User reviews

Walter Matthau stars as a surgeon who is enjoying his new-found role as most desirable bachelor around. His pal, Richard Benjamin (his wonderful droll self) points out what a cliche' this is, but Matthau doesn't care. He explains he was married young and as a virgin, and although his marriage ended with his wife's death, he wants to sample the wares so to speak and experience the sexual freedom of the 70s. The two are on staff at a small hospital headed by slightly senile Art Carney, who shouldn't be allowed to drive, let alone perform surgery. When Matthau corrects Carney's antiquated treatment of patient Glenda Jackson, he is forced to back the old guy or risk dismissal. Matthau and Jackson cross paths again, in a heated discussion about health care..and again..and again.

Jackson is divorced, opinionated and clever--everything the young women Matthau has been seeing aren't. Their first real date is like watching a comfortable couple, and ends in a truly funny bit of physical comedy ('keeping one foot on the floor'as was required in old films they're discussing). Since Jackson's ex was a serial cheater, she makes it clear she isn't interested in being just one of his many, and they agree on a two week 'trial' exclusive relationship. There is a montage of 'togetherness scenes' that seems a little too pat in the film, but the witty dialogue returns as the pair hits a snag: Matthau may be the only one who can convince a wealthy young woman (Candy Azzara) not to file a hefty lawsuit after her rich old hubby dies in surgery. Matthau has two decisions of conscience to make--is he ready for a real commitment to Jackson, and will he stand up to Carney?

This really was a delight to watch--Matthau and Jackson had great funny chemistry, and Carney is terrific as the doctor who teeters between wacky (he orders breakfast for patients be served at 5am, and lunch at 9) and sounding perfectly lucid while explaining why he wants to keep his position of power. We get to see Matthau in a dress (and it isn't a pretty sight), and his son, Charlie, as Jackson's teenager. This used to make the rounds on network TV a great deal, but it seems lost to the ages these days. It's on DVD but will likely never make it to Blu.

I remember seeing this 1978 comedy at one of the bargain matinees I took in when I was looking for a study break from my college courses. Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson do some effective Tracy-Hepburn-style thrusting-and-parrying in this featherweight romp directed by the reliable Howard Zieff (he did "Private Benjamin") about a newly widowed doctor's aggressive re-entry into the dating game. It all breezes by quickly primarily thanks to the clever script by veteran screenwriter Julius J. Epstein ("Casablanca") along with Alan Mandel, Max Shulman and future director Charles Shyer.

Dr. Charley Nichols has just come back from Hawaii after his wife's death. Upon his return, he becomes aware that he is instant catnip to any and all the single women in LA. He works in a hospital run by an increasingly senile chief-of-staff, Amos Willoughby, whom Charley has to pacify to keep his residency. Enter Ann Atkinson, a transplanted Englishwoman who bakes cheesecakes for a living and has certain concrete opinions about the medical profession, which she expresses freely on a PBS talk show. Of course, Charley is on the show's discussion panel, and sparks, as they say, fly. This leads to the standard complications about how serious Charley is willing to become about Ann. At the same time, the hospital has to deal with a potential wrongful death lawsuit from the widow of a rich baseball team owner who died at the hospital under Willoughby's careless supervision.

It's just refreshing to see such a mature yet bracing love story between two characters inhabited by actors who deliver lines with the scalpel-wielding skill of surgeons. Matthau is his usual 1970's curmudgeonly swinger and quite a sight waddling with his gangly arms held akimbo in his power walk. Away from her heavy, award-winning Elizabethan roles, Jackson is crisply sardonic and charmingly vulnerable as the feisty Ann, who thinks all doctors should aspire to be Albert Schweitzer. Art Carney plays Willoughby with predictable bluster, while Richard Benjamin provides amiable support as Charley's colleague, Dr. Solomon. It's all very compact with a few nice jabs at the greed within the medical profession. There are no extras on the 2005 DVD.

It's a shame House Calls isn't better known. Is it perhaps because the romantic leads are middle-aged, shopworn, and gun-shy, rather than oversexed teen-stars? Could be. If you're over 35, you'll probably get this comedy. If you're over 45, you're really going to get this comedy. If you're 25, wait until you're older to see it.

