To Think This Was Before "Toxic Masculinity" Entered The American Vernacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

                                      This was the choice I chose as an alternative to "Svengoolie."

                                      I had wanted to see some of John Cassavetts' film work, and I recall this having gotten some good notices, let alone having a superb cast, so I decided we should watch "Husbands."

                                        It was almost the opposite of "Autumn Sonata."  Where that was detailed and structured, "Husbands," is as if Cassevates threw script pages in the air, let them fall where they may, and then shot each one individually.

                                         He always did have an improvisational style, and the actors--Ben Gazara, Cassavetes  himsef, and Peter Falk, who gives the film's best performance. --are all up to it.   Three lifelong friends, their wives and families, all living in some Long Island neighborhood, but working in Manhattan, have unexpectedly lost through death their fourth friend and colleague, and the film is a long detailing of their expressions of grief, from singing maudlin, drunken songs, to flying to London and trying to make it with hookers.  This film may put some off, but it has an unmistakable style of its own.  My big complaint was that some scenes went on too long.  For example, the episode of them crowding into the stalls of a bar's Men's room, throwing up and curing, was too long for my taste.  Cassavetts' talent sometimes gets the better of him, and he does not know when to quit.

                                       Despite the trio's almost immature antics, the stature of the actors enables them to embody each character with a degree of sympathy, best present in the end when they return home to their wives.  I wish the film had ended with the son saying to his father, "Boy, are you in trouble!" but I guess Cassavetes wanted to end on a sympathetic note for the men.

                                          Gene Siskel--who ever took him seriously? --chose this as one of The Ten Best Films Of 1970!  Are you kidding?  And Criterion offers a boxed set of Cassavetes' work, but I am certainly not going to buy it.

                                             Nevertheless "Husbands" should be seen and viewed as the kind of directorial creativity that does not exist anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                And actors of these statures?  Sadly, they are gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!