Themes: Breakups and Divorces, Single Parents, Fathers and Sons
Main Cast: Al Pacino, Dyan Cannon, Tuesday Weld, Alan King, Bob Dishy
Release Year: 1982
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Successful playwright Al Pacino can't get any work done as long as he is pestered by his wacko wife Tuesday Weld. Making things worse are the couple's obstreperous children, many of them products of her previous marriages. Just as Pacino is completing his latest work, his wife walks out on him. That's the good news: the bad news is that he's saddled with a bunch of snot-nosed kids. Still and all, Pacino finds time to inaugurate an affair with his play's leading lady, played by Dyan Cannon, while attempting to juggle the stresses of opening night with the needs of the demanding, often obnoxious children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Author! Author! strives to be both a heartwarming domestic comedy about single fatherhood and a barbed show business satire. On the domestic front Travalian (Al Pacino) has a brood of five children, four of them from his wife's former marriages. When she finally leaves him, he alone must care for these kids he loves as if they were his own. As for work, Travalian's new play is running into production and rewrite problems. Although this material has been done to death in other films, Alan King and the great comic duo Bob and Ray make their scenes spark and bring out a wackier side of Pacino than audiences had seen before. As these two worlds begin to encroach on each other, the film weakens. There is a scene where Travalian is supposed to meet his new leading lady (a charming Dyan Cannon) for dinner. Having nothing else to do with them, the kids all come along. As good as the cast is, they are unable to make this situation (which is most certainly written for laughs) seem either plausible, or giddily screwball enough to enjoy. Although director Arthur Hiller is unable to make these two story lines gel, there are individual moments that work quite well. Pacino obviously enjoyed playing with the child actors, Eric Gurry gives a very winning performance as Travalian's oldest son, and Tuesday Weld does a fine job with the underwritten role of the abandoning mother, but one gets the sense that had the filmmakers focused on one story over the other, the movie would have had more energy. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Bob Elliott - Patrick Dicker; Ray Goulding - Jackie Dicker; Eric Gurry - Igor; Elva Leff - Bonnie; B.J. Barie - Spike; Ari Meyers - Debbie; Benjamin H. Carlin - Geraldo; Ken Sylk - Roger Slessinger; James Tolkan - Lt. Glass; Tony Munafo - Officer Kapinsky; Richard Belzer - Seth Shapiro; Lori Tan Chinn - Mrs. Woo; Denny Dillon - Young Woman; Judy Graubart - Miss Knoph; Andre Gregory - J.J.; Christal Kim - Grunella; Kevin McClarnon - Ted Brawn; Jaime Tirelli - Taxi Driver; Margo Winkler - Millie; Cis Corman; Jean-Pierre Stewart - French Student; Doris Gramovot - Waitress; Frederic Kimball - Larry Kotzwinkle; Florence Anglin - Bag Lady
Credit
Dorothy Wilde - Associate Producer, Cis Corman - Casting, Gloria Gresham - Costume Designer, Yudi Bennett - First Assistant Director, Arthur Hiller - Director, William H. Reynolds - Editor, Dave Grusin - Composer (Music Score), Johnny Mandel - Composer (Music Score), Jay Cannistraci - Makeup, Lou Barlia - Camera Operator, Gene Rudolf - Production Designer, Terry Donnelly - Production Designer, Victor J. Kemper - Cinematographer, Irwin Winkler - Producer, Alan Hicks - Set Designer, Les Lazarowitz - Sound/Sound Designer, Frederic Kimball - Dialogue Writer, Israel Horovitz - Screenwriter, George Simpson - Screenwriter, Israel Horovitz - Book Author
It concerns the familial and relationship troubles of a stressed Broadway writer, Ivan Travalian (Pacino), as he struggles to write an original play entitled, "English with Tears."
According to an interview with Horovitz published in The New York Times around the time of the film's release, the origins of the film came from conversations he had with his three children and how he dealt with raising them on his own. He said, "The film had to be written in a comic mode, because otherwise it's too painful to deal with."
Plot synopsis
Playwright Ivan Travalian (Pacino) has a Broadway play in rehearsal and the backers want rewrites. His wife (Weld) is leaving him, leaving him as well with four children from her previous marriages plus his own son. And his lead actress (Cannon) wants to move in with him but isn't used to kids.
