I Ought to Be in Pictures *** (1982, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Dinah Manoff) – Classic Movie Review 8,318

Herbert Ross’s 1982 film I Ought to Be in Pictures is a minor Neil Simon comedy drama from Walter Matthau’s latter period of decline, but it is still a fairly pleasing picture.

Director Herbert Ross’s 1982 film I Ought to Be in Pictures is a minor Neil Simon comedy drama from Walter Matthau’s latter period of decline, but it is still a fairly pleasing picture.

Dinah Manoff tries valiantly as Libby Tucker, the aspiring New York hopeful who hitches to Hollywood to re-establish links with her boozy Hollywood scriptwriter dad Herbert Tucker (Matthau) and tries to make it in the movies. It says much for the two actors that they make something quite touching of it, though Ann-Margret cannot do much with her support role as Matthau’s lover, Steffy Blondell.

The incredibly industrious and fertile Neil Simon scripts from his conveyor-belt play, and it is a good, effective screenplay, though it does not reach the parts it obviously meant to, however.

Also in the cast are Lance Guest as Gordon, Lewis Smith, Martin Ferrero, Eugene Butler, Samantha Harper, Santos Morales, Michael Dudikoff and David Faustino.

Dinah Manoff was born on 25 January 1956 in New York City, New York, to screenwriter Arnold Manoff and Oscar-winning actress Lee Grant. She won a Tony Award in 1980 for her performance in the Broadway production of I Ought to Be in Pictures, which she reprises in the film version.

With Simon writing his own screenplay, most of the script from the stage play is the same, but making it more filmic with more outside settings, such as Dodger Stadium and the Hollywood Park Racetrack.

I Ought to Be in Pictures is adapted from Neil Simon’s Broadway play, which closed in 1981 (a year before the film’s 1982 release). That starred Ron Leibman as Herbert Tucker and Joyce Van Patten as Steffy, making Dinah Manoff as Libby Tucker the only cast member to reprise her role in the movie.

It was distributed by 20th Century-Fox on March 26, 1982 in the US and in UK cinemas on May 6, 1982.

It was not a hit, grossing $6,968,359 in its six weeks of US release, against a budget of $10.5 million.

The song ‘One Hello’ written by Carole Bayer Sager and Marvin Hamlisch is performed at the end of the movie by Randy Crawford.

The cast

The cast are Walter Matthau as Herbert Tucker, Ann-Margret as Steffy Blondel, Dinah Manoff as Libby Tucker, Lance Guest as Gordon, Larry Barton as Harry, Eugene Butler as Marty, Michael Dudikoff as boy on bus, David Faustino as Martin, Martin Ferrero as Monte Del Rey, Wayne Woodson as Baseball Fan, Lewis Smith, Samantha Harper, Santos Morales.

 © Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,318

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