''It's My Turn'' is a 1980 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

starring

Jill Clayburgh Jill Clayburgh (April 30, 1944 – November 5, 2010) was an American actress known for her work in theater, television, and cinema. She received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actr ...

Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the ...

, and

Charles Grodin Charles Sidney Grodin (April 21, 1935 – May 18, 2021) was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. Known for his deadpan delivery and often cast as a put-upon straight man, Grodin became familiar as a supporting acto ...

. The film was directed by Claudia Weill and written by Eleanor Bergstein.

Plot

Kate Gunzinger is a mathematics professor at a Chicago university. She lives with divorcé Homer, in a comfortable but not terribly passionate relationship. Kate travels to New York for a job interview and to attend the wedding of her widowed father. She is offered the job, though it does not look promising, as she will not be able to continue doing research. She meets the bride's son, Ben Lewin, a former professional baseball player. Ben is married, but a relationship develops with Kate. He takes her to

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the home field of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. The stadium opened in April 2009, replacing the Yankee S ...

for an old-timers' game, and after the game they sleep together. Kate goes back to Chicago and breaks up with Homer. She returns to work, where she is greeted with a gift sent by Ben.

Cast

Production

The film's title track, " It's My Turn", played during the final credits, was sung by

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

, with music by

Michael Masser Michael William Masser (March 24, 1941 – July 9, 2015) was an American songwriter, composer and producer of popular music. Early life Born to a Jewish family in Chicago to Ester Huff and William Masser, he attended the University of Illinois ...

and lyrics by

Carole Bayer Sager Carole Bayer Sager (born Carol Bayer on March 8, 1944) is an American lyricist, singer, songwriter, and painter. Early life and career Carole Bayer was born in New York City, to Anita Nathan Bayer and Eli Bayer. Her family was Jewish. She gradu ...

. The song reached No. 9 on ''

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''s

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chart. The film had a tumultuous production due to conflict between Weill and producer Ray Stark. After Stark's death, Weill said he "was a real bully, and so it was a difficult situation.” Weill claimed Stark would undermine her authority in front of the crew, and overly-scrutinize her work. Later she found out that while editing the movie, Stark had hired a shadow editor to cut a different version of the film. Due to the overall experience she directed no more films outside of television.

Critical reception

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

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'' gave the film 2 stars out of 4, writing that: The film was nominated for a

Razzie Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic failures. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, the Razzi ...

for Worst Screenplay for Eleanor Bergstein. David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews gave a mildly positive review writing, "It’s agreeably familiar subject matter that’s employed to basically watchable yet relentlessly uneven effect by Weill, as the filmmaker, armed with a script by Eleanor Bergstein, delivers an erratically-paced endeavor that’s rarely, if ever, as peppy or lighthearted as its opening stretch might’ve indicated..."https://reelfilm.com/its-my-turn/

References

External links