Where’s Poppa? (1970)
1h 22m | PG-13
When New York attorney Gordon Hocheiser meets Louise Callan, the girl of his dreams, he schemes to eliminate his aging, senile mother, even though he promised his late father that he'd always take care of her. He fears that his batty mom's eccentricities will shortly lead to Louise's departure.
Director: Carl Reiner
Studio: The Where's Poppa Company
Genre: Comedy
Video: 720p
Cast
George Segal
as Gordon Hocheiser
Ruth Gordon
as Mrs. Hocheiser
Ron Leibman
as Sidney Hocheiser
Trish Van Devere
as Louise Callan
Barnard Hughes
as Colonel Hendricks
Vincent Gardenia
as Coach Williams
Reviews
I definitely would have tightened the slack pace of this--it seems perhaps 15 or 20 minutes too long, and really lags in spots--but it has some really excellent ideas and, in its basic underlying tenet of adult siblings trying to take care of their elderly parents, yet at the same time having fulfilling lives of their own, remains unfortunately very timely. I'm NOT a George Segal fan in the slightest (in both his previous roles in 'Ship of Fools' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf', he seems to think that simply by screaming at someone, that it inherently means 'range' and 'intensity'), but his work here is solid and he makes you care about his character's plight enough to actually empathize with his situation and root for him as a result. Solid work--and director Carl's son Rob is absolutely hilarious in a rare, pre-'All in the Family' performance. Good stuff here--contemporary PC-awareness notwithstanding, of course... ;)