House Calls

Starring:Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Art Carney, Richard Benjamin, Candice Azzara, Dick O'Neill, Thayer David, Anthony Holland, Reva Rose, Sandra Kerns, Brad Dexter, Jane Connell, Lloyd Gough, Gordon Jump, William J. Fiore, Taurean Blacque, Charles Matthau, Ken Olfson, Len Lesser, Nancy Hsueh
Director: Howard Zieff
Studio: Universal Studios
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Wonderful, wonderful.
Clean Romantic Comedy
Light Tracy-Hepburn-Style Romp Takes Well-Aimed Jabs at Greedy Doctors
Lighter Than Air, and What's Wrong With That?
House Calls

House Calls
Starring: Walter Matthau , Glenda Jackson , Art Carney , Richard Benjamin , and Candice Azzara
Director: Howard Zieff
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007QJ1ZW
Release Date: 2005-05-31

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful, wonderful........2007-06-20

Roger Ebert once commented that Michael Caine never gives a bad performance. Neither does Gene Hackman and neither does Walter Matthau. This is one of his best. Medical humor always seems to work. Here it soars, with the help of Glenda Jackson, Richard Benjamin, and--in one of his most hilarious roles--Art Carney. The subplots are also well done. There's even a brief appearance by Matthau's real-life son.

This is the sort of movie you can watch again and again and the underlying story is sweet and loving, not cruel like The Odd Couple or long in the tooth like Grumpy Old Men. This is Matthau at the top of his rumpled powers, playing a skilled surgeon with notable human failings ripe for redemption.

Clean Romantic Comedy.......2007-01-10

Very enjoyable movie that we watch over and over. Nice music. From this movie we purchased the CD Moonlight Gambler/ Frankie Laine. We also purchased the Movie Hop Scotch on Dec 28 and have not received it as yet.

Light Tracy-Hepburn-Style Romp Takes Well-Aimed Jabs at Greedy Doctors.......2006-08-10

I remember seeing this 1978 comedy at one of the bargain matinees I took in when I was looking for a study break from my college courses. Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson do some effective Tracy-Hepburn-style thrusting-and-parrying in this featherweight romp directed by the reliable Howard Zieff (he did "Private Benjamin") about a newly widowed doctor's aggressive re-entry into the dating game. It all breezes by quickly primarily thanks to the clever script by veteran screenwriter Julius J. Epstein ("Casablanca") along with Alan Mandel, Max Shulman and future director Charles Shyer.

Dr. Charley Nichols has just come back from Hawaii after his wife's death. Upon his return, he becomes aware that he is instant catnip to any and all the single women in LA. He works in a hospital run by an increasingly senile chief-of-staff, Amos Willoughby, whom Charley has to pacify to keep his residency. Enter Ann Atkinson, a transplanted Englishwoman who bakes cheesecakes for a living and has certain concrete opinions about the medical profession, which she expresses freely on a PBS talk show. Of course, Charley is on the show's discussion panel, and sparks, as they say, fly. This leads to the standard complications about how serious Charley is willing to become about Ann. At the same time, the hospital has to deal with a potential wrongful death lawsuit from the widow of a rich baseball team owner who died at the hospital under Willoughby's careless supervision.

It's just refreshing to see such a mature yet bracing love story between two characters inhabited by actors who deliver lines with the scalpel-wielding skill of surgeons. Matthau is his usual 1970's curmudgeonly swinger and quite a sight waddling with his gangly arms held akimbo in his power walk. Away from her heavy, award-winning Elizabethan roles, Jackson is crisply sardonic and charmingly vulnerable as the feisty Ann, who thinks all doctors should aspire to be Albert Schweitzer. Art Carney plays Willoughby with predictable bluster, while Richard Benjamin provides amiable support as Charley's colleague, Dr. Solomon. It's all very compact with a few nice jabs at the greed within the medical profession. There are no extras on the 2005 DVD.

Lighter Than Air, and What's Wrong With That?.......2005-12-20

In a career that featured a wealth of great comic performances, Walter Matthau gave few that were more delightful and relaxed than this one. In contrast to the wonderfully over-the-top style he displayed while winning an Oscar for "The Fortune Cookie" and being nominated for another in "The Sunshine Boys," Matthau employed a lighter but equally effective comic touch for this 1978 romantic comedy. He plays a widowed doctor who is over his grief and ready to sow some wild oats, only to find that he's fallen for a woman who wants nothing to do with his playboy ways. Glenda Jackson, who later left acting to join the British parliament, is a perfect match for Matthau's game, and the two trade barbs beautifully in a film that plays so leisurely that it's over before you know it. Look for superb supporting performances from Richard Benjamin as well as Art Carney as the dottering and caustic hospital administrator. He hams it up wonderfully in a part far removed from the nice guy he played in "The Honeymooners." This is one of those movies that looks like it was fun to make. It's definitely fun to watch.

House Calls.......2005-09-07

Delightful romantic comedy benefits from a top-notch script (by Max Shulman and Julius Epstein-co-writer of "Casablanca"!), and the unexpected chemistry between lovable schlump Matthau and starchy Jackson, who are both fabulous. Affirming once again that true love will triumph over casual sex, "Calls" is a charming, clever romance, with plenty of laughs and heart. Matthau fans should flock to this.

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