DIRECTOR: Martin Ritt
BOTTOM LINE: Tillie (Carol Burnett) is single in her late thirties. At a party, she is introduced to Pete (Walter Matthau), a confirmed bachelor. On their first date, given a choice of beverages from Burnett, Matthau answers, “Whatever’s the most trouble.” It’s the best line in the movie, and it occurs way too early. Next thing you know, they are a married couple and are doubly blessed – or have good fortune – since Pete is an avowed atheist. When Tillie gives birth to a little boy, they call him Robbie (Lee Montgomery). The years go by, and although they have problems, the marriage is stable until one day, when he is nine, Robbie is diagnosed with a fatal illness.
Both Burnett and, particularly, Matthau were at the top of their game when this movie came out in 1972. Matthau’s next film, Don Siegel’s “Charley Varrick,” contains his most outstanding performance. However, “Pete’ n’ Tillie” is flat. The two stars seem afraid to let go, and the script gives them nothing to hold on to. It looks and feels like the TV movie of the week when that term was derogatory.
They each deal with the tragedy in their own way. Pete moves out, starts having affairs, and drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Tillie finds comfort in the company of her best friend, Gertrude, played by Geraldine Page. This was Page’s fifth of her eight Oscar nominations. She gets a lot of mileage out of the fact that Gertrude never divulges her age. Then there is the long-drawn-out catfight with Burnett, which inspired the Anne Bancroft-Shirley MacLaine brawl in “The Turning Point” five years later (see “The Turning Point,” below). However (and I am a huge fan), she did not deserve the nod. It’s one of her least impressive performances.
And then there is Tillie’s other best friend, Jimmy, the film’s token gay guy, played by René Auberjonois, who had one of the most memorable names in cinema. There is nothing special about Jimmy except that he knows Gertrude’s actual age (well, he is the token gay guy). Meanwhile, director Martin Ritt and screenwriter Julius J. Epstein (of “Casablanca” fame) make him a kind of saint with no life of his own. All he wants to do is take care of Tillie, and he even offers to marry her if that would make her happy (she wisely refuses). It’s not exactly a gay stereotype, but it’s a bit one-dimensional.
Oscar-nominated original screenplay by Epstein.
STREAMING: YouTube.
Seventy Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (1934-1967)
https://thebrownees.net/seventy-queer-films-of-the-new-hollywood-1967-1981
https://thebrownees.net/casablanca-1942-1943-heres-looking-at-you-kid/
