Lovers and Other Strangers

PG

Released Aug 12, 1970

1h 46m

Comedy

List

100%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

75%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

As Mike (Michael Brandon) and Susan (Bonnie Bedelia) prepare to wed, the couple's families bring their own relationship troubles to the festivities. Susan's father, Hal (Gig Young), is having an affair, while her older sister, Wilma (Anne Meara), can't get her husband to pay attention to her emotional needs. Meanwhile, Mike's brother, Richie (Joseph Hindy), and his wife, Joan (Diane Keaton), are contemplating a divorce, to the horror of his parents (Bea Arthur, Richard Castellano).

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Audience Member

a talented cast that includes the great likes of Bea Arthur, Diane Keaton, Bonnie Bedilia, and Cloris Leachman 'Lovers & Other Strangers' focuses on several players living in the Big Apple juggling their love lives with a big wedding on the horizon this particular group of people go through all the emotional struggles of marriage, forbidden passions, neglect, divorce etc the Vecchios don't believe in divorce so when one of the sons is considering leaving his wife things start to get dicey particularly with their parents who's gonna stay together, who will end up leaving? we keep our families together for happiness and for the sake of our relatives, it's hard to make everyone happy when we want to be happy, someone has to get hurt whether we want it or not, what really is the difference between a man and a woman when it comes to love, sex, and other factors?, who says there has to be a boss in the husband/wife relationship?, love isn't physical it's spiritual, it's very hard a lot of the time for a man to understand what love is to a woman I found this to be a rather interesting story about this collection of players, I really like all of these characters because they feel like real people going through actual ordeals heck any big family would go through all these various struggles with all the secrets and baggage coming out Strong cases can be made for both sexes too in their arguments given the time period with believable performances from a string of committed actors this is one of the better comedy-dramas to come out of the 1970s

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

jon c

a talented cast that includes the great likes of Bea Arthur, Diane Keaton, Bonnie Bedilia, and Cloris Leachman 'Lovers & Other Strangers' focuses on several players living in the Big Apple juggling their love lives with a big wedding on the horizon this particular group of people go through all the emotional struggles of marriage, forbidden passions, neglect, divorce etc the Vecchios don't believe in divorce so when one of the sons is considering leaving his wife things start to get dicey particularly with their parents who's gonna stay together, who will end up leaving? we keep our families together for happiness and for the sake of our relatives, it's hard to make everyone happy when we want to be happy, someone has to get hurt whether we want it or not, what really is the difference between a man and a woman when it comes to love, sex, and other factors?, who says there has to be a boss in the husband/wife relationship?, love isn't physical it's spiritual, it's very hard a lot of the time for a man to understand what love is to a woman I found this to be a rather interesting story about this collection of players, I really like all of these characters because they feel like real people going through actual ordeals heck any big family would go through all these various struggles with all the secrets and baggage coming out Strong cases can be made for both sexes too in their arguments given the time period with believable performances from a string of committed actors this is one of the better comedy-dramas to come out of the 1970s

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

steve d

There wasn't much to it.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Sharp, insightful, and warm comedy. Manages relationship barbs without being snarky and cruel. Some of it is a little dated, but everything dates. The Ann Meara/Harry Guardino storyline pushes it too much and becomes annoying. But there is so much genuine affection and goodness in bride and groom Michael Brandon / Bonnie Bedelia, and parents of the groom Bea Arthur / Richard Cadtellano it makes up for the less likable characters. Nice to see VERY early Diane Keaton showing her early acting chops.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

05/17/19

Full Review

Audience Member

The best comedy movie ever made! With the best movie song ever sung: For All We Know!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

has a great cast and script! this movie really and truly is funny! It's a bit dated but that's the charm with this movie!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

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Cy Howard

Director

Gig Young

Hal Henderson

Bea Arthur

Bea Vecchio

Bonnie Bedelia

Susan Henderson

Anne Jackson

Kathy

Harry Guardino

Johnny

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

It has the tact to hold back, to trust its characters to somehow fumble through to something that's not love, maybe, but will do.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 30, 2018

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

One of the best movies ever made that centers around a wedding.

Rated: 3.5/4

Mar 30, 2019

Full Review

TV Guide

Jan 30, 2018

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Jan 30, 2018

Full Review

Lori Hoffman

Atlantic City Weekly

Jan 30, 2018

Full Review

Michael Szymanski

Zap2it.com

Jan 30, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

As Mike (Michael Brandon) and Susan (Bonnie Bedelia) prepare to wed, the couple's families bring their own relationship troubles to the festivities. Susan's father, Hal (Gig Young), is having an affair, while her older sister, Wilma (Anne Meara), can't get her husband to pay attention to her emotional needs. Meanwhile, Mike's brother, Richie (Joseph Hindy), and his wife, Joan (Diane Keaton), are contemplating a divorce, to the horror of his parents (Bea Arthur, Richard Castellano).

Director: Cy Howard
Screenwriter: Renee Taylor
Distributor: Cinerama Releasing Corporation [us]
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 12, 1970, Original
Release Date (DVD): Jul 6, 2004
Runtime: 1h 46m