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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas

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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas

R

Released Oct 18, 1968

1h 33m

Comedy

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Popcornmeter

14%

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7 Reviews

55%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

Successful, strait-laced Jewish lawyer Harold Fine (Peter Sellers) takes a walk on the wild side after reluctantly agreeing to marry his long-time girlfriend, Joyce (Joyce Van Patten). Unexpectedly smitten by his hippie brother's flower-child girlfriend, Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young), and her potent, marijuana-laced brownies, Harold ditches his establishment life and embraces communal living with Nancy, only to realize the freewheeling life might not be all that it seemed.

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

This first half of the film is the best, as Sellers gradually bends the middle-class into non-class.

Rated: 3/4

Sep 30, 2006

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Vincent Canby

New York Times

By the end of it I was feeling a certain amount of resentment at having been had, along with Alice B. Toklas, whose name, apparently, is to become an automatic laugh, like smog and girdle.

Rated: 2/5

Sep 30, 2006

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Penelope Houston

The Spectator

This dimly predictable comedy tries to have its hashish cake and eat it several times over.

Sep 26, 2020

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

The caricatures of hippies at best will earn cheap laughs.

Rated: C+

Jan 13, 2010

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Mark Bourne

DVDJournal.com

It's conventional and derivative and middlebrow enough to fall back on broad stereotypes of what audiences in Omaha thought of the 'hippie movement.'

Jun 18, 2006

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David Cornelius

DVDTalk.com

It's an embarrassment in Sellers' career, one best forgotten and/or ignored.

Rated: 2/5

Jun 15, 2006

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Alain E

Not so bad as some think and not super great either. A straight laced middle class Jewish attorney engaged to be married meets this hot hippie girl and does a 180 degree and becomes a hippie himself and has a relationship with the girl. When things go south he shaves his long hair and reconnects with his fiancée. In a limited preview of Groundhog Day his second attempt to marry her is also unsuccessful. We last see him on the street trying to reorient himself. The late Peter Sellers is convincing as the main character.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/25

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P. N

It's a satire and an extremely hilarious one. I have no idea what these other folks watched, but never mind the status quo and give it a looksee. It's a very funny movie. Mazursky was a genius. Perfect cast.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/15/25

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Audience Member

A comedy without any comedy in it. A complete misfire. Sellers is miscast; the producer should have called Woody Allen for the lead and had him punch up the script before a single frame was shot.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

09/15/24

Full Review

dave s

Paul Mazursky wrote some great screenplays over his long career. I Love You, Alice B. Toklas wasn't one of them. Peter Sellers, a comic genius, brought some great characters to life over his long career. That's not the case with I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. Sellers plays Harold Fine, a conservative L.A. lawyer who leaves his bride at the alter after eating some pot brownies and having sex with a hot hippie. The last thirty minutes of the movie are almost unbearable to watch as Harold grows out his hair and becomes a part of the ‘60s counter culture, thus making the first hour of the movie look like Citizen Kane in comparison. Sellers does his best to make things work, but I Love You, Alice B. Toklas is ultimately a comedy without humor or a satire with nothing to say.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Frances H

I usually love Peter Sellers, but this movie was a big disappointment.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

11/19/20

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Audience Member

The best comedy movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Hy Averback

Director

Peter Sellers

Harold

Jo Van Fleet

Mother

Leigh Taylor-Young

Nancy

Joyce Van Patten

Joyce

David Arkin

Herbie

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Synopsis

Successful, strait-laced Jewish lawyer Harold Fine (Peter Sellers) takes a walk on the wild side after reluctantly agreeing to marry his long-time girlfriend, Joyce (Joyce Van Patten). Unexpectedly smitten by his hippie brother's flower-child girlfriend, Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young), and her potent, marijuana-laced brownies, Harold ditches his establishment life and embraces communal living with Nancy, only to realize the freewheeling life might not be all that it seemed.

Director: Hy Averback
Producer: Charles H. Maguire
Screenwriter: Paul Mazursky, Larry Tucker
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co: Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 18, 1968, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 18, 2010
Runtime: 1h 33m

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