I Ought to Be in Pictures

source: I Ought to Be in Pictures

I Ought to Be in Pictures

I just love the mood and feeling I get from this movie. I'm sentimental, but not any sentimentality will do. This movie works for me. The actors, the music, the nostalgia just captures emotions that brings me back to bygone years. It represents good memories and sweet times. The scene on the bus, talking to the soldier sitting next to her, driving through America. It's just good.

Every once in a while, you watch a random film, and hours, days, weeks, a lifetime later, it's one you find you just never forget. This, for me, is one of those films. Flying under the radar, and IMMENSELY underrated, this one quietly showed up in 1982, and then seemed to be gone and forgotten about, by nearly everyone. Though it did have a video (vhs) release, criminally, it was never released on DVD. But now, the little film that could, is FINALLY available on DVD, as part of 20th Century Fox's Cinema Archives series. Maybe, just maybe, the rest of the world will now slowly catch on to this sneaky little gem of a movie, and find themselves remembering it hours, days, weeks.......or even a lifetime later.

The movie starts out with Libby(Manoff)talking to her dead grandmother who we hear about all through the film. She has decided to travel cross country from New York to LA to find her estranged father, an out of work screenwriter. The only saving grace in this film is Ann Margaret. Libby spends the rest of the film parking cars for actors(putting her name and number on there windshields), trying to get laid and forcing her estranged father to talk to his ex-wife(her mother).Manoff is probably great on the stage but she was terrible in this movie. Its not so bad in the parts with just Matthau and Ann Margaret but otherwise no chemistry. The part where Libby asks her father about sex is hysterical and has to be one of the most embarrassing moments in screen history.

which had been performed on Broadway in the mid-late 70's. It was an interesting and light generational & family piece which centers around a teenager girl arriving at the home of her long-absconded father. Dad turns out to be the opposite of everything a girl could have hoped for, a slovenly failure living in a run-down home in L.A. Dinah Manhoff (the daughter of Lee Grant) and Walter Matthau do fine job of father and daughter battling guilt, anger, expectations, hopes and dreams. A line I remember well comes when Ms. Manhoff is berating Mr. Matthau for his failures as a father by comparing him to the steadfast grandmother who raised her and her brother "My grandmother was my father." Catch this little seen film if you can.

The problem with this film was that it was a rotten play to begin with. It's the same old Neil Simon characters, same old Neil Simon storylines. For Matthau, this is the same Neil Simon characterization as with his previous ventures into Simon's work. He's much better as Oscar in "The Odd Couple." Ann Margaret is entirely out of place here, but so is the writing and Herbert Ross's direction. Only Dinah Manoff, who reprises her Tony Award winning role, comes off successful in the picture.

In my and my wife's opinion(s) this picture ("I Ought To Be In Pictures") held our attention, made us laugh, and touched our heart strings. The plot is very believable and truly beautiful. Dinah Manoff and Walter Matthau were delightful. Ann-Margret's part was undoubtedly low-key, but we applaud her for being prepared to play it and play it well. (Who ever said an actress has always to play "knock-out" parts.) This is a movie we will buy for our collection of fine movies. Leonard Maltin's review rating: ** is an insult. We give it *** at least. We were thrilled to see Dinah Manoff playing a larger role than her role in "Ordinary People."

Libby Tucker (Dinah Manoff) sets off from New York to look for her Hollywood screenwriter father Herbert Tucker (Walter Matthau). She wants to get into the movies. She's the talkative type who talks to her dead grandmother. She calls on her dad and finds movie hair stylist Steffy Blondell (Ann-Margret). I like the character of Libby in the beginning but eventually, she stops being realistic. I don't buy her sex questioning of Herbert. If Neil Simon wants to go there, he should do it by asking about Herbert's sex life with her mother or better yet Steffy. That scene is a last straw situation where her emotional breakdown feels unearned. I am surprised at the clunky dialogue. It feels overly written. There are so many ways I want this story to go but it never really goes anywhere. The whole last act is cringeworthy with Libby's dialogue. It is big emotions built on nothingness.

I just saw the movie. What a great movie it is. Very well written and very strongly performed. This movie basically has everything and teaches us how to combine a philosophical life with practical life. It shows us we might need the both and also more importantly the both ideas have their own values. All the performers did a great job in this. I thought it was great to look at the situation from this point of view. It is about how you want to build yourself not which is the right way of doing it. Great great movie. I feel bad for the person who wrote the comment as "the worst....". I think it is one of the best movies i have ever seen.