8/10
Consistently funny vehicle for Walter Matthau, who plays a doctor and recent widower who spars with, then (of course) falls for new fellow hospital employee Glenda Jackson in a popular Universal comedy that was quickly spun off into a successful network TV sitcom with Wayne Rogers and Lynn Redgrave. The movie is snappy and at times hilarious, with Matthau at his best playing off the likes of Richard Benjamin and Art Carney (the increasingly aging head of staff), while Jackson finds just the right note for her single-mother divorcee.
The script, credited to Max Schulman and the great Julius J. Epstein along with Alan Mandel and Charles Shyer, moves right along and Howard Zieff, who had a successful couple of years fashioning the likes of this and the Goldie Hawn hit “Private Benjamin,” packages a slick affair complete with a montage set to the Beatles’ “Something” – a track predictably culled from “Rescored for Home Video” versions.
For fans, Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray provides the song intact here along with a serviceable older Universal HD master (1.85, 2.0 mono), the picture sporting a sporadic, and at times barely detectable, Henry Mancini score. The trailer is included plus a commentary by Bryan Reesman and Max Evry where one of them admits they’ve never seen “Charley Varrick” – one of Matthau’s best films.