''Players'' is a 1979 American
romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
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. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Anthony Harvey
Anthony Harvey (3 June 1930 – 23 November 2017) was an English filmmaker who began his career as a teenage actor, was a film editor in the 1950s and moved into directing in the mid-1960s. Harvey had fifteen film credits as an editor, and he ...
and starring
Ali MacGraw
Elizabeth Alice MacGraw (born April 1, 1939) is an American actress and activist. She gained attention with her role in the film ''Goodbye, Columbus'' (1969), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She gained an ...
and
Dean Paul Martin
Dean Paul Martin Jr. (born Dino Paul Crocetti Jr., November 17, 1951 – March 21, 1987) was an American pop singer and film and television actor. A member of the California Air National Guard, Martin died in a crash during a military training f ...
, about a young tennis player who has an affair with an older woman.
The film became known as a "disaster".
Premise
A rising tennis star falls in love with an older woman, a jet-setter who's involved with a millionaire, while playing in the
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
championships.
Cast
*
Ali MacGraw
Elizabeth Alice MacGraw (born April 1, 1939) is an American actress and activist. She gained attention with her role in the film ''Goodbye, Columbus'' (1969), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She gained an ...
as Nicole Boucher
*
Dean Paul Martin
Dean Paul Martin Jr. (born Dino Paul Crocetti Jr., November 17, 1951 – March 21, 1987) was an American pop singer and film and television actor. A member of the California Air National Guard, Martin died in a crash during a military training f ...
as Chris Christensen
*
Maximilian Schell as Marco
*
Steve Guttenberg
Steven Robert Guttenberg (born August 24, 1958) is an American actor, author, businessman, producer, and director. He is known for his lead roles in Hollywood films of the 1980s and 1990s, including ''Cocoon'', ''Police Academy'', ''Three Men and ...
as Randy
*
Pancho Gonzalez
Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" González (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), known sometimes as Richard Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He won 15 major singles titles, including two U.S. National Singles Championships in 1948 and 1949, and 13 P ...
as Himself
*
Guillermo Vilas
Guillermo Vilas (; born 17 August 1952) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. Vilas was the No. 1 of the Grand Prix seasons in 1974, 1975 and 1977, and won four Grand Slam tournaments, one year-end Masters, nine Grand Prix Super Se ...
as Himself
*
Ilie Năstase
Ilie Theodoriu Năstase (, born 19 July 1946) is a former World No. 1 Romanian tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles from 23 August 1973 to 2 June 1974, and was the first man to hold the top position on the computerized ATP rankin ...
as Himself
*
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...
as Himself
Production
Development
The film was a passion project of producer Robert Evans, who was an enthusiastic tennis player. He made it under his independent deal with Paramount, where he had been head of production.
Evans hired Arnhold Schulman to write a script. There were over 16 drafts. "I had a bitter dispute with the writer", said Evans.
Schulman later recalled:
I got in my contract all of the Dramatist Guild guarantees: I had approval of the director, not a word f the script
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
could be changed without my consent, and so forth. Immediately after I finished the screenplay, Bob Evans sent me on a wild goose chase to Rome to cast a part he had already cast—I found out months later—with Max Schell. When I got back, I found out that six or seven writers were working on different versions of the script, all at the same time with none of them knowing about the other.
It was known during production as ''Getting Off''. Anthony Harvey and Robert Evans began scouting locations in Mexico in April 1978.
Evans wanted the male lead to be played by someone who was a top level tennis player and could act. In May 1978, Evans announced that the role would be played by Dean-Paul Martin, son of Dean Martin, who played at
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
as well as professionally for the
Phoenix Racquets
The Phoenix Racquets were a charter franchise of World Team Tennis (WTT). The team was founded as the Denver Racquets and won the 1974 WTT championship in the league's inaugural season, before moving to Phoenix in 1975. Following the 1978 season ...
of
World Team Tennis
World TeamTennis (WTT) is a mixed-gender professional tennis league played with a team format in the United States, which was founded in 1973.
The league's season normally takes place in the summer months. Players from the ATP and WTA take a ...
. "He's the next Robert Redford", said Evans. "It's one of the best screen tests I've ever seen."
Martin was reluctant to act but said yes "because Bob assured me this was the first film in Hollywood history with this kind of money behind which would show tennis in a totally authentic and good light."
Evans signed Martin to a six-picture contract. He learned about camera technique over several weeks with actor
Tony Franciosa
Anthony George Franciosa (né Papaleo; October 25, 1928 – January 19, 2006) was an American actor most often billed as Tony Franciosa at the height of his career. He began his career on stage and made a breakthrough portraying the brother of t ...