The unlikely pairing of Matthau and Jackson works precisely because it is so unlikely. There's a wonderful line of Matthau's that sums up what is happening between the two of them--"I like old broads because you don't have to explain who Ronald Colman is." (If that's not the exact line, it's close...)

The premise of a sub-par hospital run by incompetents rings true. Art Carney's portrayal of a senile head surgeon is absolutely brilliant. It is impossible not to laugh out loud at his delivery. Subplots, if you can call them that, are fun too, like the one with Jackson's teenage son and Matthau. Everything hits just exactly the right tone.

Okay, there's the bit where Matthau has to wear women's clothing that's a bit over-the-top and an easy mark. But, still--it's Walter Matthau in drag! It's funny!

Near-wonderful mixture of comedy, romance, and medical chaos has a 50-ish swinging-single doctor, tired of going to rock concerts with nubile airheads, dating a patient his own age whom he met on his rounds. Screenplay by Julius Epstein shows a fair amount of sophistication, though he doesn't have enough material to fill out the picture's last third, and one can almost feel the movie slipping. The subplot about the hospital being investigated for its shoddy business affairs isn't worked out satisfactorily, and it feels highly concocted anyway. Still, Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson are a terrific team, Richard Benjamin and Art Carney very funny in support. Director Howard Zieff keeps it all popping, and even when Epstein's one-liners feel like Neil Simon rejects, Zieff zips right along happily. The results are dryly engaging and occasionally quite sweet. Followed by a failed TV series. *** from ****

A great, small, simple comedy that works because of the terrific cast. And it's not only Glenda Jackson and Walter Matthau but Art Carney and Richard Benjamin. And the story actually works because all the characters are involved. There isn't any arbitrary stories. Matthau meets Jackson because she's made to wear a ridiculous head bandage provided by Carney and Matthau removes it and performs surgery on her. Carney becomes angry/upset over this and blackmails Matthau into supporting him for Chief Resident even though Carney's obviously "crack pot". Jackson and Matthau become lovers but she eventually becomes angry with him for (among other things) not standing up to Carney. That's what makes this an almost perfect film comedy: the characters, plot and situations all seem to spring naturally from the events in the plot. There's nothing forced. And the actors seem to be having a ball.

Matthau and Jackson are superb together.

There is not much of a plot to this movie. There is a wealthy baseball team owner who dies and whose wife is going to sue the hospital for neglience. Not much more than that, but .... IT DOES NOT MATTER!

It does not matter because you have some real actors giving their dialogue life, and because of the cast you have yourself some hysterically funny scenes and even if you're not cracking up laughing, you have a smile on your face.

Matthau plays Charley, whose wife recently passed away, and who finds himself the object of desire of several women at the hospital. He is delighted to taste everything on the menu available to him. Then he meets Anne Atkinson (Glenda Jackson) who, at first, is a patient in the hospital (their first scene together is very funny) and then they meet up again on a television panel discussion show, where they disagree on nearly every topic that is discussed.

Charley begins to like Anne, and vice-versa, except that she is very big on monogamy in the men in her life (her husband was a cheater) and they decide to give it a shot - two weeks of faithfulness.

I will not give away anything else, but I want to mention the chemistry that Matthau and Jackson have on screen. She is usually not the first person anyone would think of for a romantic, middle-aged comedy, but her touch with comedy is very light and agreeable. She is matched every step of the way by Matthau, who is more charming than ever. He does not have to play Mr. Sensitive or Mr. Macho to get the girl, he just has to be himself.

Art Carney is a riot all by himself as a practically senile doctor. The scene where the baseball team owner's ashes are buried at home plate is priceless. He also has a very funny scene in a parking lot with Richard Benjamin. Richard does not have much to do in this movie and more often than not is just the straight man to Carney and Matthau; the role does not tax his considerable talents, but he had to have had a good time making this comedy.

Very much recommended...8/10

PS. FYI -- Matthau presented Jackson with her first Best Actress Oscar, and Jackson presented Best Actor to Art Carney for his role in 'Harry & Tonto'..

