BEFORE: Goldie Hawn carries over from "Private Benjamin", she'll be around all week. Sometimes she'll just do that, just walk right in and settle down, and then good luck getting rid of her...remember "Housesitter"? Yeah, it's kind of like that.
THE PLOT: A blind man moves into his own apartment against the wishes of his overprotective mother, and befriends the freethinking young woman next door.
AFTER: Sometimes it's easy to spot which films used to be plays - not big musicals, mind you, I mean plays. If 99% of the action takes place in a small space, like an apartment, and there are no more than 4 major characters, yeah, that used to be a play. Like "The Odd Couple" - great film, set mostly in Oscar Madison's apartment.
I'm still finding movie "sins" that I need to atone for. I remember this film from when I was a teen, but I don't think I listened to any of the dialogue, I was mostly interested in the fact that Goldie Hawn walks around in revealing underwear for about half of the film. Since I didn't have legal access to Playboy at the time, and no one had gotten around to inventing the internet yet, I took my pleasures where I could. Yes, I raced home after school to watch Lynda Carter as "Wonder Woman", I admit it.
They used to have these little independent TV stations in Boston, Channel 38 and 56 - this was back before either one was a FOX affiliate or part of the CW or whatever. Both would run movies, Ch. 56 had their "Creature Double Feature" and Ch. 38 had "The Movie Loft", and that's where I learned about 2nd run and 3rd run films. Occasionally the Movie Loft would program a film like this one, and you have to wonder if they were really interested in screening a sensitive portrayal of a blind man's struggle, or they were aware that a film had something close to nudity in it.
(ASIDE: Once in a while, one of those stations would skirt the censors somehow - The Movie Loft once showed the original "Carrie" unedited, shower scene and all. And Ch. 56 once screened the 80's sex comedy "My Tutor" with all its boobage intact. Somebody probably got fired for that, but they made a 14-year old boy very happy...)
Anyway, I'm an adult now and I can watch a film with half-naked people in it and finally pay attention to the plot. My penance for ogling Goldie Hawn as a youth is to watch this film in a serious manner and finally understand what's going on.
The filmmaker's goal was probably to get people thinking about what it's like to be blind - but instead I'm wondering how difficult it is for an actor to PLAY blind. Deaf? No problem. Mentally deficient? Probably a snap, you just slur your words and adopt a blank stare. But playing blind - you've to be able to look at things and not see them. Or talk to another actor and not face them directly, that's tough. Every little thing that you've trained yourself to do, you've got to pick it apart and think about it - how would I approach this task differently if I couldn't see it?
I recently watched "Hollywood Ending", where Woody Allen's character went blind temporarily, and he dealt with the situation by memorizing the layout of the room - of course, he knew how many steps it was to the chair, but if somebody said, "Hey, come sit next to me!" he wouldn't know what to do. And if somebody moved the trash can, well, there's a chance for physical comedy right there.
This actor not only has to play blind, he has to play a blind character who acts quite normal at first - the other lead doesn't even figure out his disability right away, that's how comfortable he is with it. But that's a double challenge - playing a blind guy who's adept at getting by and challenges our notion of what it means to have a handicap. You might wonder why Goldie's parading about his apartment wearing almost nothing, and it doesn't even faze him. Meanwhile, the actor probably couldn't believe his luck...
I know I said there wouldn't be any relationship stuff around here for a while, but I lied. This is sort of a romance pic, but with an obvious twist. Can a ditzy actress get serious about a blind guy, or is it just a casual fling for her? Can the blind guy keep from falling in love, or is that just part of his nature? Can they meet somewhere in the middle, or are they just too different? And what about the conflicts they both have with his mother, who wants him to move back home with her?
Also starring Edward Albert (last seen in "Guarding Tess"), Eileen Heckart (last seen in "The First Wives Club"), Paul Michael Glaser
RATING: 4 out of 10 heads of lettuce
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