Customer Reviews

Just Tell Me What You Want [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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An admitted fan of obscure titles, this film is one that sits proudly on my shelf and just about everyone asks "What's this about?" It's about life. The plot revolves around a selfish and wealthy man with a wife, and a secretary and a mistress who alternately wants and then rebuffs just about everyone. Alan King is drop dead great in the most solid performance of his career as Max the high rolling lover of long suffering mistress Bones Burton (Ali McGraw). He wants her, he doesn't want her, he doesn't know what he wants. But he definitely doesn't want anyone else to have her, especially playwright Peter Weller. Let the battle of the sexes begin once again and Max is a man who never loses anything. The very rich are not at all that different than you and I, but their problems unfold a bit differently when set against the backdrop of designer clothes and jewels, are juggled by assistants and buffers, and are played out in fabulous penthouses and mansions. Somehow it seems a bit more hilarious. A good solid screenplay and an even, funny film under the direction of Sidney Lumet. It is worth buying and seeing more than once. Look for Myrna Loy who is wonderful as Max's secretary.

And you'll find yourself falling in love with it. Alan King -- "Max" --- is hilarious and Ali McGraw perfect in this hilarious upscale comedy. Fun actors included: Keenan Wynn (as a ailing Jewish tycoon); Dina Merrill (as Alan King's blueblood but drunken wife); Judy Kaye (great Broadway actress as Alan King's daughter "Baby" -- her daughter is named "Newbaby"); Myrna Loy (yes the old film star) as Max's sec'y; and Tony Roberts as Keenan Wynn's effete and homosexual movie company president.

I first saw this movie in the early 80's became an instant Alan King fan and purchased it immediately. The movie was hilarious. It is about a tycoon (Max) with a alcoholic wife (Connie), mistress (Bones) and a protective secretary (Stella) and how Max's agressive, manipulative and vindictive personality affects all. Anyone who watches this movie will never forget the hilarious scene where Bones (McGraw) attacks Max (King) at Bergdorf's.
The review below is unchanged but I am happy to inform everyone that Warner Archives released this movie. It is burned on demand.

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You could classify this movie as the comedic version of Wall Street. Gordon Gecko - "Greed is good"
Max Hershel - "You don't get poor by taking."

It was wonderful to see Myrna Loy as Stella the protective and sensible secretary. Also who could forget Ali McGraw as Bones the intelligent and ambitious mistress caught up in Max's (Alan King's) selfish, crazy and hectic world. Dina Merrill as Connie was classy as usual. I have been a fan of Keenan Wynn since Finian's Rainbow and he was wonderful as Max's old rival Seymour Berger. Also, a very young Peter Weller as Bones's love interest Steven Routledge in his second big screen appearance.

I cherish my video of this movie and hope that Warner Bros. releases this movie on DVD before my VHS copy deteriorates.

As a fan of "screwball" comedies from the 1930's and 1940's I am always on the prowl for a contemporary film that doesn't "dumb down" it's dialogue and calls itself a "comedy" just because it's filled with a lot of drunken teens/adults doing, what I call, a lot of "toilet" humor. Gone are the days of rapid-fire dialogue that is smartly written and filled with intelligent laughs. Gone are the well thought out situations that put the characters involved in one outrageous plot twist seamlessly transitioning to the next outrageous plot twist. Today they "hit" you over the head with a hammer with sex jokes instead of using dialogue with clever sexual innuendo subtly written in every line.

I ordered the dvd-r of the 1980 film JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT and was very pleased with the transfer of the film and was thrilled with the film itself. I had missed seeing this film in the theaters and having now watched it I can say that it is an excellent, contemporary "screwball" comedy. It's just what I've been looking for and thought I would never find. A dialogue driven comedy with interesting characters that draw you in to their wealthy world of wheeling and dealing. Not just in their everyday business world, but also in their relationships.

Alan King is superb in his role as the obnoxious "Max" and Ali MacGraw handles her part as "Bones" beautifully and with style. I wish she had done more of these kind of light, romantic comedy roles. She went "all-out" in the famous fight scene in Bergdorf Goodmans. A very young, good-looking Peter Weller keeps up with all the "heavyweights" in the cast. Add old pros like Keenan Wynn, Myrna Loy and Dina Merrill into the mix and you have what essentially could have been filmed in black and white and directed by Preston Sturges. Thanks goes to director Sidney Lumet for giving us a contemporary "screwball" comedy that was underrated and deserves to be seen!

Just Tell Me What You Want is a comedy starring Ali MacGraw, Alan King, and Peter Weller. Ali plays the long-time mistress of millionaire Alan King, but she falls in love with aspiring writer Peter Weller. The fight scene between Alan and Ali in a New York department store is hilarious. I bought the film because of Ali's shower scene, where she shows her breasts. I also liked the film because of how Alan's family and servants treated Ali as one of the family. Myrna Loy plays Alan's secretary.

Sidney Lumet is not a director known for comedies. For a goodly part of "Just Tell Me Want You Want" I thought "Dog Day Afternoon" was funnier and this flick only slightly more raucous than "The Pawnbroker". Bear in mind that the principals here on the surface are not nice people. They are cynical, ruthless, mercenary and cold-blooded. I was ready to dismiss it as a heartless exercise. One, however, has to allow the deliberate pacing of the film and script to appreciate what Lumet and scenarist Jay Presson Allen are trying to say here. This is brilliant hybrid of dark and screwball comic sensibilities. Yes these are essentially mean and unsympathetic people. That said they are allegedly human beings and they need love even if it comes as some sort of financial negotiation or merger. The cast here is uniformly terrific. Alan King, better known as a stand-up comic and TV emcee, was born to play Max Herschel a man amasses fortunes and collects mistresses the way kids collect baseball cards. I've never been impressed with Ali MacGraw as an actress but as Herschel's primary mistress she's given a part with a little grist she runs with it. It's remarkable how sparks fly when she goes toe-to-toe with King whether they be romantic or mercantile. Myrna Loy shines as Herschel's seen-it-all secretary whose as adept at picking up his cleaning as well as organizing his love life. In less profane times, Loy and William Powell used to sparkle with this kind of material. I remember when this film came out in the Spring of 1980 it had a blink and you missed it theatrical run. It was promoted as some kind of routine wacky romantic comedy ergo the poster art of MacGraw whacking a prone King with her purse. The studios didn't know what to do with tricky material like this but ambitious viewers should appreciate it.

The 1930s were the golden age of screwball comedies dominated by such quirky films as Sullivan's Travels, It Happened One Night, Palm Beach Story and more. Most reviewers dread a press release that starts, "In the tradition of great screwball comedies..." yet "Just Tell Me What You Want" comes as close as any film has since Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot." Sidney Lumet's sensibility, Alan King's impeccable acting (his greatest performance), Jay Presson Allen's adaptation of her own novel and Myrna Loy-who performed in some of the great comedies of the 1930s-all conspire to create a marvelous look at the foibles of the rich and foolish. I keep lusting for a DVD of this forgotten sleeper, but it seems to be a hopeless wish...