delivery of that line always stuck with me. Also, his pick up line when he first meets Gloria, "Wanna take a shower?" is one I used to pick up my first wife. She thought it was clever and unique, until we watched the movie years later. Then she busted me for my romantic plagiarism.

This movie is so 1970s. The limited acting is thankfully overcome by the sheer force of the charm and chemistry of its two leads. The entire plot is a maguffin, is kind of silly, and turns a little too farcical at the end for my tastes today, but its still a fun ride.

Some of the standouts scenes are Billy Barty as the salesman who Gloria mistakes for an assassin, the race to the opera house with the Japanese couple in the back of the limo, Dudley Moore's bachelor pad, the elderly ladies playing vulgar Scrabble (first time in my life I had ever heard the MF phrase), and the judo fight between Mr. Hennessy and the Bishop's assistant. The one liners by Chase are great and he had such a knack for delivering them with the right amount of seriousness to make them funny.

Despite it being 37 years old, this movie still has a place in my heart. I found myself smiling throughout the entire thing last night. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.