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Screwball comedy about romantic mismatches in New York City. Peter Bogdanovich is obviously in love with all the women in his picture--he reveres them--yet Audrey Hepburn is (naturally) put a notch above the others because, after all, she's the princess Bogdanovich probably fell in love with at the movies 30 years prior. He shoots her in loving close-ups, gets right in the sheets between her and a wonderfully hard-boiled/soft-boiled Ben Gazzara, and allows her room to sparkle throughout. The love-connections made in the course of the film are fast and amusing, though I did tire of John Ritter's TV-styled klutziness. Colleen Camp, Dorothy Stratten, and the grounded, earthy-sensual Patti Hansen are all exciting to watch. But it's really Hepburn's valentine and she absolutely glows. *** from ****

Everybody seems to be following everyone in this caper from Bogdanovich. Some really big names: Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, and of course, 33 year old John Ritter, while he was still making Three's Company. Minimal speaking, at least the first part of the film. Turns out, private-eyes are following spouses who may be playing around. Some pretty good singing by Colleen Camp, who plays the jealous Christy. Great street scenes of New York city. Patti Hansen (now MRS. Keith Richards in real life! ) is taxi driver Sam, who pals around with Russo (Gazzara). although everyone is pretty much hitting on everyone in this tangled bowl of spaghetti. lots of following people around the streets of new york. Bogdanovich explores married people flirting and fooling around. and partners and new friends keep meeting the other partners. Bogdanovich really explores un-expected new relationships, and people having multiple partners. Why does Christy keep saying Charles?? quite odd. and "Jose" is Hepburn's real-life son. lots of similarities to What's Up Doc, but that was just one person trying to steal the engaged guy away from his fiancee. As goofed up as director Bogdanovch's personal life was, he sure made some great films. My personal favorite is What's Up Doc? really interesting info him on wikipedia, as well as a full interview in New York Magazine March 2019. Good character study.

In the spirt of the old screwball comedies, this comes so very close to being great, but it held back just slightly by the weirdly empty sound mix, the too-quick love matches, and the slightly off acting style. I think it might have benefited from a slight tightening up in the pacing. As it stands, it's almost what it's homaging... you can see John Ritter channeling Cary Grant, but he's just not quite there. Had there been a little more tweaking in the editing, I think this could have been a classic, but circumstances prevented that. Overall, decent, but not great.

A gentle, wistful comedy that plays with audience expectations as much as the fates of its many characters, "They All Laughed" is a hard film to characterize but a pleasure to watch for those of us who remember its central character, the island of Manhattan, way back when.

The plot, after much ambling, centers on a trio of stalkers who work at the Odyssey Detective Agency, circa 1980. They have been hired to watch over a pair of ladies suspected of straying by their suspicious husbands. We figure out well into the movie that the detectives themselves are the very people unknowingly threatening these troubled unions.

The 1930s introduced the "remarriage comedy;" this could be called a "demarriage comedy." Film lovers will find much to enjoy here. As romantic comedies go, it's not an especially funny or clever film, but "They All Laughed" remains amusing throughout and quite engaging with its idiosyncratic pacing and quirky characters.

Would this film pack the same punch without the tragic death of co-lead actress Dorothy Stratten just after filming wrapped? I suspect not. Like the World Trade Center, which figures in the background of several scenes, Stratten's Delores character makes for an arresting central image that's hard to miss, as much as you wish otherwise. This ices some of the humor but adds resonance about the passage of time.

As far as the film's premise is concerned, a character that no doubt echoes director Peter Bogdanovich blurts out: "I don't know what I'm going to do!"

Ben Gazzara's lead character, John Russo, replies: "Who does?"

Gazzara is the center of the film, his quiet authority suggestive of Frank Sinatra whose songs permeate the eclectic score. He speaks in koans much of the time, and this can be annoying, except he seems plugged into a sort of wisdom "They All Laughed" espouses.

"I'm a charmer," is how he introduces himself, and he is.

It's enjoyable watching him trade lines with Odyssey's other two detectives, played by John Ritter and Blaine Novak. Likable romantic foil Ritter does a lot of physical humor, not far removed from his Jack Tripper character on TV's then-hit sitcom "Three's Company," while Novak, a total blank to me, sticks out with his wild hair and goofy patois.

"Look at it this way, Chas, she's in pre-bop with the boyfriend, she's in post-bop with the husband," he says. "If she gets into post-bop with the boyfriend, she'll be in ex-bop with the husband, the case is over, we get paid, and well, then it's every man for himself."

