Four stories revolving around people who stay at a Beverly Hills hotel: Diana Barrie arrives from London with her bisexual fake husband Sidney to attend the Academy Awards, since she is nominated for best actress in the film "The Left Turn". She loses, which causes a fight with Sidney, since he flirted with another man during the party, but the couple eventually reconciles... Hannah divorced her husband, writer Bill, and now wants to take their teenage daughter Jenny to New York. However, they agree for her to stay in Los Angeles... Due to a misunderstanding, Chicago visitors Dr. Chauncey and his wife Lola have to take a shabby room at the hotel, while their friends, Dr. Willis and Bettina, enjoy a luxury room, which causes friction during their tennis games... Marvin arrives from Philadelphia for a bar mitzvah, but his brother arranges for a prostitute in his room, Bunny. The next day, Marvin tries to hide a sleeping Bunny in his bed when his wife Millie shows up, but to no avail. Millie discovers Bunny, and is angry at Marvin, but still decides to go to the bar mitzvah with him.
One of the unjustifiably forgotten films from the 70s, this intellectual drama-comedy still holds up surprisingly well despite its disparate episodic structure—the first two stories are excellent, but the other two, involving Marvin and Dr. Chauncey, are rather thin, corny and underwhelming—yet screenwriter's Neil Simon's sizzling dialogues are so indestructible you simply enjoy crunching them down in your mind. Admittedly, Simon's script adaptations from his own plays were never truly cinematic—but then again, neither were Wilder's nor Lubitsch's films, since they all followed the similar low-key policy of forcing the viewers to focus on characters and what they say, and not on style. The opening of "California Suite" already delivers snappy lines between two people on a plane: "I'm a first-class passenger!" - "You're a first-class lunatic!" The episode with Hannah and Hollywood screenwriter Bill offers a lot of inspired "subtle insults" disguised as dialogues: "Are we bantering again? I'm a little rusty after 9 years." - "I haven't seen your newest film. I've been told it grossed a lot in backward areas."
Many of them are told too fast and thus the viewers might miss some, yet each 10 minute segment works finely for itself. It also presents a melancholic insight into a divorced couple who mourns after good old times, and who contemplates if their child could still rejuvenate their relationship in the future. The episode involving actress Diana and her gay-bisexual companion Sidney works like a charm due to the charismatic performances by Maggie Smith and Michael Caine, culminating in their fight since he does not truly love her ("Nothing personal." - "There is never anything personal between us.") and in their touching reconciliation, where she tells him to make love to her, but not to close his eyes, since she wants him to look at her this time. The other two stories fare less and could have been either improved or cut: the one with Dr. Chauncey works thanks to comedian Richard Pryor, though it feels stale and far-fetched at times (the lame sequence where their car was "crushed" by another car on top, and they are still inside). The weakest episode is the one with Walter Matthau playing Marvin, who is cringeworthy while trying to hide a sleeping prostitute in his bed from his wife, Millie. One funny moment at least partially gives it some value: Marvin tries to prevent Millie from entering the bedroom by telling her he is so excited seeing her he wants to sleep with her in the living room, which leads to a golden exchange ("You missed me? You've only been away one night." - "I know, but there is a 3-hour time difference"). Other than that, that particular story is rather forced and lax. Despite the director's standard approach, Simon's humanism and wit carry the film and give it spirit which works in the long term.
Grade:+++
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