Critic's Choice (film)

1963 film by Don Weis

Critic's Choice is a 1963 American comedy film directed by Don Weis. Based on the 1960 Broadway play of the same name by Ira Levin, the movie stars Bob Hope and Lucille Ball and includes Rip Torn, Marilyn Maxwell, Jim Backus, Marie Windsor and Jerome Cowan in the cast. This is the last of four films that Hope and Ball made together.

Parker Ballantine is a theatrical critic, busily praising or disparaging the shows of Broadway. His wife Angela is feeling useless and restless, so she writes a play about her mother and sisters. Angela does not believe Parker should review her work, since he will look prejudiced if he does so favorably and it will hurt her feelings if he knocks it. Parker has read it and is not impressed. A major producer, however, decides to back it. Handsome Dion Kapakos directs the play and tries to strike up a romantic interest in the playwright. Angela continues to resist, but she's getting more fed up with Parker's negativity by the hour. Before the play's first out of town tryout in Boston, the conflicted Parker goes to see his ex wife, Ivy, and gets a little tipsy. He decides to go to the opening, then writes a negative review. The trouble gets worse when he gets home.

The New York Times wrote, "It is pleasing to look at in its expensive décor, color and scope, ably played by its experienced stars and ingratiating in its quieter insights into a sophisticated marital relationship. So long as it meanders modestly through some above average repartee, it provides an agreeable way to pass an evening. Instead of leaving well enough alone, unfortunately, the director, Don Weis, has tried to upholster the shaky plot with slapstick and broad burlesque Both stars, old hands at this sort of thing, go through their paces with benign good humor, but their subtler comic talents remain untapped. At this rate, the critics' popularity seems unlikely to improve."