Critic's Choice | |
---|---|
Directed by | Don Weis |
Produced by | Frank P. Rosenberg |
Screenplay by | Jack Sher |
Based on |
Critic's Choice 1960 play by Ira Levin |
Starring |
Bob Hope Lucille Ball Rip Torn Marilyn Maxwell |
Music by | George Duning |
Cinematography | Charles Lang |
Edited by | William H. Ziegler |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Running time
|
100 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,250,000 (US/ Canada) |
Critic's Choice is a 1963 film comedy directed by Don Weis. Based on the 1960 Broadway play of the same name by Ira Levin, the movie starred Bob Hope and Lucille Ball and included Rip Torn, Marilyn Maxwell, Jim Backus, Marie Windsor and Jerome Cowan in the cast.
This was the last of four films that Hope and Ball made together.
Parker Ballantine (Bob Hope) is a theatrical critic, busily praising or disparaging the shows of Broadway. His wife Angela (Lucille Ball) is feeling useless and restless, so she writes a play about her mother and sisters.
Angela doesn't believe Parker should review her work, since he will look prejudiced if he does so favorably and it will hurt her feelings if he knocks it. Parker has read it and isn't impressed. A major producer, however, decides to back it.
Handsome Dion Kapakos (Rip Torn) directs the play and tries to strike up a romantic interest in the playwright. Angela continues to resist, but she's getting more fed up with Parker's negativity by the hour.
Before the play's first out-of-town tryout in Boston, the conflicted Parker goes to see his ex-wife, Ivy (Marilyn Maxwell), and gets a little tipsy. He decides to go to the opening, then writes a negative review. The trouble gets worse when he gets home.