Pete 'n' Tillie (1972)

Sadly Over-hyped

Nice effects though.

Just perfect...

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Pete 'n' Tillie may provide the most unromantic view of marriage ever put on the big screen. Two players best known for comedy roles, Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett play the title roles who are a pair of thirty somethings who kind of just fall into marriage because they don't want to end up alone. They have a son played by Lee Harcourt Montgomery who is taken from them. The question is, can their marriage survive this unspeakable tragedy?Matthau who does have a bit of wit an extension of his real persona in life gets by with it. He's a philanderer by nature, but he always comes home.There is some moment of high drama in Pete 'n' Tillie especially coming from Burnett. When her son dies and her breakdown comes, you really do forget you are watching one of the great comic talents of the female gender ever.Comedy however did get Geraldine Page an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, a very vain woman who was the original matchmaker for Matthau and Burnett. Burnett and Page square off after Page has a bad moment in a police station, the best female bout since Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel went at each other in Destry Rides Again. Pete 'n' Tillie also got a nomination for best adapted screenplay.There's also a very nice turn by Rene Auberjonois as a gay friend of Burnett's who offers her a different kind of marital arrangement with two people who do like each other.After over 45 years Pete 'n' Tillie holds up very well. It should because the story is timeless.

Time has not been kind to PETE-N-TILLE,a 1972 film starring Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett. I remember seeing this film in the theaters when it was released and thinking how good it was, but as the years have worn on and I have seen this film several more times, it comes off as a muddled and confusing film that isn't sure if it wants to be a comedy or a drama. Matthau and Burnett play middle-aged singles who court, marry, have a child, and find their marriage tested by tragedy. The movie makes jarring switches from fall-down hilarity to soap opera tragedy in the blink of an eye and it's hard to keep track of what we are supposed to be feeling. Director Martin Ritt has also kept a tight rein on his two stars, making sure they never go over the top; however, I think this is to the film's detriment. There is one hysterically funny scene of a knock down drag out fight between Burnett and her best friend, played by Geraldine Page (who inexplicably received an Oscar nomination for this), but other than that, this is a muddled and confusing film barely watchable because of the natural charisma and legendary reputations of its stars.

The dialog between Matthau and Carol Burnett is in itself worth the price of admission.Watch Mathhau's delivery. Watch how he communicates his own appreciation for his lines -- his smug self-satisfaction almost makes us believe that he wrote this stuff himself.Definitely not for Bruce Willis fans.

Don't let the presence of the wonderful comic actors Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett mislead you into thinking this might be a comedy with some merit, it's not. It's not even a comedy, even if it tries to be at first.Plot: Two sad losers court gingerly, fall in love, get married, have a kid, ...........Neither funny enough nor sad enough to watch.