Monroe Arnold

Based on one of author Phillip Roth's shorter works, Goodbye Columbus stars Richard Benjamin as Neil, a young man of humble means who falls in love with Jewish-American-princess Brenda (Ali MacGraw). Their romance is out of the question so far as Brenda's suburbanite parents are concerned, so Neil and Brenda rendezvous in some of the sleaziest motels ever seen in a 1960s film (and that assessment includes The Bates Motel). Unwilling to take birth control pills because they upset her tummy, Brenda opts for a diaphragm, which unfortunately is discovered by her mother. Their rocky relationship comprises the bulk of the film. The trendy, New Wave-influenced direction by Larry Peerce gained a great deal of critical attention in 1969, notably such self-indulgent devices as having a close-up of a girl's navel dissolve into a long-shot of a swimming pool. Far more memorable is Peerce's amusingly straight-on depictions of upper-class Jewish/American social functions. In their film debuts, Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw are appealingly awkward; the more memorable performance is delivered by Michael Meyers as MacGraw's adenoidal younger brother.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant, but the only thing music icon Arlo Guthrie needs is a good Thanksgiving dinner. After he gets his fill, Guthrie's run-in with the law over a trumped-up littering charge leads to a unique way of avoiding the Vietnam War draft. This film by Arthur Penn is based on Guthrie's song "Alice's Restaurant" and co-stars James Broderick, Patricia Quinn, Pete Seeger and Lee Hays.

A Jewish man and a Jewish woman meet and while attracted to each other find that their worlds are very different.

A Jewish man and a Jewish woman meet and while attracted to each other find that their worlds are very different.

Neil is a poor Bronx librarian and Brenda is a pampered Jewish princess from Westchester. The lovers try to cross class lines amidst kisses and her parents' stiff opposition. One of the most appealing, poignant comedies ever produced.

This delightful comedy stars Dick Van Dyke as Fitzwilly, a good-hearted butler who organizes a petty crime ring to keep his daffy employer, Victoria Woodhouse (Edith Evans), from discovering that despite her propensity for philanthropy, she's dead broke. Aided by fellow servants, Fitzwilly concocts an ingenious scheme to rob Gimbel's and finance Miss Vickie's charities, but his larceny may be detected by her secretary, Juliet (Barbara Feldon).