In the description, it said it was about four Jewish intellectuals trying to find their way to the funeral of a friend who died suddenly at 41. Intellectuality didn't have much to do with it. It might have come across as slightly anti-Semitic, but the director, writer and cast were all Jewish, so what do I know. It was 1968, just twenty-three years after the bloody end of the Third Reich. The four of them were going to the funeral together in a Volkswagen. One initially refuses to ride in a German car. Not just a German car, but one Hitler ordered into existence.
I wouldn't want to ride in one, either. They were deathtraps. I thought I would feel more claustrophobic watching adults riding in the back seat of one of those things, but it wasn't so bad. They may have been trying to counteract that when Levine (Sorell Booke), proud new owner of the Beetle, enthuses about how roomy the backseat is. I went through a long period where the few friends I had all drove two door subcompacts. I'll never crawl into one of those things again.
The movie starts with several scenes, each with just two people talking, and it seemed promising, but things go downhill with conversations about pop culture. Sorell Booke is going to teach a course on comic strips and mentions articles he's written about movies. George Segal and Jack Warden talk about Hitchcock movies for some reason.
They drive around trying to find the funeral with only vague directions from Braverman's widow (a young Jessica Walter).
I was disappointed. Directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Herb Sargent just seven years before Saturday Night Live. With Joseph Wiseman, Phyllis Newman, Alan King and Godfrey Cambridge as a Black Jewish cabbie.
Available on The Criterion Channel.
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