Why is it so unknown?

Beats the heck out of me. I'm now a 45 year old (straight) man, haven't seen it in at least 30 years, and it still sticks with me. Faded memories of the opening scene with the client makes me chuckle at least twice a year. I think it went something like

Do you have a house?
No.
Get one!
Do you have a wife?
No.
Get one!
I have a girlfriend.
They're not tax deductible.

Here's the really surreal part of the tale. Imagine a long forgotten time. The dinosaurs were dead, but I think there were still Cadillac DeVilles. During the summer the local mall cinema (one screen) would run movies for free one day a week. My mom worked at the Sears store next door, so she would take us kids down for the movie while she worked, then we would hang around the mall until she got off. This was the movie once, although it was called "The Public Eye." Just picture how surreal that is. Taking 8-12 year olds to a cinema, letting them go by themselves, to a grown up movie! Gads, call Child Protective Services!

Not everyone considers it a gem. Roger Ebert says:

Now here is the curious thing. Jayston plays his role perfectly straight. Lord, does he ever. He seems to belong in a movie about investment banking. Miss Farrow, on the other hand, acts as if she is in the worst sort of pseudo-romantic soap opera, and allows her voice to c-c-catch on emotionally charged confessions. She also does a lot of blinking and gulping. In the midst of all this, Topol goes for exaggerated vaudeville. So nothing fits, no scenes seem to fall together, and we get the peculiar feeling that we have wandered into an acting class where the assignment was to play Henry the VIII as a guppy.

Nobody can, be as stupid as the characters in this movie. Nobody. Miss Farrow has taken to wandering away from her husband in order to watch dolphins and sunsets. She manages to confine her dolphin - and sunset - watching, however, to those occasions when she is expected to preside at her husband's dinner parties. And she turns up late wearing a poncho and expects no one to notice.

I'm guessing other critics were equally unappreciative.


~~~~~~~
Think cynical thoughts.

OK, some critics gave bad reviews but others gave good ones. And in my country, Spain, both actors were awarded for best performance so......why is forgotten? Well, we have to take into consideration that the movie played well in cinemas.....it wasn´t a hit but it didn´t bomb at the box office.....it just did well. Another fact is that, like many other movies, tv stations rarely show it and it hasn´t released on DVD, except in Japan (land of cult dvds and always the first ones to release little gems).
Like many movies it has to be appreciatted in the right moment....and right now time has been very grateful with this movie....it's not dated, it looks great and the 3 actors give excellent performance. I can´t believe what the critic said about Topol vodeuville performance. Was he crazy? HE was awesome.....a very diificult part to easy to be overperformance by another actor...but he did it just great. Forget what critics said at the time and get yourself a copy

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