House Calls Reviews

A pleasant comedy, but any film starring Matthau and Jackson--and written by such funny men as Shulman and Epstein (among others)--should have been much funnier. Matthau is a doctor whose longtime wife has just died. He was absolutely faithful to her for more than 30 years and is now determined to make up for lost time by becoming a middle-aged lecher. Jackson has just divorced a world-class adulterer and wants the kind of man Matthau used to be as a new husband. Carney is a dotty chief of staff who can't even remember the name of his hospital, and Benjamin is a young doctor whose main role is to take care of the plot points. Jackson and Matthau meet, have some very predictable romantic goings-on, and eventually unite against the screwball background of a medical facility not unlike Chayevsky's horror in HOSPITAL. Although Jackson seemed ill at ease in this comedy, she and Matthau must have loved the experience of working together, as they teamed again a couple of years later for HOPSCOTCH. HOUSE CALLS made almost $20 million but never did catch comedic fire under commercials-veteran Zeiff's direction. In a small bit, look for Marr, long-time comedy actress and Lenny Bruce's mother.