Is Bogdanovich too self-indulgent, too in love with Stratten, too caught up in the moment to explain to us the audience what's going on? Yes, and for 45 minutes we have no dialogue to tell us what it is we are supposed to be watching. But that same reticence becomes a kind of magic when you watch the film again and see how things flow so well. The challenge is sticking with this movie enough to watch it once, let alone multiple times. But it's a pretty fun ride once you make that effort.

Bogdanovich calls this his personal favorite of his films, which I can't relate to. "What's Up Doc?" is a far funnier romantic comedy, for one thing. But "They All Laughed," with its springtime visions of Broadway, Rockefeller Center, and Audrey Hepburn saying little but holding our attention as she crosses Fifth Avenue looking like a cross between Yoko Ono and Jackie O, makes you care despite your understandable confusion. Like Gazzara's character, it's a charmer.

What could be more schlocky than the idea of private detectives getting involved with the women they're supposed to be spying on? And most of the dialogue as written is perfectly banal.

But the actors turn the dialog into something that makes sense. You can see real people behind the unreal lines. And the directing is wonderful. Each scene does just what it has to and ends without dragging on too long.

I showed this to several friends in the mid-80s because I was perplexed at how such bad material could be made into such a good movie. The friends enjoyed it too.

According the bonus material the own Bogdanovich upholds it as his best work, however it sounds an odd offering, a comic dramatic picture, that never reaches anywhere, the great Audrey Hepburn was an absolute waste, Ben Gazzara is another out of line, worthwhile for some good and beauties characters improve a little bit, as Dorothy Stratten and the Patti Hansen, this freak comedy has some moments indeed.

Actually is hard to describe this complex picture, so I even don't try due it was so enigmatic and encrypted feature just Bogdanovich may explains without convince anybody, somehow it can be reassessed on twice watching, maybe we can find out anything palatable to our taste also with a more accurate look, the offbeat screenplay exposes a fine quality displaying a sort of time machine backing at New York streets openly in gorgeous urban landscape at crowed avenues, shops, pubs and harbor just appoint a few spots in the big apple.

I'd to confess that the movie draw my attention due I had watched "Star 80" when Bob Fosse exposes the Dorothy Stratten's story, seeing the picture could realize such stunning girl that even the beauty Mariel Hemingway couldn't matched never, just it deserves a look, but I didn't find it boring whatsoever, there are many good moments a due for it I gave a high rate on it, see New York on countless sequences is priceless, also some sexy scenes with double language pays off the messy parts!!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

Ben Gazzara and John Ritter are private detectives, hired by jealous husbands to follow, respectively, wives Audrey Hepburn and Dorothy Stratten, fearful they are cheating on them. Soon enough they are, with Gazzara and Ritter.

Peter Bogdanovich's romantic comedy about the ephemerality of love is set in a Manhattan with few recognizable and permanent landmarks, save the East River, Rockefeller Center, and the Plaza Fountain. Sequences set at the heliport, F. A. O. Schwarz, and the Roxy Club, all attest to that, as does a long section set on Fifth Avenue with not a single storefront that survives. I suspect that was not the original intention; Bogdanovich and Miss Stratten had fallen in love, and she was murdered by her estranged husband during post-production. No distributor would touch it, so Bogdanovich bought the film and released it himself, to disastrous financial results. He would not direct another movie for four years.

It's heavily flawed, with a long running time of just under two hours that makes t occasionally wearisome, and a mix of background music that runs from Sinatra and Armstrong singing standards from the Great American songbook to Colleen Camp singing country-western. Still, very much worth seeing for Gazzara at his most charming, Ritter being clumsily adorable, and Miss Hepburn in her last major role.

My first film of 2019. Three detectives (Gazzara, John Ritter and another guy) relentlessly stalk beautiful women. They are private detectives hired by the husbands of the beautiful women. They also interact with many other beautiful women who seem to be stalking them. The film has a great country music score and is set in New York. DOROTHY STRATTEN and PATTI HANSAN looked gorgeous. This film is proof that without the intervention of feminists, activists and other intellectuals, the great directors of the 20th century would have been making awesome pornographic movies. This film is like a relentless pussy buffet, even though there is no nudity. This is one of TARANTINO's favorite movies. Hitchcock might have been proud of this film.

(7/10)