Customer Reviews

The Late Show

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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Along with Night Moves,(and obviously Chinatown) this one of my favorite detective films from the 70s. Art Carney and Lily Tomlin are a great pair and they help make a good movie even better. Robert Benton(Bad Company, Nobondy's Fool, Twilight) has made a great film here that is at once a tribute and a commentary on Raymond Chandler-type films. Carney is great as an aging PI who is hired to find a cat and ends up embroiled in a much larger story. The dialogue here is so well done-it's very stylish-throwback dialogue if you will. I love this movie and it seems that so few people have seen it. I own it and any fan of the Maltese Falcon or the Big Sleep should too.

I can't believe no one else has reviewed this fine movie. Art Carney has never been better, even in Harry and Tonto, and Bill Macy does a fine turn as a small-time con man. Lily has some classic lines, like her description of Macy's trash Cadillac; ``This car is a toilet and you're the attendant''.

Partly a send up of private detective movies and partly a charming buddy movie (Art and Lily), this belongs in anyone's collection. And if you've never seen it . . . well, you're in for a treat indeed.

An endearing murder mystery, with great chemistry between Art Carney and Lily Tomlin. Carney is an aging, gruff private eye with a bad leg, a bleeding ulcer and a hearing aid. Tomlim is an off-kilter woman who believes in reincarnation and occasionally sells a little dope. She wants to hire Carney to find her cat. From there we have belly shots, beatings and blackmail. It's a nice, complicated mystery. Tomlin has a great scene with a refrigerator. And the ending is satisfying.

If people ever thought Tomlin wasn't a skilled actress, they should watch this film and Nashville. Shame she hasn't had more of a movie career. I think she's an attractive woman, but no Hollywood starlette type. She's got a long face, a skeptical intelligence about her, and wicked humor. On the other hand, she could play with great vulnerability (Nashville).

First rate movie. First rate actress. Carney was certainly her equal in the film, and Bill Macy plays a memorable sleaze.

"The Late Show" (1977), Robert Benton's valentine to the 1940's detective film genre has it all: the structure, the language, the grit and noir, plus something more--humor and heart. Long overlooked and drastically under rated by 1970's reviewers, the film and especially its title seemed to dredge up images of some old B&W flick that belonged on late night TV and perhaps didn't fit the mold of being "with it" or of being retro-slick in a then-generation of the Think Young, Drink Pepsi (not Alka Seltzer) society it reflected. Yet what most critics seem to have missed about the title alone is its play on words which embraced not only the old, late night TV movie idea but also the spirit of the tribute writer/director Robert Benton presents here: the vernacular of 1940's detective speak, where "show" meant a client or a job, and, "late" meant late, as in beyond the time someone or something is expected to arrive. Thus, the slang title refers to both Ira Wells (Art Carney) and Margo Sperling (Lily Tomlin), who are thrown together, quite unexpectedly, at a crucial time--before it's really too "late" (as in "dead"). Carney brilliantly (yet so unassumingly) plays 'Ira Wells,' a set in his ways broken down old heat packing (private) detective with "a bum leg, perforated ulcer, and hearing aid," who's been living out what's left of an empty and lonely life in a rented bedroom in an older widow's home. Resigned to this seeming fate, Ira believes his best days, times, and friends are all behind him (especially at the rate people he's known are "kicking off"). Ira can see his own end, which is brought home even more forcefully when his former PI partner, Harry Regan (Howard Duff), who seemingly arrives for a long over-due visit after a bender, dies in Ira's rented bedroom bed from a gunshot to the gut (yet spilling nothing save for blood). Enter Charles Hatter (Bill Macy), a chiseler and con artist, along with a wonderfully zany and off-beat wannabe actress, Margo Sperling (Lily Tomlin). They show up with a stolen cat "case" for Ira Wells at Regan's funeral entombment--and the game of cat and mouse, or, rather, rat, is almost ready to begin--again--for Ira, who says only he's "out of the business" and never uses the word "retired." But this will not be "just another case," it will be THE case, coming in the nick--and Nora--of time to make a difference and a change possible in the lives of two people. Of course, hindrances loom immediately: old-school/generation collides with new, language usage throws up an initial barrier as does Ira's 1940's mind set about women ("dolls") and how they're supposed to act. Yet all this goes by the boards when Ira and Margo start to work the related cases of the missing cat and Regan's murder together. These two people turn out to be an unlikely team that has needed the likes of one another all along. Their differences are far outweighed by what they have in common--such things as character, dignity, regard for others, loyalty, caring, and inner strength. They complement each other which tends to bring out the best in both of them. Ira has not ever had a pal, partner, buddy, or romantic interest who wasn't simply out for himself or herself until Margo; and Margo hasn't ever met anyone quite like Ira, who inspires her, looks out for her, and not only encourages but trusts her to sleuth with him, the pro, even before he discovers she could really excel at it and is more savvy about life and things than even he expected. He becomes enough at ease with Margo. though, that when pressed, he emotionally reveals his inner most fear with her--the scene between the two at the diner, after Ira collapes and Margo wants to take him to the hospital, should have earned Art Carney an Oscar nomination alone. But will they solve the murder? Will they ever team up? "The Late Show" is as much a story of the human condition as it is a noir murder mystery to be solved. Even the bad guys like Ronnie Birdwell (Eugene Roche) and Charles Hatter (Bill Macy) have real dimension and differences--and are portrayed as likeable louses with their own problems in life. The plot is skillfully and painstakingly developed with twists and turns which cover, much as the detective films of the 1940s did, mystery, which can turn to comedy, then switch to tragic drama, and even twist to include a hint of romance. Robert Benton deserved the Oscar for this original screenplay, not simply the nomination. The only remaining question is: when will the director's cut become available on video or DVD so that audiences can discover the rather obvious chunks of missing footage from the film including (but not limited to) John Davey as 'Sgt. Dayton'?--Lenore Hutton Normal, Illinois