I may be stretching it a bit to rate this film six stars. And it gets that rating mostly for the fine performance of Art Carney as Dr. Amos Willoughby. Glenda Jackson is good as Ann Atkinson. While Walter Matthau isn't bad as Dr. Charley Nichols, his character is missing the zip he usually brings to comedy. I think that may be due to a very weak screenplay.

For a comedy, this one is quite lame, with little humor other than an occasional smile. The romance is the best part as Charley settles down and gets very comfortable with Ann. One can see and sense that happening in a middle-aged couple that hit it off. I think Matthau is supposed to be playing an MD a few years younger than his true 58 years here. Jackson is about on target as a 42-year old divorcée.

The humor in the hospital was so-so. A good screenplay could have made much more out of this. Again, with the march of time, movies about ineptitude and incompetence of hospital staff, doctors especially, aren't likely to set too well with most audiences of today.

when I know that Walter will never grace another set.I was in my 30's when I first saw this sweet,endearing and unabashedly romantic film.I loved it from the first scene,and all the way through to the end.Art Carney was his usual daft self; Glenda matched Walter step for step in the witticisms;and Richard Benjamin supplied the sarcastic voice of reason that he does so well.Along the way there were many actors whom we all recognize,doing their usual brilliance. There are a couple of lines in the movie which my SO and I have used throughout the years,but I won't say anything about them here.I'm pretty sure you will know which two I am talking about. Just get this movie.Make some popcorn,grab your squeeze(if he is as sappy as mine is,for which I am thankful),and enjoy this standout romantic comedy from the 70's. You will not be disappointed. However,I have the feeling that I am preaching to the choir here because anyone who loves Walter will already own it.I'm very glad it's out on DVD now,finally.

A tediously unfunny, thoroughly predictable (complete with the two leads arguing-and-making-up for a "happy ending" in crowded city streets) romantic comedy, which can't be saved even by Matthau's unforced likability. Uninspired script, almost no laughs delivered.

HOUSE CALLS was an amusing 1978 comedy about a widowed doctor (Walter Matthau) who now wants to play the field but can't help but be drawn to a patient of his (Glenda Jackson) who refuses to be just another notch on his bedpost. Matthau likes the woman but does not really want to make the commitment that she insists upon so he agrees to date her exclusively for two weeks and then make a decision as to whether or not he wants to commit; however, other complications make it difficult for Matthau to make a decision when the two weeks are up, even though he is clearly in love with the woman. Matthau and Jackson have surprisingly effective chemistry as a screen couple and are given strong support from Richard Benjamin, Candice Azzara, Dick O'Neill, and especially Art Carney as the inept and senile Chief of Staff at the hospital where Matthau is employed. Matthau even has a brief scene with his real-life son, Charlie, who appears as Jackson's son. This engaging comedy still holds up pretty well after all these years. If you've never seen it, it's worth the rental.

Matthau ostensibly plays a surgeon but it's kind of just an excuse for him to play a ladies' man character and for the characters to deliver medical puns.

Matthau's wife of decades recently died, but he might have been a lifetime bachelor for all you can tell. He doesn't skip a beat and begins going around with every woman who will give him the time of day. Really just an excuse to commit the novelty of 70s sexual liberation to film.

Apparently this lifestyle doesn't satisfy him and he strikes up a liaison with a short-haired immigrant who, while not exactly homely, is no knock-out, but at least she's age-appropriate and can hold her own in a conversation.

The performance is all over the place, with Matthau often acting like a jerk (or maybe just like a husband in a long-married couple?) and his new flame seeming to have almost no problem with whatever he does. I don't know if the film is trying to say middle-aged divorcees are desperate or if it's saying unmarried doctor's are so very desirable that they can do whatever they like and their partners don't care.

Anyway, it must be something like that if it's anything, because the romance isn't well-developed. The Matthau character makes a few jokes and argues with her a few times - true love?

There's also a bit about Matthau being forced by the circumstances into nominating an incompetent, mean, and senile older doctor to be head of the hospital's staff because otherwise there's a real chance he might lose his job at the hospital. On the other hand, he's continuously being urged not to do it as if he has any reasonable choice. Then it tries to shove some sort of morality tale about standing your ground and being your own man. Unwarranted and also unrelated to the romance.

