A Change of Seasons ** (1980, Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Hopkins, Bo Derek) – Classic Movie Review 9968

Director Richard Lang’s 1980 romantic comedy drama A Change of Seasons stars Anthony Hopkins as a long married New England professor who takes his sexy student (Bo Derek) as a lover. But his wife (Shirley MacLaine) fights back with one of her own, the handsome college joiner (Michael Brandon). Mary Beth Hurt plays the married pair’s daughter, who arrives and is shocked by her parents’ carrying-on.

Though the territory has already been much mined previously and this is a rather daft hand-wringing Mills and Boon-style romantic drama with unbelieveable complications thrown in to keep the pot boiling, it is still an acceptable, amusing film of middle-age madness.

For this, it is thanks mainly to the reliable, proficient star playing of Hopkins and MacLaine, Bo’s nubile attractions, and the pretty filming. The smoothly professional script is co-written by Erich Segal, who wrote Love Story (1970), and he co-wrote the story with producer Martin Ransohoff. All in all, it could pass as a guilty pleasure.

Noel Black was fired and replaced as director by Richard Lang during filming, and Lang gets sole credit. It was reported that John Derek, Ms Derek’s husband and manager, had creative differences with Noel Black, which allegedly escalated to Black’s firing.

It is alleged that Hopkins and MacLaine did not get along. Hopkins reportedly allegedly said: ‘She was the most obnoxious actress I have ever worked with.’

When the previously unknown Bo Derek became famous after 10 (1979) was released, additional love scenes were added in a later studio shoot. Derek and Hopkins were brought back to film the movie’s notable hot tub love sequence.

The theme song, performed by Kenny Rankin, written by lyricists Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, with music by Henry Mancini, is called ‘Where Do You Catch the Bus for Tomorrow?’

It was reported that Leslie Stevens provided a revised final draft of the screenplay, written by Ronni Kern and Fred Segal, but he received no writing credit.

The movie was nominated for three Razzie Awards in 1981 (Worst Actor, Screenplay and Original Song) but it failed to win.

Richard Lang, 1939–1997.

Noel Black, 1937 – 2014.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9968

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