Movie poster
Directed by Cy Howard
Produced by David Susskind
Written by Joseph Bologna
David Zelag Goodman
Renée Taylor
Starring Beatrice Arthur
Bonnie Bedelia
Music by Fred Karlin
Cinematography Andrew Laszlo
Editing by David Bretherton
Sidney Katz
Distributed by Cinerama Releasing Corporation
Release date(s) August 12, 1970 (1970-08-12)
Running time 104 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Lovers and Other Strangers is a 1970 comedy film based on the play by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. The film features an ensemble cast including Gig Young, Cloris Leachman, Anne Jackson, Beatrice Arthur, Richard Castellano, Bonnie Bedelia, Michael Brandon, Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Bob Dishy, Marian Hailey, Joseph Hindy, and, in her film debut, Diane Keaton. Sylvester Stallone was an extra in this movie. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards (it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song), and was one of the top box office performers of 1970.
Lovers and Other Strangers was released by ABC Pictures. It was released on VHS in 1980 by Magnetic Video, but soon went out of print. The Magnetic Video release was a collector's item for many years, but the film was eventually re-released on VHS by CBS/Fox Video in the 1990s. It is now available on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment.
Upon seeing this film, Richard Carpenter set about recording the song played during the wedding scene, For All We Know with his sister Karen. "Karen and I were in Toronto to open the show for Engelbert Humperdinck. We had one night off before opening and our manager Sherwin Bash suggested we see the film Lovers And Other Strangers. We enjoyed the film and noticed the song For All We Know which we recorded upon our return home. (It subsequently won an Oscar for Best Song of 1970)."[1]
Taylor and Bologna followed up with their second screenplay the following year, Made for Each Other in which they also starred.
Synopsis
Lovers and Other Strangers revolves around the wedding of Mike (Michael Brandon) and Susan (Bonnie Bedelia), intercutting their story with those of other couples among their families and friends. As the movie opens, Mike wants to call off the wedding, arguing that it would be hypocritical for them to get married when they’ve already been living together for a year and a half. He only relents when Susan's father, Hal (Gig Young), tells him how Susan went to her first Halloween party dressed as a bride.
Over the course of the movie, we meet:
- Susan's WASP-ish parents, Hal and Bernice (Cloris Leachman). Hal, we learn, is having a long-running extramarital affair with Bernice's sister, Kathy (Anne Jackson), who is afraid of being left as a spinster and is using the wedding to get some commitment from Hal.
- Susan's sister, Wilma (Anne Meara), and her husband Johnny (Harry Guardino). with two children, Wilma is feeling her age and misses the passion they had at the beginning of their marriage, while Johnny is more interested in watching Spellbound on TV than giving his wife attention.
- Mike's brother, Richie (Joseph Hindy) and his wife, Joan (Diane Keaton), who have grown “incompatible” and “unhappy” and are considering divorce.
- Bridesmaid Brenda (Marian Hailey) and usher Jerry (Bob Dishy), who Mike and Susan “fix up” for the wedding. Nebbishy Jerry imagines himself a playboy, and spends most of the weekend trying to “score” with Brenda.
The movie's funniest moments – and best lines – belong to Mike's Italian-American parents, Frank (Richard Castellano) and Bea (Beatrice Arthur), who are relentlessly trying to persuade Richie and Joan not to get divorced. (Castellano, who repeated his role from the Broadway play, received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role.)
All the plot lines play out through the rehearsal, wedding, and reception.