I'm sure the powers that be didn't know how to market this quirky gem then or now. If you go to the video store they usually file it in the comedy section which is the furthest thing from the truth. For sure, there are comic elements in "The Late Show" but if you blink you miss them. The film is a mystery, rather, a homage to the work of Chandler and Hammet. Like the best tributes "The Late Show" stands on it's own as a great film. The film has it all including a brilliantly woven mystery penned by writer-director Robert Benton and terrific acting. Art Carney ingeniously underplays detective Ira Wells, an old school detective out of place in Seventies L.A. suffering from a perforated ulcer and a bum leg. Lily Tomlin matches him as new age kook Margo who employs Ira to find her cat. Despite the generation gap there is palpable chemistry between Carney and Tomlin. Check out how Benton cleverly ends this yarn. There's a non-flashy low-key quality to "The Late Show" which shouldn't be surprising because it was produced by the master of understatement, Robert Altman. Catch this film before it possibly goes out of print.

I'm not sure modern kids can understand the nostalgic brilliance of the 1977 film "The Late Show," Robert Benton's (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart) exceptional pseudo-noir tribute to the fading days of an elderly private eye.

In the late 1970s, I imagine some of the old-time greats were still limping around Hollywood like Art Carney's character Ira Wells, carrying laundry to the washateria in a pillow case, falling asleep in front of the TV and occasionally smoking half a cigarette butt. Wells, a tough-as-nails private eye from the glorious romantic years of Hollywood in the 40s and 50s (The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties), lives in semi-retirement as a tenant in a humble rooming house. There was a time when he likely rubbed elbows with the likes of Bogart and Bugsy, perhaps roughing up suspects and doing the dirty work for Mayer. These days, wincing and groaning at the hot Los Angeles sunshine, gray hair in need of a good haircut, he reads the horse racing results while struggling with a nasty ulcer. If Philip Marlowe had survived, or any of the loner detectives from the electric pages of Chandler (The Big Sleep) or Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), they very well could have ended up like this - forgotten a decade earlier as black and white disappeared and an increasingly insane world passed them by.

An old friend of Wells ends up on his doorstep with a bullet in the gut (a cameo by Howard Duff), quickly followed by leftover hippie Margo Sperling (Lily Tomlin in one of her great performances) hoping to hire Wells to find her cat, and we slowly have the makings of a good old-fashioned mystery. Pockets of the old days still exist, perfectly symbolized by Charlie Hatter (Bill Macy), a perpetual small-time hoodlum adorned in white shoes throwing business Wells' way. There's a goon who likes to wear turtlenecks, some fenced color TVs and the villain Birdwell (Eugene Roche) slouching around in bathing trunks with exposed beer belly and wrinkled bathrobe. Gone are the sophisticated days of Sydney Greenstreet.

