Themes: Cons and Scams, Race Against Time, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Barbra Streisand, Michael Sarrazin, Estelle Parsons, William Redfield, Molly Picon
Release Year: 1974
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Barbra Streisand returns to the screwball-comedy milieu of What's Up Doc? in the lightweight For Pete's Sake. As a Brooklyn hausfrau named Henry (!), our heroine will do anything to help her cabdriver husband Pete (Michael Sarrazin) get ahead. When Pete begins to play the stock market, Henry borrows three grand from a loan shark, thereby setting off a series of comic catastrophes. Molly Picon is perfection itself as a money-savvy madam who holds the key to Pete and Henry's happiness and well-being. For Pete's Sake was originally titled July Pork Bellies, a curious cognomen that makes perfect sense within the context of the plotline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Essentially a "contractual obligation" film for Barbra Streisand, For Pete's Sake was surprisingly popular in its initial release. Mining territory they had visited earlier (if perhaps more subtly) in their Doris Day sex comedies, screenwriters Shapiro and Richlin set up a series of incidents that allow the star to show off her lighter, screwball side. She seems to be having a lot of fun, as if she realizes that this is a ridiculous lark. As a result, it's one of her freer and easier performances. Molly Picon is also a ghoulish little delight, and Estelle Parsons and William Redfield turn in dependably professional performances. Michael Sarrazin is fine, doing the best he can with a thankless part. The film is enormously uneven, with some fairly amusing segments followed by dull stretches. The ending, at least, is enjoyably goofy and appropriately chaotic (perhaps because structurally it can be compared to an action chase scene, with which he is famously associated), but director Peter Yates in general seems to be operating on cruise control. For Pete's Sake is a mediocre film, but viewers can get extra entertainment from observing the mid-'70s fashions and mores on parade herein. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Louis Zorich - Nick; Wil Albert - Cop In Drag; Herb Armstrong - Insurance Man; Ed Bakey - Angelo; Vivian Bonnell - Loretta; Heywood Hale Broun - Judge Hiller; Bella Bruck - Lady In Supermarket; Joseph Maher - Mr. Coates; Peter Mamakos - Dominic; Bill McKinney - Rocky; Gary Pagett - Assistant Bank Manager; Joe Pantoliano; Anne Ramsey - Telephone Lady; Fred Stuthman - Loan Officer; Martin Erlichman - Man in Theater; Joseph Hardy - Second Cop; Sidney Miller - Drunk Driver; Vincent Schiavelli - Checkout Man; Richard Ward - Bernie; Jack Hollander - Loan Shark
Credit
Gene Callahan - Art Director, Frank Thompson - Costume Designer, Peter Yates - Director, Frank Keller - Editor, Phil Feldman - Executive Producer, Artie Butler - Composer (Music Score), Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer, Martin Erlichman - Producer, Stanley Shapiro - Producer, Maurice Richlin - Screenwriter, Stanley Shapiro - Screenwriter
Henrietta and Pete Robbins are a young couple struggling to get by on the income he earns as a cab driver. His pompous sister-in-law Helen delights in reminding them that an early marriage robbed him of a college education and how much better off than they she and her husband Fred are. When Henrietta gets an inside tip on pork bellyfutures, she borrows $3,000 from a Mafialoan shark to purchase the stock. Unfortunately, its value doesn't increase as rapidly as she anticipated, and when she's unable to pay her debt, her contract is sold to Mrs. Cherry, a grandmotherly-type who operates a prostitution ring. When Henrietta's initial attempts at entertaining clients prove to be less than successful, her contract is sold yet again . . . and again, as Henrietta fails to fulfill the requirements of each new individual to whom she becomes indebted - each time for more money - and tries to keep her new enterprises - bomber, then cattle rustler - secret from her unsuspecting husband.
Production notes
The title tune, "For Pete's Sake (Don't Let Him Down)," was written by Artie Butler and Mark Lindsay, former lead singer of Paul Revere & the Raiders.
In his review in the New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film "an often boisterously funny old-time farce" and added, "The movie may not hold together as any kind of larger comic statement, but the laughs are self-sustaining throughout . . . Miss Streisand's comedy range is narrow, like a cartoon character's, but For Pete's Sake operates almost entirely within that range. She's at her best in this kind of farce." [1]
Time Out London says, "Yates sure is an erratic talent . . . Here he's adrift in a sea of poor performances and bad comic timing." [2]
