secondtake They All Laughed (1981)Peter Bogdanovich had directed two real classics of 1970s American Cinema before this one, The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon. Both are heartfelt, somewhat romanticized, and sensitive movies. That's all I knew of him before seeing They All Laughed, and I was surprised at the choppy, slight, throwaway quality to it all. The acting varies hugely from John Ritter being vaguely comic to Audrey Hepburn (yes!) being vaguely Audrey Hepburn. Ritter is used too much and Hepburn not enough. Ben Gazzara can be terrific but here he is supposed to be the stellar ladies man, cool and profound and worldly, and he doesn't pull it off, which becomes an embarrassment. Add some minor characters really struggling, and you begin to think it isn't the acting, but the directing, that keeps it from taking off.There are several layered plots at work here, and the stuttered construction might have held water with more pieces intact. But more to the point might be the basic premise of the plot or plots. There is genuine adolescent girl watching (and drooling), there is an adult love affair that doesn't quite make sense, there is a crime or two at work behind the scenes (and taxis and helicopters and such). It's cobbled together and filmed rather routinely and in general leaves you feeling disoriented and sorry you got involved. Yeah, that disappointing.

beatle1909 Its not the cast. A finer group of actors, you could not find. Its not the setting. The director is in love with New York City, and by the end of the film, so are we all! Woody Allen could not improve upon what Bogdonovich has done here. If you are going to fall in love, or find love, Manhattan is the place to go. No, the problem with the movie is the script. There is none. The actors fall in love at first sight, words are unnecessary. In the director's own experience in Hollywood that is what happens when they go to work on the set. It is reality to him, and his peers, but it is a fantasy to most of us in the real world. So, in the end, the movie is hollow, and shallow, and message-less.

m-grob-1 Since the day I saw this film when it came out in 1981, it has been one of my top 3 favorites. The blurb I wrote for Amazon is below, and I'm just thrilled that it's finally coming out on DVD on 10/17/06 - the film's 25th anniversary.The last credit in this film explains its appeal - "Thank you to the people of Manhattan on whose island this was filmed." A charming and witty romantic comedy, it is a love story written to New Yorkers (Peter Bogdanovich is a native) who can identify every location (West 12th Street, the Ansonia, the old FAO Schwartz, the Plaza, the Roxy, Chez Brigitte, and City Limits which was a country & western club). One gets the impression that the entire ensemble cast clicked as well off-screen as they do on, and this intimacy is clearly communicated. I laughed, I cried, it was better than CATS. Not only an ode to Dorothy Stratten, it was also Audrey Hepburn's last feature appearance (she had a cameo subsequent to this film) and her inner beauty seeps from the screen. Buy it, make a big tub of popcorn, and curl up with someone you love.

Lee Eisenberg Peter Bogdanovich was one of the new wave of American directors in the early '70s, with movies like "The Last Picture Show", "What's Up, Doc?" and "Paper Moon". So did he just make "They All Laughed" for fun or something? I couldn't determine that the movie was actually trying to say anything; it almost seemed like an excuse to have a bunch of stars. No matter, I didn't think it was a bad movie. The plot centers on a detective investigating a number of people in New York, and the various things that happen as a result. Stars Ben Gazzara, Audrey Hepburn, and John Ritter almost just seem like they're wondering around a lot. Kind of strange.But either way, I wouldn't agree with the previous reviewer who called "They All Laughed" the worst movie ever. Maybe it didn't have any social value or anything, but it was worth seeing. As far as I'm concerned, you can't even talk about the worst movie ever unless you've seen "Baryshnya-Krestyanka"; that is two hours of my life that I'm never going to get back, and Alexander Pushkin must spin in his grave every time that someone watches that garbage, knowing how they fouled up his novel. All in all, you may want to check out "They All Laughed", but it's definitely not for everyone.