Through it all, Wells limps from suspect to suspect, dodging a few late night bullets while returning fire with his old hand gun (but not before removing his hearing aid). The dialog is key here, and the conversations between Carney and Tomlin are some of the most delightful ever written. Their growing respect is touching, blooming into love, though I think Benton's whimsical screenplay was leaning towards a father/daughter dynamic. I love Carney's amazing performance, superior in many ways to his Oscar-winning success in Harry and Tonto a few years before. As Wells, he gives the greatest performance of a long and successful career, gruff, lovable, with the dated street lingo down pat, "Back in the Forties, this town was crawlin' with dollies like you. I got news for you. They did it better back then. This town doesn't change - they just push the names around. Same dames screwing up their lives."

Tomlin makes the perfect lanky doll to fireplug Carney, strolling by his side adorned in pants suits and scarves, a non-stop New Age talker who lights incense while spouting astrology. Carney rolls his eyes, snorts a few times, and heads to the local diner to have lunch.

"The Late Show" is one of those films that's so good you don't wish it to end. I usually cry during the final scene, as our mismatched pair catches the bus. The camera lingers on the bench they were sitting on, advertising a local wax museum with a photograph of Boris Karloff. As the haunting song "What Was" (sung by Bev Kelly - Bev Kelly in Person) gently plays and the bus pulls away, you realize the glorious years of fedoras and black coffee are gone. But it goes deeper. There's a sense of time passing, an awareness of the cruelty of old age irrevocably catching us all. As the end credits roll, you realize how much one forgets over the course of a lifetime. And yet you don't want to forget. The world may change, but you try to hold on to the memories.

"The Late Show" is one of the most unique and satisfying mystery films ever made.

"The Late Show" remains my favorite comedy/mystery film with wonderful leads, a fine supporting cast and excellent writing. Being somewhat in the Thin Man vein, there are moments of genuine suspense as well as some real laughs. Tomlin, a rather ditsy and less than successful show-biz agent, hires a reluctant Art Carney, a semi-retired private eye whose best days are clearly behind him. Her pet cat has been kidnapped (catnapped?) and she wants Carney to find it. The case is soon found to have connections to more serious and complex one. The chemistry between these two fine actors is perfect in portraying the generation gap between them, resulting in a good deal of memorable dialogue. After Carney tells Tomlin that he needs more money to buy some information pertaining to the case, Tomlin shows up in a later scene, hands him some cash and announces wistfully: "I just laid off ten ounces of pure Columbian red for ten dollars an ounce. Some creep over on Pico thinks I'm Santa Claus. Really, this grass had so much resins it made your lips stick together!"

Also memorable are Bill Macy portraying a two-bit booking agent and especially Eugene Roche as a "fence" who beautifully plays his part with breezy nonchalance.

I was glad to see this neat little film appear on DVD and quickly added it to my collection. As wonderful as Art Carney is in "Harry and Tonto" is, I think he's even better in this one.

I really like this sweet semi-comic homage to the great detective
films. Art Carney is simply wonderful as a gumshoe now in his 60s,
gaining weight and losing foot-speed, but with wits as sharp as ever,
and wisdom gained by time. This is what one of Bogie's great detective
characters probably would be like 30 years later.

He's drawn into an absurdly complex crime situation, when a slightly
wacko aging hippie wanna-be actress (played by Lily Tomlin) hires him
to help find her lost cat. '

Some of the humor is a bit broad for the more serious themes
underneath, and as much as I always love Tomlin, there were times she
seemed to be flirting with caricature.

But the almost-romantic chemistry between this supremely miss-matched
pair is terrific and fun to watch. It doesn't add up to anything huge,
but it's intelligent, fun well-executed entertainment for grown ups -
something that's far too rare in the current cinema.

I had fond memories of the movie and hadn't seen it in a while. Still good. Carney's terrific. Tomlin's a bit over the top/ Eugene Roche nearly steals the film. The DVD itself is not great. It looks like it was copied off of a poor print. Picture's not that sharp. A bit washed out. Probably looks better watching it on TV on a cable channel. And the "extras" are a zero. The trailer (who cares if you have the movie) and an appearance by Tomlin on the old Dinah Shore talk show with the Doobie Brothers - where she talks way too much in her set up to a film clip (in which her character talks way too much) and she does a poor job of setting it up.

Art Carney should have gotten an Oscar nomination for this. The detective genre does not get any better than this...roll Sam Spade,Travis McGee, Lew Harper, and others into this guy...Ira Wells is a tough smart cookie.....mixed up with some kookies. This flic avoided the radar somehow... when it should be up there with greats like "Treasure of The Sierra Madre"..Lily Tomlin in the first role I can recall her in since Laugh In, is great, Bill Macy too as a on the fringe type. A1++++ FILM.