Taglines: Thank you Neil Simon for making us laugh at falling in love…again.
The Goodbye Girl movie storyline. Ex-Broadway chorus dancer Paula McFadden lives with her eight year old precocious daughter, Lucy, and Paula’s lover, actor Tony De Forrest. Paula has solely been playing “wife” and mother ever since she got married to Lucy’s father. Paula comes home one day to find that Tony has left her. Not only will Paula have to start working again (as Tony was the household breadwinner), the only thing she knows being dancing, but she may have to look for another apartment.
Unknown to Paula, Tony, whose name was on the apartment lease, has sublet it to Elliot Garfield, an actor from out of town who has come to New York to appear as the lead in an off off Broadway production of Richard III. Paula will not give up the apartment without a fight – she figures possession is nine tenths of the law – but an equally tenacious Elliot figures the law is on his side and he does have a key. So pragmatic Paula figures the easiest thing to do is to share the apartment with Elliot.
Paula doesn’t much like Elliot, solely because of what he represents to her, and thus Paula tries to make his life as miserable as she can there in hopes that he will leave. However Elliot and Lucy get along famously. As Paula and Elliot try to co-habitate, they each have their own professional problems, Paula’s being that she is woefully out of shape to be a dancer, and Elliot’s being that he doesn’t see eye to eye with his Richard III director, who wants to take the production in a whole different and unconventional direction. As each tries to earn a living, they find that they are falling for each other. But Paula, a two time loser in love, is hesitant to get into a relationship with Elliot, who she sees will ultimately leave her like all the others have before.
The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 American romantic comedy-drama film produced by Ray Stark, directed by Herbert Ross and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings and Paul Benedict. The original screenplay by Neil Simon centers on an odd trio: a struggling actor who has sublet a Manhattan apartment from a friend, the current occupant (his friend’s ex-girlfriend, who has just been abandoned), and her precocious young daughter.
Richard Dreyfuss won the 1977 Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Elliot Garfield. At the time, he became the youngest man to win an Oscar for Best Actor. The film became the first romantic comedy to earn $100 million in box-office grosses.
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Directed by: Herbert Ross
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings, Paul Benedict, Barbara Rhoades, Theresa Merritt, Patricia Pearcy, Michael Shawn, Gene Castle, Daniel Levins, Anita Dangler
Screenplay by: Neil Simon
Production Design by: Albert Brenner
Cinematography by: David M. Walsh
Film Editing by: John F. Burnett
Costume Design by: Ann Roth
Set Decoration by: Jerry Wunderlich
Music by: Dave Grusin
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 30, 1977
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