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1 hour ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

"Love Story"?  I don't know that Ali MacGraw's career "skyrocketed," but it did drop off a bunch when she married Steve McQueen.

Yes, now what is Ali MacGraw's debut movie?

18 hours ago, Human without the bean said:

The debuting ACTRESS continued doing romantic comedies with Hollywood hunks for a couple years doing love stories, then, after her next four movies, three out of four very successful movies, she appeared in only five more movies having a sporadic film career at best, in the next twenty years. 

I did try to clean that up I thought George,

Jack Klugman's character plays a upper middle class business owner running his fabric company and he lives in this huge mansion, and his family has a membership in the local Jewish Community Center, and he spoils his three kids;  his daughter goes to Radcliff, his son graduated from Ohio State, basketball star, and his youngest daughter is the most spoiled brat of them all, but she's only eight yr. so I'll give her  a break.   He brings his son into the business and after he graduates from college he gets married, the wedding that I've mentioned before.  If you didn't get anything from the line "He eats like a bird" George, then you may have not seen it.  It's funny, because I think the ACTOR looks somewhat like a bird.  He's got a long droopy nose that reminds me a beak. 

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I just have to say I think this one was doomed from the outset.  I didn't think this one through before I presented it.  I thought, "This is a cool movie" and went with it.  As it goes, I don't know, but probably no one has seen this.  Let me recap the  (revised) clues again.  Just to cover them.  The movie in question debuted actress Ali MacGraw.  In it, playing her father was Jack Klugman, TV's Odd Couple, Oscar Madison.  The aforementioned actress married Steve McQueen in 1973, but before that in 1970 she was in "Love Story" with Ryan O'neal. Then in 1973 "The Getaway" with her soon husband Steve McQueen.  One of her last successful pictures was in "Convoy" starring with Kris Kristopherson.

I corrected the skyrocketing career thing to having had, a sporadic and short career, when considering that Ali MacGraw was voted "The Top female box office star in the world in 1972.  So I was at least in the ballpark on that one. MacGraw took a five year hiatus from her career before divorcing McQueen in 1978.

Altogether, I fell short in delivering a good clue.  All I really had was Ali MacGraw's debut and starring an "old couple" [that one's just for you George], and the movie paralleled "The Graduate" in some ways.  Vague.  Name of this movie was  "Goodbye, Columbus".  Lead actor was Richard Benjamin.

Edited by Human without the bean
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Name of this movie was  "Goodbye, Columbus".  Lead actor was Richard Benjamin.  So, I was wondering George, if you had seen it?   The hiatus was more likely Steve's idea more than it was Ali MacGraw's.  What do you think? 

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1 hour ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

I don't think I saw it in the theaters, though I probably did see it on TV.

It was the biggest box-office hit of 1969?

George

It may have been. However, there's no mention of that in its wikipedia page nor its imdb page.  Its totals are on this page but there's no COMPARISONS.   https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Goodbye-Columbus#tab=summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1969_box_office_number-one_films_in_the_United_States

It was number one for 3 weeks, but so were a few other movies that year, and "Funny Girl" was #1 for 6 weeks. The problem is that they didn't list its take on the same page.  https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Funny-Girl-(1968)#tab=summary

"Goodbye Columbus'" total take was $22, 939, 805.

"Funny Girl" (1968)'s total take was $58, 707, 416.    (There was a 2018 "Funny Girl" that didn't do well.)

So, "Funny Gitl" more than doubled their box office.

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1 hour ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

I don't think I saw it in the theaters, though I probably did see it on TV.

It was the biggest box-office hit of 1969?

George

It may have been. However, there's no mention of that in its wikipedia page nor its imdb page.  Its totals are on this page but there's no COMPARISONS.   https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Goodbye-Columbus#tab=summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1969_box_office_number-one_films_in_the_United_States

It was number one for 3 weeks, but so were a few other movies that year, and "Funny Girl" was #1 for 6 weeks. The problem is that they didn't list its take on the same page.  https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Funny-Girl-(1968)#tab=summary

"Goodbye Columbus'" total take was $22, 939, 805.

"Funny Girl" (1968)'s total take was $58, 707, 416.    (There was a 2018 "Funny Girl" that didn't do well.)

So, "Funny Girl" more than doubled their box office.

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Love-Bug-The#tab=box-office

Checking some more, "The Love Bug" (also led 6 weeks)  had a take of $50,582,200, almost all of which was domestic ("Goodby Columbus"  and "Funny Girl" seemed to have no international release), so you can't say Herbie out-performed worldwide but lost on the domestic box office.

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Goodbye-Columbus#tab=box-office

"Easy Rider" (3 weeks)  came in with $41,728,598.     That's ALMOST double, but not quite, and all of that was domestic as well.

 

Since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was released at the end of December, I can't get 1969 stats isolated for it. However, the wikipedia page for 1969's movies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1969_box_office_number-one_films_in_the_United_States

says the last 2 weeks of December it pulled in $1, 223,000  and $1,373,100, and for the weeks that "Goodbye Columbus" was #1, its numbers were $935,500, $681, 200   and $522,100, which suggests that their 1969 box office take was around equal, with 1970 bringing in more money for the James Bond flick (which is not part of computing 1969 take.)

   
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I'm looking at the number one box office movies from 1969 and that was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Butch-Cassidy-and-the-Sundance-Kid#tab=box-office

Why are you comparing other films from 1968 (Funny Girl) and 1970 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) with the box office movies of 1969?  Is it something that I (or George) posted or said about "Goodbye, Columbus" that you are disputing because George did say he thought that it (Goodbye, Columbus) was the #1 movie of the year, which it was?  However, It was only one of several other #1 movies that I posted about in my first or second post.