Watchable but not very coherent or meaningful. The performances are the only redeeming quality. The doctor's girlfriend character can really talk and keeps poise despite all her hardships. It's a STRANGE direction for the performance to take, but it's well-done. The senile old chief of staff is funny as the a demanding and wily, yet incompetent boss, who only cares about the old boys' club and keeping power.

Portnoy and Matthau have some moments, but mostly it's really bad dialogue.

Good little airheaded film, but I can't in good conscious recommend you go out of your way to see it.

Honourable Mentions: Gross Anatomy (1989). Some guy in his late 20s or something decides to go for medical school and makes friends and strikes up a romance there. More serious yet also a more compelling and integrated comedy about hospitals than this one.

"House Calls" is a wonderful romantic comedy that can best be described as "how they used to make them." It stars Walter Matthau (in one of his best roles) as a recently widowed doctor who goes out on the dating scene again and hits paydirt as he seems to have a different woman every night. He then meets hospital patient Glenda Jackson and soon develops a relationship with her. But it's one that will be severely tested as she informs him she is a one man woman and expects him to be a one woman man.

This is a sweet, very funny film also starring Art Carney as the senile hospital administrator and Richard Benjamin as Matthau's friend and fellow doctor. It's a must see for any Matthau fan or any fan of light comedy.

You won't be disappointed.

it is a brilliant film. scene by scene, word by word. not only for the smart script or for great acting - both interesting ingredients of movie but for the real seductive chemistry between the leas actors. sure, it is the Hepburn- Tracy recipes but the taste is different. Glenda Jackson does a remarkable job and Walter Matthau use with grace the small details in his personal manner. charming and clever, old fashion and modern, bottle for the flavor of a kind of lost perfume, it is pure delight. Art Carney is one of splendid pillars of humor and the mixture between couple problems and ethic dilemmas is explored with rare art.

This film is very much a tailor made vehicle for Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, allowing for both to do on screen what they've done many times before.

They are both playing to their strengths massively, and while neither role is a particular strength for them, they have nice chemistry, the script holds up well enough, and it makes for a fun outing overall.

Is it my favourite Walter Matthau film, no, not really. But it passes the time, and the charm of both leads carries this film over perhaps some of the slower moments along the way.

If you are a fan of Matthau, or be reminded that Jackson did more than just the Cleopatra sketch with Morecambe and Wise, this is decent enough.

Late one night on Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" Show, I watched Tom ask his guest Henry Morgan what he considered to be 'perfect.' Morgan responded, "Anything with Glenda Jackson." And although I wouldn't consider this film to be perfect, it does bear out that notion very well. I was about to use the cliché' about Hollywood not making pictures like this anymore, but then I just saw, "Up in the Air," another intelligent film about 2 people over the age of 35 who fall in love. That's where the similarities end, though. "House Calls" is just sheer fun watching 2 pros like Matthau and Jackson hit it off and seem completely natural while they're at it. I saw this film in the theater in 1978 (at the ripe old age of 18) and it took me another 20 years to get all of the jokes. Any film that can make punch lines out of 1920's tennis great Bill Tilden, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain wouldn't play too well at the megaplex these days. One other thought: the original theatrical release featured a 'walk on the beach / fall in love' montage set to The Beatles/George Harrison tune, "Something." It seemed a bit forced at the time, but that song has since been swapped out for a rather generic Henry Mancini music cue for subsequent home video and cable release. Too bad, because that scene just lays there now, another victim of music licensing Hell.

Matthau is a widowed hospital doctor enjoying his single status and the footloose and available nurses on the staff whilst colleague and friend Richard Benjamin looks on with amusement and amazement. Their boss is hard-of-hearing going on senile Chief of Staff Art Carney who is up for re-election to that post.

Matthau is content playing the field without commitment until he meets single mother Glenda Jackson who insists upon being the only woman in his life while she is in his life. At the same time, he comes under pressure to respond to the amorous advances of a potential litigant in a malpractice suit, and to support the shambolic and incompetent Carney in his attempt to be re-elected Chief of Staff.

