California Suite and Carbon Copy

A late entry this time, both due to writer’s block – I’ve exhausted the Christmas issues – and sheer being busy out of town in NJ with the holidays.  So hopefully my readers will excuse the lateness and also the completely non-holiday topic, two movies we watched recently.

California Suite (DVD).   When the recent fuss and scandal about Bill Cosby erupted, I re-watched Eddie Murphy’s “Raw” footage where he discusses – at length – Cosby’s lecture to him about the foul language in his act.  You know, the one where he mimics Cosby: “I would like to talk to YOOOOO… about some of the THINGS, that you SAY…on your SHOW.”   At the end, he talks about consulting with Richard Pryor, who tells him “tell Bill to have a Coke and a smile and shut up,” also “Bill Cosby can [perform oral sex on Mr. Pryor].”  He also implied that Pryor himself had been similarly lectured by Cosby way back when.  So I wondered if Cosby and Pryor had ever worked together.

            It turns out they did: in this film.  This is a 1978 film based on Neil Simon’s play.  It features five couples having various issues.

            1.  Sidney Cochran & Diana Barrie (Michael Caine & Maggie Smith).   The Chicken Lady of Griffyndor is in L.A. nominated for a comedy (that in itself is implausible) at the Oscars.   She bickers back and forth with her husband, who is a thinly closeted antiques dealer in London.  Essential plot? Uptight, pretentious British people.

            2.  Bill & Hannah Warren (Alan Alda & Jane Fonda).   Hawkeye and Hanoi Jane bicker about their daughter Jenny (Dana Plato) who has decided to leave her mother (who lives in NYC but goes to DC frequently because of her important job) and live with her father in sunny, laid back L.A.   Essential plot? Uptight, pretentious Americans.

            3.  Marvin & Millie Michaels (Walter Matthau & Elaine May).   Marvin comes into town for his son’s bar mitzvah only to find to his horror that his brother – a promiscuous bachelor – took it upon himself to send a hooker, Bunny, to his hotel room.  His wife took a flight the next day, and shows up at the hotel leaving Marvin wondering how to hide this blonde passed out in his bed.  Matthau lathers up the same pathos and whining he did as Oscar Madison.  Essential plot?  Oscar Madison finally gets a girl in his bed, but it’s not his wife.

            4.  Willis Panama & Chauncey Gump (Bill Cosby & Richard Pryor) and their respective spouses.  Yes, Cosby and Pryor bump ugly here, big time.  They seem to be doctors competing against each other in Chicago, and that competition spills over into their vacation in L.A.  Essential plot?  Cosby and Pryor fight.  That alone is worth watching.   

Carbon Copy (DVD).  This 1981 film is Denzel Washington’s debut.   Walter Whitney (George Segal) lives a comfortable life in San Marino, California (actually Bel Air), a suburb of L.A.   He drives a Rolls Royce, lives in a fancy house, and has a sexually repressed, uptight wife Vivian (Susan St. James, not to be confused with Jill St. John).  Everything is going fine until Roger Porter (Washington) arrives on the scene. 

            It seems that 20 something years ago, Walter got a job working for Nelson Longhurst (Jack Warden), his current father-in-law.  Nelson was aware that Walter had a relationship with a black woman, Lorraine Porter.  Cynically, Nelson persuaded Walter not only to change his name from Weisenthal to Whitney, but also to dump Lorraine and marry his daughter Vivian.

            Unknown to Walter, Lorraine had a son, Roger.  Recently Lorraine died, and Roger comes looking for his father.  This screws up everything.  Vivian cannot accept having a black son in the household, and kicks out Walter.  His Rolls, which was a company car, goes back to Nelson.  He loses his job.  It turns out 100% of his assets were in Vivian’s name.  So he’s literally homeless and broke.  Moreover, Nelson has the clout to have Walter blacklisted, which prevents him from simply getting another job.  His lawyer Victor (Dick Martin) takes Vivian’s case in the divorce [red flag: obvious conflict of interest, Victor would get a call from the bar about this].

            Roger and Walter find a furnished apartment in Watts, of all places, with Walter taking day laborer jobs like cleaning stables. 

            Is there a happy ending? Yes:  literally a minute before the closing credits roll by.  Seems to me, though, that Walter would have been better off marrying Lorraine back in the day, being in Roger’s life from day one, and telling The Man (Nelson) to piss off way back then.