Quote

This movie was # 1 at the box office in the year 1969 with the likes of such films as Midnight Cowboy, True Grit,  Easy Rider, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Bonnie and Clyde and Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. 

I'm just curious.

 

 

 

 

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I linked the wikipedia page I used.  That page showed which movies came in number one for which weeks.  I used that as a guide for which movies to check.  Butch and Sundance didn't come in first often, but apparently kept making money while they were not, which is why they made so much more than. say, "Funny Girl."   They also had a UK release that was quite successful.     

BTW, the numbers say all those movies came out ahead of "Goodbye Columbus", according to "The Numbers" website. What's your source for saying otherwise, that "Goodbye Columbus" out-performed them all that year?

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Frankly, I thought I finished the clue with my apologies for posting such a weak clue?  For the record, I did not say that Goodbye, Columbus was the top grossing movie of 1969.  I only said it was # 1 along with other #1 box office movies for the year 1969.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_in_film

So again, my apologies for such a weak clue and I will try to do better the next time.  It was kind of fun digging around a little deeper to provide something else once I had selected a movie without much of a story-line in it.  I do like this thread.

So next time, (I guess this time, since I'm still up) I will execute a more suitable clue to the thread.

[Off the subject] Did you guys know that the Triple Crown race winner Secretariat still holds every record time for each of the triple crown races that he ran winning the Triple Crown in 1973?  All three The Derby, The Preakness, and Churchill Downs racing times are still the record today 49 years later.  Unbelievable horse, he was.  His heart was twice as big as the normal horse and weighed 21 or 22lbs.  Secretariat was listed in the 50 Greatest Athletes of the Twentieth Century. 

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Not to beat a dead horse, but

This movie was # 1 at the box office in the year 1969 with the likes of such films as Midnight Cowboy, True Grit,  Easy Rider, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Bonnie and Clyde and Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. 

implies TO ME that it was THE #1 box office hit, above the others, not that it reached #1 for a week or two.

Anyway, I believe Human is still up.

George

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  • 2 weeks later...

When the movie producers and cast found themselves working on a movie they realized that they had developed a special bond and decided to shoot another film together, after filming the first, its sequel.  The author of the novel (and same name of the movie) got the inspiration from the 1986 Iran Contra affair.  The filmmakers bought an actual brick and mortar mansion from a divorcee who had bad memories of the building and it was used In a scene where the cartels hacienda is destroyed by an aircraft missile.

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17 minutes ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

"Clear and Present Danger"?

George

My guess is that you recall the scene where the bomb is dropped on the house on the hill and some cartel bosses are killed along with some women and children, or you're a fan of the movie or you have read Tom Clancy novels.

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40 minutes ago, Human without the bean said:

My guess is that you recall the scene where the bomb is dropped on the house on the hill and some cartel bosses are killed along with some women and children, or you're a fan of the movie or you have read Tom Clancy novels.

I don't remember the scene, exactly, but the "collaboration/sequel" hint reminded me of Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games.  The Iran/Contra affair was more Clear-and-Present-y.

George

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  • 3 weeks later...

In one of Gary Larson's "The Far Side" comic strips, captioned "Hell's Video Store", the entire store is stocked with nothing but copies of this film. Larson later apologized, saying "When I drew the above cartoon, I had not actually seen [the movie]. Years later, I saw it on an airplane, and was stunned at what was happening to me: I was actually being entertained. Sure, maybe it's not the greatest film ever made, but my cartoon was way off the mark. There are so many cartoons for which I should probably write an apology, but this is the only one which compels me to do so."

Although the film had an overwhelmingly negative reception when released, it underwent three successful screenings with preview audiences. The stars have all defended the film's quality in subsequent years, blaming its bad reputation on reports of production and budgetary problems which had been leaked to the press by studio head David Puttnam, who disliked two of the stars.

Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Edgar Wright are fans of the film. Scorsese called it one of his favorite movies.

George

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  • 2 weeks later...

In one of Gary Larson's "The Far Side" comic strips, captioned "Hell's Video Store", the entire store is stocked with nothing but copies of this film. Larson later apologized, saying "When I drew the above cartoon, I had not actually seen [the movie]. Years later, I saw it on an airplane, and was stunned at what was happening to me: I was actually being entertained. Sure, maybe it's not the greatest film ever made, but my cartoon was way off the mark. There are so many cartoons for which I should probably write an apology, but this is the only one which compels me to do so."

Although the film had an overwhelmingly negative reception when released, it underwent three successful screenings with preview audiences. The stars have all defended the film's quality in subsequent years, blaming its bad reputation on reports of production and budgetary problems which had been leaked to the press by studio head David Puttnam, who disliked two of the stars.

Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Edgar Wright are fans of the film. Scorsese called it one of his favorite movies.

The film's reception was so awful that it helped coin a new Hollywood term in relation to writer and director Elaine May: "movie jail". The term referred to someone whose perceived failure as a director was so profound, they would not be allowed to helm a movie again for a very long time, if ever again. In fact, May has not directed a single new movie since this one.

It should be noted that the two main stars did the film because they felt indebted to May, who had been involved in the writing of some of their actual box-office hits.

Both main stars took a lot of ribbing for the film, but it's safe to say that neither of their careers really suffered for it.

George

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-One actor, facing his role, said "Ed has bequeathed this part to me, I look at it as my generation's Hamlet."

 

-One actor kept snacking all through the filming- he'd succeeded in hiding food all over the sets.

 

-One actor said he got his favorite text message ever during filming. One of the actors sent a short text to the principal cast to get together for a night out.

 

-One actor improvised several lines.  One prompted the director to have the FX people to add something to a scene.  Another included a suggestion to call out for work.

 

-One actor had a rope attached to his leg. He knew that it would be pulled at SOME point, but had no idea WHEN it would be pulled.   This improved a moment because the actor was surprised.

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