I have been watching "Only When I Laugh" (based on "The Gingerbread lady") over the last week or so. It's taken that long because it pushes a number of buttons on a number of different levels- even more so than when it came out in 1981. I know it is still chic to bash Neil Simon, but he was brilliant and changed everything about the theatre (and movies, too, for awhile). Jimmy Coco steals the picture, along with the brilliant Joan Hackett. Kristy MacNichol is pitch perfect (as I always thought she seemed to be). Marsha Mason gets it right where it counts, and her pairings with her then husband were perfect. No wonder people bashed them! The timing of Neil Simon's lines is very delicate (kind of like Noel Coward--- you either get it right, or you don't). All of these people had that timing. Walter Matthau and Matthew Broderick were also particularly adept with Mr. Simon's words. It is such a shame that so much of the cast (and at relatively young ages) of this movie has been decimated by cancer and AIDS. James Coco, Joan Hackett, David Dukes and many extras.
Heck, even Kevin Bacon got in on the movie in one scene. And of course, there is David Shire's perfect score. They also did a nice job of making New York in the fall look lovely and promising and yet become increasingly dark and menacing as the plot progressed. Definitely worth watching for the great lines (even through the hard parts). I would have loved to have seen Maureen Stapleton do the part on Broadway and Elaine Stritch do it in London.