This is a superior old-fashioned romantic comedy graced by four Grade-A actors and an excellent supporting cast working with a first-rate dry, caustic and sarcastic script. Carney steals every scene he's in and, in the parlance of IMDb, has us rolling on the floor laughing out loud whenever he appears on screen. We are otherwise entertained by the on-off relationship of the two leads and various sub-plots.

Lacks the ambition to be a great film, but remains one of the best of its kind and watchable and re-watchable for its comedic value alone. Deserves more attention than it seems to have received and well worth the cost of the DVD or video cassette.

Pay no attention to dispeptic, angst-ridden critics who find this kind of fare unfunny and out of favor. (Well, maybe it is out of favor.) Who cares, it's funny. House Calls is a thoroughly enjoyable tale of mis-matched, middle-aged singles working their way toward romance (or a loose approximateion thereof). No car chases, space ships, or wild sex antics here. Instead, a cast of likeable people (Matthau, Jackson, Richard Benjamin, et.al.) and the great Art Carney as one of the more incompetent physicians ever portrayed on screen. The film puts a smile on your face and keeps it there. Ambitious? Of course not. The stuff of sitcoms? Yeah (in fact, it became one). Enjoyable? You bet. This is one of those films that reminds you how much fun it can be simply to sit down and be with old friends.

Walter Matthau is best remembered for the long series of comedies he did with his equal comedy partner Jack Lemmon from THE FORTUNE COOKIE to THE ODD COUPLE II. But people tend to forget that in the late 1970s he appeared with another partner in two films - a female partner. This was Glenda Jackson, the English double Oscar winner, who demonstrated her comic abilities against Matthau's first in HOUSE CALLS and then in HOPSCOTCH. Matthau's role was slightly larger in both films, because his characters were more central to the plots, but the chemistry between them was quite good. If you ever want to see two pros demonstrating how sexual intercourse can be crazily funny watch Walter and Glenda as Dr. Charley Nicholson and Ann Atkinson experimenting to see if two people could have sex on a bed under the old movie code rule of the two parties each having one leg on the floor! Never has sex been looked at from such a clinical and mechanical point of view.

Matthau's Charlie has just been widowed before the film began. He has only had one woman in his life - his wife. So now he's the eligible bachelor. He also is the leading surgeon in the hospital he works out of, but the chief surgeon is Dr. Amos Weatherby (Art Carney). Carney is apparently senile (there are moments later in the film that show he turns his senility on and off - see the scene where he rams Richard Benjamin's car). Amos is up for re-election (Charlie is his closest competitor for the post - if he wants it). However, Amos manages to convince Charlie to let him keep the job for reasons of self-esteem.

One day Charlie notices Ann in the hospital. She has had a slight accident and is resting in bed, but Amos has put her into a cage like apparatus (which Charlie remarks has not been used since about 1920). He gets her out of the device, and soon is romancing her. She joins the staff of the hospital, but she is critical of Charlie's willingness to cater to Amos, and she is critical of certain selfish tendencies she sees among the doctors in the hospital.

Amos' bungling causes the death of a wealthy patron of the hospital (Lloyd Gough), who owned a baseball team (his greatest innovation being separate admission costs for double headers). Amos tries to calm down the young widow of the team owner, delivering the eulogy at the burial service (the line in the summary above is the peroration line of the eulogy). However she is still determined to sue (her lawyer Thayer David says the hospital is the most incompetent he's ever seen). So Amos suggests that Charlie romance the widow to satisfy her from that expensive lawsuit. But how will Ann react to this? The film is quite amusing, and was so successful that besides causing a sequel for Jackson and Matthau, it led to a television series as well.

Every avid movie fan has a few films that are their "secret gems" - movies that not everyone knows about but ones you will recommend they see with great enthusiasm...."You really have to see this...you will love it. House Calls is just such a film and the reasons are two- fold...Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson.

This is one of two films the pair made together....the other is a second of my 'secret gems," called Hopscotch and again, it clicks because of the chemistry between the two, coupled with wonderful supporting casts and great dialogue.

