The Main Event *** (1979, Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal) – Classic Film Review 1235

Director Howard Zieff’s 1979 screwball comedy reunites the sparkling stars of 1972’s What’s Up Doc? – but alas they can’t quite come up with the same kind of magic.

Barbra Streisand stars as Hillary Kramer, a successful perfume and cosmetics magnate who awakes one morning to find that her accountant has robbed her, high-tailed for South America and left her bankrupt.

Among her surviving assets is a failed boxer, bought as a tax write off. So she decides to persuade Ryan O’Neal’s Eddie ‘Kid Natural’ Scanlon back into the ring so she that can recoup her fortune. Eddie, much happier giving driving lessons, thinks boxing will end up getting him killed. When he refuses her, she has to try to wear him down.

Both stars are still attractive in every way, but they are fighting Gail Parent and Andrew Smith’s moderate script that starts with a good situation but isn’t packed with enough wit or laughs to keep it going with comic dynamism. It all too often resorts to getting the stars shouting at each other instead of trading quips and witty banter.

Patti D’Arbanville steals all her scenes as O’Neal’s silly girlfriend Donna, who has the kind of cough that’s only funny in the movies. D’Arbanville apart, everybody’s not quite on their best form, but the movie is still amusing and diverting enough.

The film survived some adverse reviews to be among the top 20 highest grossing films of the year. It took $42million on a $8million budget. It was Streisand’s first foray into disco, singing the Golden Globe-nominated theme song written by Paul Jabara and Bruce Roberts.

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Derek Winnert is the author of Barbra Streisand Quote Unquote

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1235

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/