I fell asleep watching this movie when growing up in the mid to late 70s on one of the late show programs. It seemed very “adult” to me at the time, but all I remember is a scene where the R.B. character is out on the sidewalk in a residential area and I believe he is confused about his relationship with a woman. If I remember correctly, it was a sunny day with typical middle-class houses in the background. I affected me because I was at the age where I was tired of growing up and wanted to move directly into adulthood. I know this isn’t much to go on, but any help would be appreciated. I see at least nine movies on IMDB that I’d rather not sit through, unless someone recommends one of them.
That could describe just about every Richard Benjamin movie of the late sixties/early seventies! Seems like he was always playing a smart but kinda jerky Jewish guy with screwed up romantic/sexual relationships.
The most famous of these flicks would probably be the pair of Philip Roth movies, Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy’s Complaint. I’d start with GC, since that’s an earlier film (1969) and might be more likely to have been on TV already in the late seventies. (Movies took longer to appear on TV back then.)
Goodbye, Columbus is indeed a possibility – Benjamin’s character was overwhelmed by the white bread WASP family of the girl he was dating. It would have been likely that the neighborhood was an issue.
That might be it. Before falling asleep, I think I sensed some cultural/ethnic/religious wall between the Benjamin character and the woman. Now, you have to understand that at that time in my life, when I was around 13 or 14, I had read only a few books that weren’t spy novels or Louis Lamour tales, and had only a mere inkling of an idea that, say Jewish people, or Catholics actually existed. But I was raised in a town of 10,000 or so people. Went to Baptist Church three times a week, and had a classmate named Jeff Levy. Levy, for chrissakes, and it never occurred to me that he was Jewish. I just never made the connection. Why? Because in Radford, Virginia in the mid-seventies, we were all white/black, Christian, and believed in the Old and New Testament. Oh, that sounds really bad. What I mean to say is, that was just my experience in those times. Hell, I was 20 years old before I even knew there was a Catholic church in my town…
You aren’t alone, Fiddle Peghead! I didn’t meet any Jews that I was aware of until I was in college. I knew one Catholic at a distance.
One of my first friends in college was from Greenwich, Conn. and he thought it was hilarious that I had never heard of that particular town. I didn’t understand what was so special about it. And he liked my ignorance of it.
Goodbye Columbus was a good film. I wonder why I never see it on TV anymore. I think he may have married his co-star in real life. Anyone know?
I also remember an opening shot that made everybody laugh.
No. Richard Benjamin’s co-star in Goodbye Columbus was Ally McGraw of Love Story fame. Benjamin has been married to Paula Prentiss since the early '60’s.
Paula Prentiss was his co-star in the TV show He & She. They had been married a while when they made that. I believe they met when they were acting students.
Ally McGraw, of course! GC is almost certainly the movie I’m looking for. Thanks all.
Ali McGraw.
The movie you saw was probably The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker. There’s a memorable scene where Benjamin’s character is out walking and spots Tiffany Bolling, who notices him watching her and nods for him to follow her into her house. It had been raining and the sun came out. It movie was “adult” in that he’s a voyeur and it’s causing a lot of grief in his marriage. His wife has discovered his hobby and decided he’s a sicko.It’s a pretty good movie and makes even more of an impression when you see it as a horny teenager.
It’s from a book by Charles Webb, who also wrote The Graduate. Unfortunately, the film never gets shown on TV anymore and isn’t on DVD.