For Pete's Sake is a 1974

1974 in film

The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.*August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J...

 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 screwball comedy film

Screwball comedy film

The screwball comedy is a principally American genre of comedy film that became popular during the Great Depression, originating in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s. It is characterized by fast-paced repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, and plot lines involving...

 directed by Peter Yates

Peter Yates

Peter James Yates was an English director and producer. He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire.The son of an army officer, he attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked for some years as an actor, director and stage manager...

. The screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by Stanley Shapiro

Stanley Shapiro

Stanley Shapiro was an American screenwriter and producer responsible for three of Doris Day's most successful films.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Shapiro earned his first screen credit for South Sea Woman in 1953...

 and Maurice Richlin chronicles the misadventures of a Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 housewife. In 1977 it was remade in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 as the Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

 film Aap Ki Khatir

Aap Ki Khatir (1977 film)

Aap Ki Khatir is a 1977 Bollywood film. Harsh Kohli produced and Sudhendhu Roy directed the film. The stars are Vinod Khanna, Rekha, Nadira, Helen, Tun Tun and Om Shivpuri. The film's music is by Bappi Lahiri. The last song in the film "Bombay se Aaya Mera Dost" became a memorable hit...

.

Plot synopsis

Henrietta and Pete Robbins are a young couple struggling to get by on the income he earns as a cab driver

Taxicab

A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...

. His pompous sister-in-law Helen delights in reminding them that an early marriage robbed him of a college education and how much better off she and her husband Fred are. When Henrietta gets an inside tip

Insider trading

Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...

 on pork belly

Pork belly

Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat derived from the belly of a pig. Pork belly is popular in Asian cuisine, and forms a part of many traditional European dishes such as the Alsatian Choucroute garnie, the Swiss Berner Platte, and the German Schlachtplatte...

 futures

Futures exchange

A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts; that is, a contract to buy specific quantities of a commodity or financial instrument at a specified price with delivery set at a specified time in the future. These types of...

, she borrows $3,000 from a Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

 loan shark

Loan shark

A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....

 to purchase the stock. Unfortunately, its value doesn't increase as rapidly as she anticipated. When she's unable to pay her debt, her contract is sold to Mrs. Cherry, a grandmotherly-type who operates a prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 ring. When Henrietta's initial attempts at entertaining clients prove to be less than successful, her contract is sold yet again ... and again, as Henrietta fails to fulfill the requirements of each new individual to whom she becomes indebted — each time for more money — and tries to keep her new enterprises (bomb

Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...

er, then cattle rustler

Cattle raiding

Cattle raiding is the act of stealing cattle.In Australia, such stealing is often referred to as duffing, and the person as a duffer...

) secret from her unsuspecting husband.
There is also a movie by the name of "For Pete's Sake produced around 1966 that is based on various personal experiences from people who attended at least one of the Billy Graham Crusades. Some of the actors in the movie are Robert Sampson, Pippa Scott and Terri Garr.

Production notes

The title tune, "For Pete's Sake (Don't Let Him Down)," was written by Artie Butler and Mark Lindsay

Mark Lindsay

Mark Lindsay is an American musician, best known as the singer for the group Paul Revere & the Raiders.-Biography:Lindsay was born in Eugene, Oregon and was the second of eight children...

, former lead singer of Paul Revere & the Raiders

Paul Revere & the Raiders

Paul Revere & the Raiders is an American rock band that saw considerable U.S. mainstream success in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s with hits such as "Kicks" , "Hungry" , "Him Or Me - What's It Gonna Be?" and the 1971 No...

.

Principal cast

• Barbra Streisand
  Barbra Streisand
  Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
  
   ..... Henrietta Robbins
• Michael Sarrazin
  Michael Sarrazin
  Michael Sarrazin was a Canadian film and television actor who found fame opposite Jane Fonda in the drama film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? .- Early life :...
  
   ..... Pete Robbins
• Estelle Parsons
  Estelle Parsons
  Estelle Margaret Parsons is an American theatre, film and television actress and occasional theatrical director.After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961...
  
   ..... Helen Robbins
• William Redfield
  William Redfield (actor)
  William Redfield was an American actor and author who appeared in numerous theatrical, film, radio, and television roles.-Acting career:...
  
   ..... Fred Robbins
• Molly Picon
  Molly Picon
  Molly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
  
   ..... Mrs. Cherry
• Louis Zorich
  Louis Zorich
  Louis Zorich is an American actor. He is well-known for his portrayal of Paul Reiser's father "Burt Buchman" in the NBC series Mad About You. He played the role from 1993 to 1999.-Life and career:...
  
   .....Nick Kasabian
• Heywood Hale Broun
  Heywood Hale Broun
  Heywood Hale Broun was an American an author, sportswriter, commentator and actor. He was born and raised in New York City, the son of writer and activist Ruth Hale and columnist Heywood Broun. He was educated at private schools and Swarthmore College....
  
   ..... Judge Hiller
• Joseph Maher
  Joseph Maher
  Joseph Maher was an Irish character actor who appeared in 43 films and was nominated for three Tony Awards and a Drama Desk Award for his supporting roles on the stage.-Career:...
  
   ..... Mr. Coates

Critical reception

In his review in the New York Times, Vincent Canby

Vincent Canby

Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...

 called the film "an often boisterously funny old-time farce

Farce

In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...

" and added, "The movie may not hold together as any kind of larger comic statement, but the laughs are self-sustaining throughout . . . Miss Streisand's comedy range is narrow, like a cartoon

Cartoon

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

 character's, but For Pete's Sake operates almost entirely within that range. She's at her best in this kind of farce."

Time Out London says, "Yates sure is an erratic talent . . . Here he's adrift in a sea of poor performances and bad comic timing."

External links

• Barbra Streisand Archives "For Pete's Sake" page