''For Pete's Sake'' is a 1974 American

screwball comedy Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...

film starring

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

and directed by

Peter Yates Peter James Yates (24 July 1929 – 9 January 2011) was an English film director and producer. Biography Early life Yates was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. The son of an army officer, he attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from ...

. The screenplay by

Stanley Shapiro Stanley Shapiro (July 16, 1925 – July 21, 1990) was an American screenwriter and producer responsible for three of Doris Day's most successful films. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Shapiro earned his first screen credit for ''South Sea Woman ...

and

Maurice Richlin Maurice Richlin (February 23, 1920 – November 13, 1990) was an American screenwriter. He received two Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nominations for '' Pillow Talk'' and ''Operation Petticoat'' in the same year. For the first ...

chronicles the misadventures of a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

housewife. In 1977, it was used as the basis for the Hindi film '' Aap Ki Khatir''.

Plot

Henrietta and Pete Robbins are a young couple in

struggling to get by on the income he earns as a cab driver. His pompous sister-in-law Helen delights in reminding them that an early marriage robbed him of a college education and how much better off she and her husband Fred are. When Pete gets an inside tip on

pork belly Pork belly or belly pork is a boneless and fatty cut of meat from the belly of a pig. Pork belly is particularly popular in Hispanic, Chinese, Danish, Norwegian, Korean, Thai and Filipino cuisine. Regional dishes France In Alsatian ...

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

, Henrietta borrows $3,000 from a

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

loan shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...

to purchase the commodity. Unfortunately, its value doesn't increase as rapidly as she anticipated. When she's unable to pay her debt, her contract is sold to Mrs. Cherry, a grandmotherly-type who operates a prostitution ring. When Henrietta's initial attempts at entertaining clients prove to be less than successful, her contract is sold yet again...and again, as Henrietta fails to fulfill the requirements of each new individual to whom she becomes indebted — each time for more money — and tries to keep her new enterprises secret from her unsuspecting husband.

Principal cast

as Henrietta Robbins *

Michael Sarrazin Michael Sarrazin (May 22, 1940 – April 17, 2011)

Estelle Parsons as Helen Robbins * William Redfield as Fred Robbins *

Molly Picon Molly Picon ( yi, מאָלי פּיקאָן; born Malka Opiekun; February 28, 1898 – April 5, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, radio and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller. She began her career in Yidd ...

as Mrs. Cherry *

Louis Zorich Louis Zorich (February 12, 1924 – January 30, 2018) was an American actor. He played sporting good salesman Burt Buchman, Paul Buchman's father, on the NBC series ''Mad About You'' from 1993 to 1999. Early years Zorich was born in Chicago, I ...

as Nick Kasabian * Heywood Hale Broun as Judge Hiller *

Ed Bakey William Edward Baekey (November 13, 1925 – May 4, 1988) was an American film and television actor. Life and career Bakey was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and moved to Baltimore at an early age. He attended Baltimore City College, g ...

as Angelo *

Peter Mamakos Peter Mamakos (December 14, 1918 – April 27, 2008) was an American film and television actor. Early life Mamakos was of Greek descent. Mamakos' father owned Pilgrim restaurants in New England. Mamakos was sent to California to scout lo ...

as Dominic *

Joseph Maher Joseph Sylvester Maher (29 December 1933 – 17 July 1998) was an Irish actor, playwright, and occasionally theatre director. He was best known for his roles in the comedies of Joe Orton. He received three Tony Award nominations for his roles in ...

as Mr. Coates *

Anne Ramsey Angelina Anne Ramsey-Mobley (March 27, 1929 – August 11, 1988) was an American actress. She is best known for her film roles as Mama Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985) and as Mrs. Lift in ''Throw Momma from the Train'' (1987), the latter of wh ...

as Telephone Lady *

Vincent Schiavelli Vincent Andrew Schiavelli (; November 11, 1948 – December 26, 2005) was an American character actor noted for his work on stage, screen, and television. Described as an "instantly recognizable sad-faced actor", he was diagnosed with Marfan s ...

as Check Out Man * Sidney Miller as Drunk Driver * Norman Marshall as First Worker * Martin Erlichman as Man In Theatre *

Joe Pantoliano Joseph Peter Pantoliano (born September 12, 1951) is an American character actor who has appeared in over 150 films, television and stage productions. After his early roles in the television series '' M*A*S*H'' and the 1983 comedy '' Risky Bu ...

as Undercover Arresting Officer (Uncredited)

Production

The title tune "For Pete's Sake (Don't Let Him Down)," was written by Artie Butler and

Mark Lindsay Mark Lindsay (born March 9, 1942) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer of Paul Revere & the Raiders. Early life Lindsay was born in Eugene, Oregon, and was the second of eight children of George and Esther Ellis Lindsay. The ...

, and sung by Barbra Streisand. The movie was filmed on location in Brooklyn, New York, and Los Angeles. The suburban scene at Helen and Fred Robbins' house was filmed in Paramus, New Jersey.

Critical reception

In his review in ''The New York Times'',

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 ...

called the film "an often boisterously funny old-time farce" and added "The movie may not hold together as any kind of larger comic statement, but the laughs are self-sustaining throughout...Miss Streisand's comedy range is narrow, like a cartoon character's, but ''For Pete's Sake'' operates almost entirely within that range. She's at her best in this kind of farce." ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corpora ...

'' wrote "A feeble attempt to do a Hawksian 1930s comedy in the 1970s" and "Changing the title from "July Pork Bellies" did not help, and everyone concerned with this picture would be wise to omit it from their credits".For Pete's Sake at TV Guide
/ref>

References

External links

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{{Peter Yates 1974 films 1970s screwball comedy films American screwball comedy films Columbia Pictures films Films set in New York City Films directed by Peter Yates 1974 comedy films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films