Taglines: Every father’s daughter is a virgin.
Goodbye, Columbus movie storyline. Neil Klugman (Richard Benjamin) is an intelligent, working-class army veteran and a graduate of Rutgers University who works as a library clerk. He falls for Brenda Patimkin (Ali MacGraw), a wealthy Radcliffe student who is home for the summer. They meet by the swimming pool at Old Oaks Country Club in Purchase, New York, a private club that Neil visits as a guest of his cousin Doris.
They face obstacles from Brenda’s family (particularly her mother), due to differences in class and assimilation into the American mainstream. Brenda’s family are nouveau riche, their money coming from the successful plumbing supply business owned and run by her father. Brenda herself is old enough to remember “being poor”. Other conflicts include propriety and issues related to premarital sex and the possibility of pregnancy and Mrs. Patimkin’s envy of her daughter’s youth.
After a few dates, Brenda persuades her father to invite Neil to stay with them for two weeks. This angers her mother, who feels that she should have been asked instead. Neil enjoys being able to sneak into Brenda’s room at night but has misgivings over her entitled outlook, which is reflected in her spoiled and petulant younger sister, and her naive brother Ron, who misses the hero worship he enjoyed as a star basketball player at Ohio State University. Neil is astonished when Brenda reveals that she does not take birth control pills or use any other precautions to avoid pregnancy. She angrily rejects Neil’s concerns. He prepares to leave, but she decides to persuade him to stay by agreeing to get a diaphragm.
Goodbye, Columbus is a 1969 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw, directed by Larry Peerce and based on the 1959 novella of the same name by Philip Roth. The screenplay, by Arnold Schulman, won the Writers Guild of America Award. The story’s title alludes to a phonograph record played by the brother of MacGraw’s character, nostalgically recalling his athletic career at Ohio State. The film was essentially MacGraw’s film debut, as she had previously had only a “bit part” in the previous year’s A Lovely Way to Die.
Goodbye, Columbus (1969)
Directed by: Larry Peerce
Starring: Richard Benjamin, Ali MacGraw, Jack Klugman, Nan Martin, Lori Shelle, Michael Meyers, Monroe Arnold, Kay Cummings, Sylvie Strause, Royce Wallace, Anthony McGowan, Mari Gorman
Screenplay by: Arnold Schulman
Cinematography by: Enrique Bravo, Gerald Hirschfeld
Film Editing by: Ralph Rosenblum
Costume Design by: Gene Coffin
Art Direction by: Emanuel Gerard
Music by: Charles Fox
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: April 3, 1969 (United States)
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