Lovers and Other Strangers
Encyclopedia
Lovers and Other Strangers is a 1970 comedy film based on the play by Renee Taylor
and Joseph Bologna
. The film features an ensemble cast including Richard Castellano, Gig Young
, Cloris Leachman
, Anne Jackson
, Beatrice Arthur
, Bonnie Bedelia
, Michael Brandon
, Harry Guardino
, Anne Meara
, Bob Dishy
, Marian Hailey, Joseph Hindy, and, in her film debut, Diane Keaton
. Sylvester Stallone
was an extra in this movie. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards
(it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
), and was one of the top box office performers of 1970. It established Richard Castellano as a star (receiving an Oscar nomination for his performance) and he, along with Diane Keaton, were subsequently cast in The Godfather
.
Lovers and Other Strangers was released by ABC Pictures. It was released on VHS
in 1980 by Magnetic Video
, but soon went out of print. The Magnetic Video release was a collector's item for many years, but the film was eventually re-released on VHS by CBS/Fox Video
in the 1990s. It is now available on DVD
by MGM Home Entertainment
.
Upon seeing this film, Richard Carpenter
set about recording the song played during the wedding scene, For All We Know
with his sister Karen
. "Karen and I were in Toronto to open the show for Engelbert Humperdinck. We had one night off before opening and our manager Sherwin Bash suggested we see the film Lovers And Other Strangers. We enjoyed the film and noticed the song For All We Know which we recorded upon our return home. (It subsequently won an Oscar for Best Song of 1970)."
Taylor and Bologna followed up with their second screenplay the following year, Made for Each Other
in which they also starred.
) and Susan (Bonnie Bedelia
), intercutting their story with those of other couples among their families and friends. As the movie opens, Mike wants to call off the wedding, arguing that it would be hypocritical for them to get married when they’ve already been living together
for a year and a half. He only relents when Susan's father, Hal (Gig Young
), tells him how Susan went to her first Halloween party dressed as a bride.
Over the course of the movie, we meet:
All the plot lines play out through the rehearsal, wedding, and reception.
Renee Taylor
Renée Taylor is an American actress, Academy Award nominated writer and one-time director, best-known for having played Fran Drescher's outspoken mother, Sylvia Fine, on the TV series The Nanny.- Career :...
and Joseph Bologna
Joseph Bologna
Joseph Bologna is an American actor.-Life and career:Bologna was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brown University, where he majored in art history. After a hitch with the marines, Bologna was hired to produce and direct Manhattan-based TV commercials.The actor has a long history in film...
. The film features an ensemble cast including Richard Castellano, Gig Young
Gig Young
Gig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.-Early life and career:Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St...
, Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
, Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson is an American actress of television, stage, and screen.-Life and career:Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor...
, Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice "Bea" Arthur was an American actress, comedienne and singer whose career spanned seven decades. Arthur achieved fame as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Maude, and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, winning Emmy Awards for both...
, Bonnie Bedelia
Bonnie Bedelia
Bonnie Bedelia Culkin is an American actress best known for her supporting roles in the action film Die Hard and the courtroom drama Presumed Innocent...
, Michael Brandon
Michael Brandon
Michael Brandon is an American actor who resides in the United Kingdom and United States.-Life and career:Brandon was born Michael Feldman in Brooklyn, New York to Miriam and Sol Feldman...
, Harry Guardino
Harry Guardino
Harry Guardino was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter, a drama about a hard-hitting investigative journalist named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill as city...
, Anne Meara
Anne Meara
Anne Meara is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.- Personal life :...
, Bob Dishy
Bob Dishy
Bob Dishy is an American actor of stage, film and television. He is married to former actress Judy Graubart .He appeared on Broadway in:...
, Marian Hailey, Joseph Hindy, and, in her film debut, Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
. Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
was an extra in this movie. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
(it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
), and was one of the top box office performers of 1970. It established Richard Castellano as a star (receiving an Oscar nomination for his performance) and he, along with Diane Keaton, were subsequently cast in The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
.
Lovers and Other Strangers was released by ABC Pictures. It was released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in 1980 by Magnetic Video
Magnetic Video
Magnetic Video was a home video/audio duplication service established by Andre Blay in 1968 and based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In 1977 it became the first corporation to release theatrical motion pictures onto Betamax and VHS videocassette for consumer use. Magnetic Video was a home...
, but soon went out of print. The Magnetic Video release was a collector's item for many years, but the film was eventually re-released on VHS by CBS/Fox Video
CBS/Fox Video
CBS/Fox Video was a home video company formed and established in 1982, as a merger between 20th Century Fox Video, formerly Magnetic Video Corporation, and CBS Video Enterprises....
in the 1990s. It is now available on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-History:The home video division of MGM started in 1979 as MGM Home Video, releasing all the movies and TV shows by MGM. In 1980, MGM joined forces with CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the CBS television...
.
