Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageHouse Calls (1978)
Director: Howard Zieff
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Concocted by an unhealthy quartet of writers, this suggests a slightly wacky, liberated variant on Universal's comedies of eighteen years earlier, when Rock Hudson flashed his pearly teeth at Doris Day. Once again it's love between two pros: Matthau is a shambling, philandering doctor at a mediocre hospital, while Jackson leads one of those nebulous American business lives, making and selling cheesecake. He doesn't put a foot wrong, but the garrulous, charmless Jackson character comes over as the original pain in the neck. Background details of hospital life are handled much more astutely than the main plot. It's a big mystery how Zieff (of Slither and Hearts of the West) allowed it to go off at half-cock.Author: GB
Cast & crew
Director: Howard Zieff
Producer: Alex Winitsky, Arlene Sellers
Cast: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Art Carney, Richard Benjamin, Candice Azzara, Dick O'Neill, Thayer David full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 98 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now