The April Fools

source: The April Fools

Moviecut—The April Fools

I saw this movie when I was a young teenager & was so smitten with it that I went back to the theaters playing it & paid about ten separate admissions to sit through multiple viewings. I became a big Jack Lemmon fan after this film. He was in top form here. I sort of identified with his character since I was at that age where I felt a bit awkward & out of place. Brubaker at the party and at the disco was certainly that. Deneuve was so beautiful and to think she could be interested in the "frog" Brubaker captivated me. The supporting actors do a nice job & the music is great, creating a haunting, romantic mood. I have the title song on my Ipod. There were very few critics that liked the film when it debuted. I remember the old Cue Magazine calling it an "enchanting surprise package" but most critics dismissed it as a failure. I bought the VHS tape when it came out but I want to get a widescreen version. Does anyone know if there is such a version? I will always love this film.

Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve are both very good. Peter Lawford and Sally Kellerman are also distinct and special. Jack Weston does a great job. Although made in 1969, the film looks modern and contemporary. Great direction by Stuart Rosenberg, great Cinematography by Michel Hugo, great editing by Bob Wyman, great movie.

As I recall from seeing "The April Fools" back in the late '60s-early '70s, this film is worth seeing just for a brilliant performance by Sally Kellerman in the role of Howard Brubaker's long-suffering, and forever home-decorating wife, who springs to life fully-formed three decades before the first house renovation and make-over TV series ever aired. It's true that there's a lot of stylish fun in this film, but there's also a sense of regret and a longing for something that never quite worked out the way it should have for the Jack Lemmon character that gives "The April Fools" some real poignancy. But then, I've never found melancholy to be a particularly bad thing. The script is first rate, as are the cinematography, set-decoration and musical score by Burt Bacharach. If you can locate a copy of this gem, I highly recommend it.

Would somebody PLEASE release this lovely little romance on DVD. Eyery week I check the new releases and see old TV series and films that no one went to see, yet this wonderful film gets no respect. The sets are mind boggling. The casting is perfect. Lemmon, Deneuve, Peter Lawford, Myrna Loy, Charles Boyer, Melinda Dillon, Harvey Korman, Jack Weston, Sally Kellerman, songs by Burt Baccarach. Come on, Hollywood! I'm begging! Please give us a DVD!!!

My all-time favourite movie. Great Story, well filmed, superb cast, and captured the artificial attitudes of the 1960's perfectly. Jack Lemmon played the part of Howard Brubaker and, as always expected of Jack, he was great. Catherine Deneuve proved that her natural beauty is not just skin deep and who would have thought that She and Jack Lemmon would be such a resounding success together. Peter Lawford played Peter Lawford, as usual, very well and, was perfectly cast for the role of Gunther. Supporting cast were great and, since this early appearance of Kenneth Mars, why have we not seen more of him?

"BRUBAKERRR!!" -- Peter Lawford "Bwana wanna taxi." -- tigress/waitress "It's bad luck to be superstitious." -- Loy "Half-Basque Italian." -- Jack Weston. "I think it makes its own quiet statement." -- numerous times. "You are a prince." -- Deneuve. All from what I consider one of the hundred most under-viewed flicks of all time. Yeah, the action gets really slap-sticky in the third act, but it only adds to intensifying the sense of the intensifying isolation of our princess and her frog. Play it a few times and appreciate the subtlety of the romantic element. I heartily agree with the need for DVD of this most delicious movie.

In New York, the newly-promoted in the Street Broker Howard Brubaker (Jack Lemmon) is invited by his boss Ted Gunther (Peter Lawford) to come to his fancy apartment. However, there is a party and the clumsy Howard feels uncomfortable and misplaced. Ted's wife Catherine Gunther (Catherine Deneuve) is amused with Howard and he invites her to have a drink in a club that Ted has suggested. Howard has a loveless marriage and his wife Phyllis (Sally Kellerman) does not pay attention to him. Catherine is unhappily married with Ted. When they meet the couple Grace (Myrna Loy) and Andre Greenlaw (Charles Boyer) that have been married for many years and are still happy, they decide to travel together to Paris to start a new life together. Will they leave their marriages behind? "The April Fools" is a shallow, naive but funny romantic comedy. The plot is pleasant mostly because of the gorgeous Catherine Deneuve. It is hard to see what she liked in the clumsy character performed by Jack Lemmon. In the end, "The April Fools" is a silly romance that entertains. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Um Dia em Duas Vidas" ("One Day in Two Lives")

I fell in love with Catherine Deneuve as a result of this movie. had never seen or heard about her before I saw it. Very shallow I know, But I was 16 when I first saw this. The movie was well acted and is a pretty good send up of the the modern man and state of marriage, even back then. Jack Lemon plays a very good neurotic amoral business man searching for more meaning to his life, the constant American existential dilemma. Like all sixties movies, it seems to promote a consequence free way out. That in itself is worth the watching, just to make you think. Catherine is absolutely stunning and steals every scene she is in. How many of us don't want to just take off?