BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE
(1969)
By the late
1960s, the hippy ethos of creative and sexual freedom had spread through music,
art and pop culture, filtering beyond just the very young fringe-dwellers into
mainstream society. The psychedelic drug scene had already been dealt with
head-on by films such as THE TRIP and PSYCH-OUT. It was only a matter of time
before someone in Hollywood felt brave enough to represent the new
experimentation occurring within sexual politics – and that was writer Paul
Mazursky. He’d been to one of the emerging encounter group weekends in L.A. that
offered a fully-immersive journey within one’s ‘real self’; an emotionally confrontational
yet supportive experience designed to strip you not just of your clothes but your
conventional beliefs and limitations amongst fellow truth-seeking strangers in
a group setting. It catered for a slightly older demographic than the
Haight-Ashbury hippies, appealing to those who’d already made their money and
often settled into married life but felt a deep sense of unfulfillment and cosy
suburban repression. These affluent people (you had to be to afford the workshop)
had sensed enough of the radical challenging of convention in the zeitgeist to
seek more in life and the bedroom, often not knowing exactly what or how.
Mazursky was
sincerely interested in exploring this new-found desire for self-examination
and expression and wrote a satire, a ‘comedy of manners’ as he called it which
was also his first time as a director. His background was in stand-up before
writing the screenplay for the Peter Sellers comedy I LOVE YOU, ALICE B TOKLAS,
which had previously documented the growing pains of a square person’s embracing
of the new ethos, rendering him ultimately absurd and displaced. In BOB &
CAROL, Mazursky focused more specifically this time on what happens when traditional
bourgeois values of fidelity meet the new pop psychology within established
sexual relationships. Columbia studio was scared of the material, judging it ‘too
dirty’ to be acceptable. Mazursky seduced them by arguing how palatable it
would be if the instigating couple, Bob and Carol, were played by Paul Newman
and Joanne Woodward. The studio accepted that wholesome casting would alleviate
the taint of sleaze.
Attractive
stars Robert Culp and Natalie Wood were brought on board as Bob and Carol, a
secure middle-class couple who attend a weekend therapy group. She is open to
the possibilities it offers, whereas he as a documentary-maker is initially
more cynical and removed – until his reserve cracks and his vulnerabilities are
exposed to her and the others. Such is the profound release they gain that on
returning to their normal lives, they begin to evangelise the benefits of being
honest at all costs to their conventional best friends Ted and Alice (Elliott
Gould and Dyan Cannon). This earnest desire for open communication perplexes
their friends and even extends to the waiter. Over time though, Ted and Alice
are affected by the heady air of freedom without consequences that Bob and
Carol espouse and both couples struggle to ‘let it all hang out’.
BOB &
CAROL & TED & ALICE is very funny in the way it sets up a potentially
awkward situation and allows the cast to improvise much of how it is resolved.
Even though Mazursky did rehearse the actors, there’s a pleasing sense of risk
and intimacy in the playing, often achieving that ‘cringe comedy’ atmosphere
later mined in THE OFFICE and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Whilst Culp and Wood are relaxed and charming
even when they negotiate their own inner reactions to his confession of
adultery and his inadvertent discovery of hers with her tennis pro, much of the
hilarity is courtesy of their opposite numbers. Dyan Cannon and Elliott Gould spark
off each other superbly, both deserving their Academy Award nominations as they
try to accept what Bob and Carol’s new morality is doing to their own. Gould in
particular is a revelation, especially if you’ve only seen him in those
rumpled-charm confident anti-hero roles that made him such a signature 70’s
star such as M*A*S*H and THE LONG GOODBYE. Here, he channels that offbeat charisma
into a ball of confused, uncertain anxiety reminiscent of Woody Allen’s
yearning nebbish. It’s a treat to see
him desperately attempting to convert his sudden restless energy into
negotiating sex with Cannon the night that their friends oh-so-casually drop
the bombshell of Bob’s affair. “I’m going
for a walk!” he keeps crying with frustration when she wants him to comfort
her instead.
The other
stand-out scene of Gould’s is in Las Vegas when they now have to swallow Bob’s
revelation of Carol’s own affair. Alice is doing her best to be caring and non-judgemental
of this new bitter pill of embarrassment when Ted suddenly chips with his own confession
of a business trip fling. Mazursky and the ensemble create a great farcical
build-up of tension and his blurting-out from the corner is a sublimely shame-faced
school-boy in the headmaster’s office – the antithesis of the groovy sharing
that their friends aim to exemplify.
The most
satisfying aspect of the film is that ultimately we’re shown the values of constancy
and respect; sometimes having the permission to explore is enough in itself.
This is nicely conveyed in the climactic scene that the poster alludes to - whereby
the aftermath of the Vegas soul-sharing is that the foursome tentatively admit
they ‘could’ have sex with each other’s partner and consequently end up in bed.
However, presented with the forbidden fruit of wife-swapping, the differences
in the couples’ permissive attitudes are gently smoothed like the duvet into a
level playing field of shared simple comfortability. The hesitant petting turns
into a companionable and welcome silence. They realise they have no real desire
to cross this territory into an orgy with one another just because it’s possible.
They value each other and their own partner just as they are. This tranquil
harmony leads them out of bed and into the hotel forecourt where a kind of gentle
flashmob happens, drawing strangers together to stare into each other’s souls
as in the opening workshop. It is a sweet and mature conclusion to a warm and
humorous film.
Natalie Wood
gambled her salary on BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE being a hit, and
with it becoming the sixth-highest box office grosser of 1969 she made five
million dollars as a result. Happily, it wasn’t just the cast whose belief in
the project was validated. For Mazursky this was also a landmark film to start
his directing career, winning writing awards and going on to explore the lives
of wealthy people in such movies as DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLEY HILLS. His commitment
to reflecting sexual mores as openly as the characters was further vindicated
when a TV sitcom version was pulled within two months of being broadcast, most
likely due to the kind of ruinous sanitising that the studio would like to have
applied to his film…
