At Long Last Love (1975) review

It's a Thirties Musical Throwback, with plenty of cheery partner swapping (and nods to Ernst Lubitsch, George Stevens and Sir Noël Coward): jaded millionaire Michael Oliver Pritchard III (Burt Reynolds) flies out of his Rolls-Royce into the arms of singer Kitty O'Kelly (Madeline Kahn) while broke heiress Brooke Carter (Cybill Shepherd) becomes involved with gambler Johnny Spanish (Duilio Del Prete) ... and then they switch lovers, there's some jealousy but everything turns out just fine in the end (ta-da!).  This was slaughtered by the critics upon release and even appears on several "worst films of all time" lists (Esquire's John Simon wrote a scathing review) and I'll admit it has its share of problems: it goes through the motions but doesn't have the same feeling of joyfulness as the movies it's paying homage to, it's questionably cast (none of the leads are particularly skilled at singing or dancing) and a couple jokes simply thud.  But, in its defense, it's quite baffling to get worked up over such an offbeat movie that has the always-dependable Kahn performing "Find Me a Primitive Man," hot-to-trot Elizabeth (Eileen Brennan) actively pursuing stubborn chauffeur Rodney (John Hillerman) and many great songs by Cole Porter.  According to Bogdanovich, this inspired Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, which totally makes sense.