Mixed Company

A typically trite and sickly concoction by Shavelson, whose funnybone seemed much firmer when he was scripting Paramount comedies in the '40s. You can easily gauge its quality by the plot: when a basketball coach is rendered sterile through mumps, his wife urges the adoption of three cute but problematic kids - a semi-delinquent black, a Vietnamese orphan, and a Hopi Indian. All prejudices are ultimately overcome, and the result is a runaway victory for the upper class American liberal. The performers are far superior to their material, particularly Barbara Harris; but on the whole this movie gives a whole new meaning to the word 'yuck'.