All Night Long (1981)

The acting in this movie is really good.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

After an outburst at work, stressed-out Southern California businessman Gene Hackman (as George Dupler) is demoted to night manager of the discount drug-store "UltraSave". At a funeral, Mr. Hackman sees buxom blonde Barbra Streisand (as Cheryl) and discovers she is having a sexual affair with his teenage son, well-built and wavy-haired Dennis Quaid (as Frederick "Freddie" Dupler). Hackman wants to break up the couple, but becomes involved with Ms. Streisand himself. Their romance is complicated by the fact that, as Hackman tells Streisand, "You're screwing my son." Moreover, Streisand is married to Mr. Quaid's "fourth cousin," fireman Kevin Dobson (as Bobby Gibbons)...This is a disaster. Apparently, the model performances for Streisand and Hackman are Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell in "The Seven Year Itch" (1955). That could be what the co-stars are aiming for. Note, there is a scene where Streisand duplicates the famous scene where Ms. Monroe's dress blows up to reveal her panties. This was the image they used to promote the film...Streisand is wildly miscast as Marilyn Monroe. Hackman attempts his own characterization, but shows little of the nervous passion evident in Mr. Ewell's performance. Quaid is no teenager, but at least he can act like one. The director, Jean-Claude Tramont, leaves a good supporting cast out on a limb, especially during the drug-store sequences. Although his efforts are wasted, Mr. Dobson handles his role well...Most appropriately, Streisand wears a magical motorcycle helmet which never musses her hair...*** All Night Long (3/6/81) Jean-Claude Tramont ~ Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, Dennis Quaid, Kevin Dobson

1st watched 4/14/2007, 3 out of 10(Dir-Jean-Claude Tramont): Unfocused comedy, romantic drama starring the wonderful Gene Hackman in an offbeat un-realistic role as a walked-on drugstore employee who chucks it all for an unpredictable life with a middle-aged married woman, played by Barbra Streisand. This movie starts out as a possible promising comedy with Dennis Quaid as Hackman's son, a goofball who first gets hooked up with the Streisand character after painting her bedroom. Hackman tries to discourage this, considering the fact that she's married and a 4th cousin, which of course wouldn't look right, but then gets involved himself and just decides that nothing really matters and everything should be laid out for all to see. This attitude doesn't go well with everyone, including Streisand's character initially, even though this is kind of the way she seemed to be living her life to those around her. For the rest of the movie we watch Hackman waddle thru this existence, and Streisand doesn't entice the audience much either with her watered-down character and what we have is a pretty boring overall experience. This movie would have been better if it decided a direction -- all out comedy, all out romance, or all out drama but instead we get what we get. A pretty meaningless experience, overall; despite the talent involved.

A huge box office bomb upon release, ALL NIGHT LONG has been criticized by many for it's uncomfortable mix of odd-ball comedy and quaint slice-of-life drama. Though it received some positive reviews (most notably from Pauline Kael and ROLLING STONE magazine), most mainstream critics hated it and audiences all but completely ignored it. It is also often cited by most of Streisand's die-hard fans as their least favorite film of the actress. While the film is certainly not without it's flaws, I have interestingly always thought ALL NIGHT LONG contained somewhat of a bizarre charm, and I've always wished it would receive a re-evaluation from the film-going public.As mentioned before, the film has it's problems. It's paced too leisurely (it's only 90-minutes in length, but feels more like two-and-a-half hours), Jean-Claude Tramont's direction is too light (the film needs more of a thematic punch in several scenes), and much of it's humor is surprisingly too subtle (odd seeing that most film comedies have the opposite problem). Having said all of that, the film is still worth checking out. Though Tramont's direction may be a tad too limp, his skewed perception of the American dream gives the film a dreamy, almost art house-like feel that makes the film more inherently interesting than the screen play would merit alone.Also, the varied cast is a lot of fun, almost all of them playing against type. Gene Hackman brings a equal mix of unusual serenity and touching pathos to his role of the would-be inventor who manages to find his true self by losing nearly everything that was once-important in his life. In an early role, Dennis Quaid throws himself completely into part of Hackman's airheaded son, making the intelligent personae he would develop in later films like DREAMSCAPE and THE BIG EASY even more impressive. Barbra Streisand is clearly miscast the role of the bimbo housewife who woos both Hackman and Quaid (Streisand replaced Lisa Eichhorn, who was fired from the film after two weeks of production), but her performance is still worth catching. Though she's never totally believable as Cheryl (a role that was poorly-defined in the screenplay to begin with), she is still a very likable, always watchable, and occasionally an endearing presence in a unusual little film that deserves a second chance.

This small comedy with a galaxy of Jupiter sized personalities became the comedy Armageddon of it's day. Actually quite funny and now a curiosity piece - albeit forgotten, it is even a surprise to Streisand fans that it exists. I saw it on a 'rescue mission' double feature with CONTINENTAL DIVIDE where these two brief comedies that had a brief release mopped up whatever box office was possible as a duo. Sreisand and Belushi together! Well the box office in Australia actually played a happy tune and this double feature became a sleeper hit for a month or so early in 1982. Then video struck, cinemas closed and that was the end of that. As a suburban farce with "ordinary people characters" played by Oscar winners, it was slumming it a bit (like Fred and Ginger in FOLLOW THE FLEET) but odd enough and with a sprinkling of good laughs worked well enough. Like FOR PETE'S SAKE in 1974, seeing Streisand coupled with ungainly love interest, all set in low income apartments and with blue collar jobs, seems strange after the DOLLY and Fanny glamour...but.... ALL NIGHT LONG as 'the other Streisand film you've never seen' does deserve a better profile... and compared to Adam Sandler comedies is positively a masterpiece of hilarity. Actually it's a wonder we don't get the ANL remake with him and Drew Barrymore... stranger things have happened (MR DEEDS anyone? no? funny about that...) Apparently Streisand was paid $8million, upping the budget to $12 million......!! work that production cost out!