Yes, the screenplay by Murray Schisgal (based on his own play) is very dated, unrealistic and often offensive. But many things about living in a big city in the 1960's was offensive and now seems dated and unrealistic. It was a mindset now gone with the wind, and this film burlesques the anguish and discontentment of the working man, going too far, but his feelings about an overcrowded, cold society (that he verbalizes outloud to disapproving stares) are written on the faces of many people still facing the daily rat race.
Mailman Eli Wallach is hysterically obnoxious, living in a basement apartment that the owner utilizes against his will for storage. Strike on his side, but subsequent situations makes him get strikes against him. He hysterically tells off a bunch of older women about nagging him over receiving their male (Judith Lowry among them), deals with the overly chatty woman whose leg fell through his ceiling, and deals with all sorts of city bureaucracy where the clerk (David Doyle) complains about HIS job.
The main story deals with him wanting to kidnap a beautiful woman out of sociopathic revenge and ending up accidentally with housewife and mother Anne Jackson, equally disillusioned over her life. It's a questionable plot twist, but leads to ironic situations. What is truly amusing about this film is the faces of the characters in the background reacting to Wallach's Travis Bickle like insanity.
Lots of theater character actors pop up in small roles, and a young Dustin Hoffman can be spotted too. Charles Nelson Reilly, Frances Sternhagen, David Burns, Ruth White, Bob Dishy and Sudie Bond are among the hysterically funny in fleshing out the atmosphere. For New Yorkers of a certain age, it's a delight to see vintage parts of the city, and the larger than life aspects of the story beautifully dilute the more eye raising elements of the story. I just love to take charge attitude with no nonsense of the commanding female characters who set up tough barriers from their first sighting, very funny and honest. Definitely one of director Arthur Hiller's unsung treats.
Mailman Eli Wallach is hysterically obnoxious, living in a basement apartment that the owner utilizes against his will for storage. Strike on his side, but subsequent situations makes him get strikes against him. He hysterically tells off a bunch of older women about nagging him over receiving their male (Judith Lowry among them), deals with the overly chatty woman whose leg fell through his ceiling, and deals with all sorts of city bureaucracy where the clerk (David Doyle) complains about HIS job.
The main story deals with him wanting to kidnap a beautiful woman out of sociopathic revenge and ending up accidentally with housewife and mother Anne Jackson, equally disillusioned over her life. It's a questionable plot twist, but leads to ironic situations. What is truly amusing about this film is the faces of the characters in the background reacting to Wallach's Travis Bickle like insanity.
Lots of theater character actors pop up in small roles, and a young Dustin Hoffman can be spotted too. Charles Nelson Reilly, Frances Sternhagen, David Burns, Ruth White, Bob Dishy and Sudie Bond are among the hysterically funny in fleshing out the atmosphere. For New Yorkers of a certain age, it's a delight to see vintage parts of the city, and the larger than life aspects of the story beautifully dilute the more eye raising elements of the story. I just love to take charge attitude with no nonsense of the commanding female characters who set up tough barriers from their first sighting, very funny and honest. Definitely one of director Arthur Hiller's unsung treats.