Upon seeing this film, Richard Carpenter
Richard Carpenter (musician)
Richard Lynn Carpenter is an American pop musician, best known as one half of the brother/sister duo The Carpenters, along with his sister Karen Carpenter. He was a producer, arranger, pianist and keyboardist, and occasional lyricist, as well as joining with Karen on harmony...
set about recording the song played during the wedding scene, For All We Know
For All We Know (1970 song)
"For All We Know" is a popular song written for the 1970 film, Lovers and Other Strangers, by Fred Karlin, Robb Wilson and Arthur James . It was originally performed by Larry Meredith....
with his sister Karen
Karen Carpenter
Karen Anne Carpenter was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. She was a drummer of exceptional skill, but she is best remembered for her vocal performances of idealistic romantic ballads of true love...
. "Karen and I were in Toronto to open the show for Engelbert Humperdinck. We had one night off before opening and our manager Sherwin Bash suggested we see the film Lovers And Other Strangers. We enjoyed the film and noticed the song For All We Know which we recorded upon our return home. (It subsequently won an Oscar for Best Song of 1970)."
Taylor and Bologna followed up with their second screenplay the following year, Made for Each Other
Made for Each Other (1971 film)
Made for Each Other is a 1971 feature film directed by Robert B. Bean.Both starring and written by the husband and wife team of Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna, the movie traces the relationship of Pandora and Giggy, a seemingly incompatible couple who meet in a group therapy session and fall in...
in which they also starred.
Synopsis
Lovers and Other Strangers revolves around the wedding of Mike (Michael BrandonMichael Brandon
Michael Brandon is an American actor who resides in the United Kingdom and United States.-Life and career:Brandon was born Michael Feldman in Brooklyn, New York to Miriam and Sol Feldman...
) and Susan (Bonnie Bedelia
Bonnie Bedelia
Bonnie Bedelia Culkin is an American actress best known for her supporting roles in the action film Die Hard and the courtroom drama Presumed Innocent...
), intercutting their story with those of other couples among their families and friends. As the movie opens, Mike wants to call off the wedding, arguing that it would be hypocritical for them to get married when they’ve already been living together
Living Together
Living Together is the debut full-length album by Vermont. It was released on September 28, 1999 on Kindercore Records.-Track listing:#"Indiana Jones"#"Lightning Tattoos"#"Broadway Joe"#"Where Planes Go Down"##"Bee, Leave Me Be"#"Tiny White Crosses"...
for a year and a half. He only relents when Susan's father, Hal (Gig Young
Gig Young
Gig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.-Early life and career:Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St...
), tells him how Susan went to her first Halloween party dressed as a bride.
Over the course of the movie, we meet:
- Susan's WASPWhite Anglo-Saxon ProtestantWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
-ish parents, Hal and Bernice (Cloris LeachmanCloris LeachmanCloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
). Hal, we learn, is having a long-running extramarital affair with Bernice's sister, Kathy (Anne JacksonAnne JacksonAnne Jackson is an American actress of television, stage, and screen.-Life and career:Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor...
), who is afraid of being left as a spinsterSpinsterA spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...
and is using the wedding to get some commitment from Hal. - Susan's sister, Wilma (Anne MearaAnne MearaAnne Meara is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.- Personal life :...
), and her husband Johnny (Harry GuardinoHarry GuardinoHarry Guardino was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter, a drama about a hard-hitting investigative journalist named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill as city...
). With two children, Wilma is feeling her age and misses the passion they had at the beginning of their marriage, while Johnny is more interested in watching SpellboundSpellbound (1945 film)Spellbound is a psychological mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945. It tells the story of the new head of a mental asylum who turns out not to be what he claims. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov and Leo G. Carroll. It is an adaptation by Angus...
on TV than giving his wife attention. - Mike's brother, Richie (Joseph Hindy) and his wife, Joan (Diane KeatonDiane KeatonDiane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
), who have grown “incompatible” and “unhappy” and are considering divorce. - Bridesmaid Brenda (Marian Hailey) and usher Jerry (Bob DishyBob DishyBob Dishy is an American actor of stage, film and television. He is married to former actress Judy Graubart .He appeared on Broadway in:...
), who Mike and Susan “fix up” for the wedding. Nebbishy Jerry imagines himself a playboy, and spends most of the weekend trying to “score” with Brenda. - Mike's Italian-American parents, Frank (Richard Castellano) and Bea (Beatrice ArthurBeatrice ArthurBeatrice "Bea" Arthur was an American actress, comedienne and singer whose career spanned seven decades. Arthur achieved fame as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Maude, and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, winning Emmy Awards for both...
), who are relentlessly trying to persuade Richie and Joan not to get divorced. (Castellano, who repeated his role from the BroadwayBroadway theatreBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play, received a Best Supporting ActorBest Supporting ActorThis is a list of awards for supporting actor. These are accolades given by a group of film or television professionals in recognition of the work of supporting and character actors...
nomination for his role.)
All the plot lines play out through the rehearsal, wedding, and reception.