Where's Poppa?

...and it produced some low budget, but VERY memorable films. The genre seems to have been based around New York City. Most of them owe more than a little bit to the '60s vintage British version of Cinema Verite expressed in films like A TASTE OF HONEY and THE L SHAPED ROOM... and further back yet to the French films like THE 400 BLOWS.

The Americans added humor to the mix.

LITTLE MURDERS, THE PRODUCERS, and THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS were some of the better known products. They were made by directors and actors who had huge amounts of enthusiasm, social commentary crying out to be expressed, and intelligence... but not a whole mountain of money to put their visions on film.

They spun off major studio products with big name actors and production values like A NEW LEAF, HAROLD AND MAUDE, and PETE 'N TILLIE.

Enter WHERE'S PAPPA?... one of the "transition" films, firmly between the "No budget" New York stuff, and the later "Low Budget" Hollywood productions that they spawned.

Like MOST of the genre, WHERE'S PAPPA? takes on a sacred cow... dealing with older, dependent relatives (in this case, the hero's mother), and saying the things about it that we ALL think but DON'T DARE say out loud for fear of being thought a monster. In this case, we wrestle with the decision to put Mama into a nursing home. A hard choice... but it has it's comic aspects, which get explored fully.

George Siegel does a GREAT job in the lead, the perfect foil for Ruth Gordon. Ron Liebman's a standout as Siegel's brother. As in his roles in UP THE ACADEMY and WON TON TON, THE DOG WHO SAVED Hollywood, Liebman shows off a deft skill in handling comedic material.

Incidentally... look for Garrett Morris from the original Saturday NIGHT LIVE crew as a mugger in Central Park!

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BTW... I'm editing this review after the fact, because I made an interesting discovery about the film.

There are at least TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS of it out there.

Having watched the TV version for a long time, when I recently came up with a copy of the Laserdisc version I was startled to see that the ending on the disc is completely different, and somewhat longer!

In a totally unsettling and quite uncomfortable way, it completely reverses the commonly seen ending's decision and solution to the story's central problem... and today, it would probably earn an R rating... if it's implications didn't get the original ending CENSORED, that is! The Freudian hints left a bad taste for me... I can see exactly WHY the filmmakers changed it.

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If irreverence is your bag, you'll enjoy WHERE'S POPPA?

The brothers Hocheiser make a solemn promise to their dying father that they will "never put their mother (Ruth Gordon) in a home." But brother Gordon (George Siegel) gets stuck with the old dingbat and she is wrecking his life. His law practice is falling apart, his sex life nonexistent, and he can't even hire a nurse to take care of the wacko. Then, suddenly, a nurse-- the girl of his dreams comes along, but mother has other ideas. This wonderful, creative, hilarious 1970 classic comedy directed by Carl Reiner with its gallows humor could not be made today. We have lost much of our artistic freedom to political correctness, commercial timidity and lack of creative talent. But don't take my word for it, ask Mel Brooks who has remarked that some of his movies could not be made today either. Fortunately we can get the video. The movie does require a somewhat offbeat taste to appreciate. Everything and everyone is in a kind of reality warp, the Hocheiser family, the Central Park muggers, the police, the nurse Louise (Patricia Van Devere). The movie is also comment on life in America in 1970, and on how family members manipulate each other with guilt. Finally, I like the ending the movie was released with, it really does work better artistically.

9/10

1970 87 minutes Rated:R CC.

I saw this movie originally in 1970. It was a co-feature with a movie called Sunday Bloody Sunday which is what we actually went to see. When this film came on my first reaction was, What the hell! Within minutes I was laughing and the laughs never stopped. I lived in Seattle at the time, but I had grown up in New York City, so the events of the film had a special cache for me. The parts that occurred within Central Park were incredibly funny, and the Taxicab scene is a true classic. I have seen a lot of films in the intervening years and have attempted several time to find a copy of this film (I was finally successful this morning). Despite the years since first seeing it and all that I have seen since nothing has ever topped this film for just plain fun. Carl Reiner is a true comic genius.

It's funny, mostly because of the actors involved. It's pretty light on story. George segal did a ton of films in between virginia woolf and his television series. And anytime ruth gordon is involved, you know it's going to be a goofy, offbeat film. Have you seen harold and maude, or rosemary's baby? So gordon (segal) hires louise (trish van de vere) to look after his mother (gordon). But he's already fallen in love with louise, and wants to marry her. It's a bit walter mitty-ish... every now and then, it goes into fantasy mode, where we see what gordon is thinking. But it's not actually happening. The running gag where gordon's brother keeps getting mugged in the park. Lots of sight gags, where the taxi won't pick up the black lady, but is perfectly willing to pick up the guy in a gorilla suit. A statement of the times. Small role for rob reiner, the director's son. A couple years before his big break all in the family. The trivia section tells us rob's wife penny marshall was a courtroom spectator. Garrett morris is one of the thugs in the park. Ron leibman is sidney. Vincent gardenia. All kind of cussing in this one, and some pretty rough stuff. And a gay cop, who sends flowers to sidney. In 1970. It's so odd, i would have thought it was written by ruth gordon. But it's not. Directed by the awesome carl reiner, who some know as allen brady on the dick van dyke show. Written by robert klane, who also wrote weekend at bernie's. Van de vere and ruth gordon both made awesome episodes of "columbo"... check em out!

"Where's Poppa" is a true cult classic of black comedy/absurdist humor. It pokes fun at things that we really shouldn't find funny, but manages to have us howling with laughter at nonetheless. Surprisingly, even though it's nearly 30 years old, it still has the power to shock and surprise an audience. An excellent cast and perfectly-timed direction by Carl Reiner (this is one of his very best) make this a comedy classic worth watching again and again.