Many of Philip Roth's novels plough the same furrow. A sane, rational, sensible Jewish man has a difficult life because of oppressive Jewish society amongst well-off New Yorkers, in which women are capricious, malevolent, and obsessed with frippery and social position. This one is an example.
Richard Benjamin, often looking remarkably like Rowan Atkinson, plays Philip Roth (under the name of Neil Klugman), opposite Ali McGraw in her first cinema role. She's a Jewish-American Princess - and this was probably the movie which exposed this species to the world outside New York State.
Everybody except Roth is incredibly shallow and boneheaded, although the father, nicely played by Jack Klugman, is allowed a certain rough honest grace and decency.
The main message one gets from the film is that the wealthy of Westchester County are unpleasant people, Jewish-American Princesses especially so, but even they pale in comparison with their ghastly mothers.
In the book, Roth's ability as a writer enlivens the proceedings, but his verbal felicity isn't translated into the visuals of the screenplay, and the film is laboured.
Richard Benjamin, often looking remarkably like Rowan Atkinson, plays Philip Roth (under the name of Neil Klugman), opposite Ali McGraw in her first cinema role. She's a Jewish-American Princess - and this was probably the movie which exposed this species to the world outside New York State.
Everybody except Roth is incredibly shallow and boneheaded, although the father, nicely played by Jack Klugman, is allowed a certain rough honest grace and decency.
The main message one gets from the film is that the wealthy of Westchester County are unpleasant people, Jewish-American Princesses especially so, but even they pale in comparison with their ghastly mothers.
In the book, Roth's ability as a writer enlivens the proceedings, but his verbal felicity isn't translated into the visuals of the screenplay, and the film is laboured.