The tragedy is that there weren't more movies involving these two. It is hard to imagine, on paper, a romantic comedy that matches Matthau and Jackson. Matthau has the looks of a basset hound, but incredible comedic flair. Jackson has played so many roles but romantic comedy doesn't come immediately to mind when her name is mentioned....until people see these films.

Like so many here, I can watch either of these movies over and over and still love them both deeply. You really HAVE to see both. You won't be disappointed.

House Calls is a nice romantic comedy about two mature people finding each other the second time around. Of course both Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson have spent a lot of time looking especially Matthau.

Matthau is a doctor at Kensington General Hospital in Los Angeles who is just back from a leave of absence for a few months. He's a widower and after the proper mourning period has gone a nice hedonistic binge in Hawaii and is now back. He spots Jackson as a patient at the hospital and sees what he considers an egregious wrong done by her doctor. Matthau corrects it and earns the wrath of the chief surgeon Art Carney.

Jackson is a divorcee with a teenage son who left her husband because she was tired of him pursuing as she puts it 'the all American humping record'. They're different people but Jackson and Matthau hit it off even though the road to romance has a few potholes.

House Calls is as much a romantic comedy as a satire on American medicine. It's a subject that Matthau and Jackson have very diametrically opposed views. Jackson thinks that all doctor ought to be Albert Schweitzer and that just doesn't happen in the real world.

No budding Schweitzers at Kensington General. Art Carney is absolutely brilliant as the over aged Chief of Surgery who is having touches of senility, but won't retire. Funny, but a bit frightening as well. I suspect there are more Carneys out there than one would like to admit.

Some of the other staff includes as doctors Richard Benjamin, Gordon Jump, and Dick O'Neill. Candice Azzara has a juicy role as a widow wanting to sue for malpractice on the death of her husband. Guess who gets the dirty job to woo her a bit?

House Calls succeeds quite nicely as romance and satire not an easy combination to pull off.

After his wife's death, an aging surgeon begins an active love life, meets a bawlingly witty middle-aged divorcee and has difficulties with the senile head surgeon.

Matthau, Jackson and Carney do their best efforts to deliver laughs into this likeable comedy, switching between romance and blackly comic (and often unwise) attempts at medical satire á la "The Hospital". At least as much heavy-going as it is funny - but it is very funny at its wisecracking best.

I don't know what it is about this movie, the charisma of the two leads, their chemistry on screen, the chance to see Matthau's real-life son (you can't miss him)or Art Carney's performance but I love it. I've seen it a few times and never tire of watching it again. Rent and enjoy.

Dr. Charley Nichols (Walter Matthau), a surgeon at Kensington General Hospital, has recently lost his wife, but returning to work after a three months vacation. Talking to his good friend Dr. Norman Solomon (Richard Benjamin), thanking him for taking over while he was away. Always being faithful to his late wife, he really now wants to live the sweet life.

Nichols lives up to his "promise" having lots of one night stands. But all is not well at Kensington, the leading doctor Amos Willough is getting quite old, and he's showing signs of senility. He still operates though, using methods used many years ago. That is bad luck for patient Ann Atkinson (Glenda Jackson), after Willoughby's old-fashioned treatment, she's wearing something looking like a boxing protection, making her unable to talk. Nichols sees this, and though Solomon advices against it, he operates Ann, who now can leave the hospital.

Willoughby gets real mad at Nichols, and accuse him of stealing his patients, threatening Nichols that he would fire him, if he doesn't recommends that he can continue his job for five more years.

By coincidence Nichols meets Ann again. Though it conflicts with his new sweet life he is willing to give a relationship with Ann a chance in a period of two weeks.

It all looks very promising, but something goes wrong at the hospital. A patient, Harry Grady (Lloyd Gough), a very rich patient, dies during operation, his wife Ellen threatens with a lawsuit. As she has a soft spot for Nichols, Willoughby wants him to persuade her not to do such a drastic thing, no matter how.

Will Nichols be able to convince Ellen, will this harm his chances with Ann, will he be fired or will he recommend Willoughby for one more period.

This is a really smart rom com from 1978 directed by Howard Zieff, and he has a completely wonderful cast. A film that shows that you can tell a story without changing camera positions every five seconds. Walter Matthau was a legend. And the music is by Henry Mancini.