.
MacGraw's fee was $500,000.
She had only appeared in four movies but they had all been hits. She was Evans' ex-wife and the two, who shared a son, had remained close. "She was the best person for the role", said Evans.
Shooting
Filming began shooting in London on 29 June 1978. It includes a scene shot during the
1978 Wimbledon Championships: prior to the start of the ladies' final between
Martina Navratilova and
Chris Evert, the production filmed Dean-Paul Martin and Guillermo Vilas walking onto Centre Court and bowing to
Princess Margaret and the
Duchess of Kent
Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom ...
in the Royal Box.
Additional filming took place in Mexico, Las Vegas, Monte Carlo and Los Angeles.
Shooting had to be suspended at one point when Martin fell ill.
Schulman recalled:
The company went to Mexico or the filming and I couldn't get Evans to show me the dailies. I said, "Bob, you have no right to do this. Look at your contract." He said, "Sue me!" That was the end of that. I had these things in writing, and they meant nothing!... I did sue him. But I couldn't take my name off the screen. You can't take your name off the screen if you're paid a certain amount of money, unless the studio agrees beforehand—and they're not going to agree, because if word gets out the writer took his name off, the picture gets a bad name.
Schulman says "Not a word" of the script was his "but I got the credit, the money, and even the credit of executive producer once again, and from the outside, it looks as though I was totally in charge."
By July the title was changed to ''Players''.
"I honestly believe no one's ever made a more realistic film about a sport", said Evans.
Reception
Critical
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called it "the sort of movie in which the actors serve the function of scenery. They are nice to look at but it's not really possible to identify with a tree or even a lilac bush. Mr. Schulman's dialogue doesn't help, nor does the direction by Anthony Harvey ('
A Lion in Winter'), who never discovers a source of narrative energy to compensate for the emptiness of the characters."
Dale Pollock
Dale M. Pollock (born 1950) is an American film producer, writer and film professor. A journalist whose works have been published in a number of magazines and newspapers, Pollock is also the author of a biography of George Lucas. Pollock has ...
of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "Another love story in disguise, this time backgrounded against the tennis world, 'Players' is disqualified by exec producer Arnold Schulman's wobbly script, a simpering performance by Ali MacGraw, and a preponderance of tennis footage."
Gene Siskel of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "The problem with the script is that both characters are totally unlikable. These are the sort of selfish, me-centered characters we suspect populate Beverly Hills and environs, people interested only in cars, clothes, sex, and money."
Charles Champlin
Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer.
Life and career
Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote, "Unfortunately, it is much better on court than on courtship ... After one amusing scene when they meet, there is scarcely a line that does not sound as if it were something being read aloud, rather than thought or felt and said."
Brendan Gill
Brendan Gill (October 4, 1914 – December 27, 1997) was an American journalist. He wrote for ''The New Yorker'' for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for ''Film Comment'', wrote about design and architecture for Architectu ...
of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' wrote, "Verisimilitude is achieved during the tennis sequences by furnishing them with people borrowed from real life; those sequences aside, there is little real life to be found in 'Players,' thanks in part to an ill-written script by Arnold Schulman and in part to the incompetence of its star, Ali MacGraw, who is very good-looking and is unable to recite even the simplest lines with conviction."
Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' wrote, "As certain to be laughed off the screen and written off financially as '
Hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
,' another Paramount loser, 'Players' should clinch MacGraw's reputation as the most ridiculous leading lady of the '70s. But the folly is not hers alone. What prompted producer Robert Evans, director Anthony Harvey and screenwriter Arnold Schulman to foist on anyone a love story as unformed and uninteresting as 'Players' (definitely not to be confused with the
Don De Lillo novel of the same title)?"
Schulman ran a full-page ad in the trade papers denying responsibility with the film. "Everybody laughed, and I didn't work for three years", he says.
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
later wrote the "film was ridiculed by critics and dismissed by audiences when it came out back in 1979. But as a Hollywood tennis sports movie it's pretty good" claiming Martin's "tennis is terrific, and while I didn’t necessarily need to see him star in anything else, as a tennis pro he's pretty... convincing."
References
External links
*
*
{{Anthony Harvey
1979 films
1979 romantic drama films
American romantic drama films
Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith
Films directed by Anthony Harvey
Films produced by Robert Evans
Films set in London
Films shot in London
Films shot in Mexico
Paramount Pictures films
Tennis films
1970s English-language films
1970s American films