Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

THe ensemble cast is wonderful in this somewhat opened-up four-person stage play of the mid-1960s. Jason Robards commands the screen as a CEO who uses his mistress' apartment as a tax write-off and stays with her on Wednesdays when he is supposedly off on business trips. Jane Fonda is the kept woman. Rosemary Murphy is his wife. Dean Jones, in a non- Disney role, is the angry young man with business and personal grievances against CEO Cleeves (Robards). Robards is the most memorable as the winning-obsessed CEO who considers everything in his life a game and people as chess pieces to manipulate. What makes this character a cut above, however, is his wry and sometimes self-effacing sense of humor - especially after he realizes that he is stuck with more than he bargained for. Today's more critical and angry moral standards will be aghast at the premise and today's emphasis on lower-key acting, less verbiage, and more visuals will find the film's acting to be overdone and the story over-told. For people in my age bracket, this remains as free, and breezy and winning today as it was in 1966 - still a joy to watch!

This is upbeat and fun, as sophisticated New Yorkers find amoral happiness with various partners, inside and outside of marriage. One reviewer said it was five years out of date but compare it to the coy Sunday in New York or the rather dark and sad The Apartment and you can see the attitude is totally different. Fonda's character has no hesitation in telling two men about her great baby-making pelvis. While a bit bemused by Murphy's character's attitude she is cool with being friends with the ex. The wife seems to be relieved to become the Wednesday lover, instead of her role as business asset. Fonda and Robards' characters parted very amicably despite his lies. Jones's character has no problem about taking on a woman with what used to be thought of as a scarlet past. Everyone seems to come out of it with what suited them the best. Nobody is punished. Everyone lives happily ever after. It's very Broadway not Middle America but one assumes the fact that it took place in NYC allowed the rest of the country to enjoy it, even while shaking their heads at those immoral city people. I wouldn't imagine it was a movie that parents wanted their teenagers to watch.As for one reviewer's likening of the gay portrayal to the negative stereotypes of blacks in the movies, I would just say that in NYC in the arts there were people who behaved like that. My father had a cousin who was a musician and he acted like that. It's similar to the lesbians in early movies who are dressed in suits and look like men. There were women in sophisticated urban environments who did that at that time. I don't know if there are similar complaints on this site about the portrayals in La Cage aux Folles or The Birdcage, or if there are complaints about TV shows like Will and Grace but those are very similar. That doesn't imply that homosexuals who were, for instance, clerks in small towns would be anything like that. Probably most people in the arts in many major cities are at least a bit over the top, if not totally over the top and halfway down the other side. They don't want to blend in. They want to stand out.

Broadway hit about a married millionaire's mistress befriended by his unsuspecting wife and cooed over by a loyal associate. Lots of slamming doors, comic deception, hissy fits and balloons--okay ingredients for a frothy fracas, and the cast is good. Jane Fonda overacts all over the place, yet she's delicious while dropping dry wisecracks or guzzling champagne (Fonda really keeps this material popping). The picture is so ready-made to be adorable, with little 'shockable' lines dotting the script, that it's easy to see why critics dismissed it. Some of the jokes are about five years out of date (this might have been perfectly pleasant if made in 1960 or '61). The plush production and the tinkly music set a jovial mood, but I bet the film looked awfully archaic coming into the Free Love generation. **1/2 from ****

This is a very perky comedy that is highly enjoyable on many levels. The quartet of stars is excellent with great chemistry all around. Those looking for a tribute festival for the recently deceased Jason Robards Jr. should definitely include this dry, brittle, and insightful performance. Rosemary Murphy quietly steals every scene that she's in, and Jane Fonda was a great ingenue "bimbo" with all the trimmings in her halcyon days. Dean Jones should be outclassed by these three, but he definitely isn't, exhibiting talent hinted at in a few other roles when he wasn't lining his wallet with Disney pablum. This movie almost has it all: terrific dialogue -- especially for fans of double and triple entendres, marvelous acting & chemistry, swift pacing, social insight, and a true historical time capsule. My only mild criticism is that the cinematography is rather pedestrian even though the director makes the most of his attempts to open it up from being a filmed stage play, the camera work even in these scenes is unimaginitive. The positive side of this is that this is a perfect video movie since it does not need to be seen on the big screen. I give it 9 out of 10.