Peter Falk month: Husbands

A retrospective by Brooks Rich

Three friends, Gus, Harry, and Archie, are propelled into midlife crises with the sudden death of their friend Charlie. They spend two days having fun, playing basketball, drinking, gambling, and upon returning to their normal lives finds they want more. A trip to London however proves to them that they aren't young men anymore and eventually we all have to grow up.

Husbands came out in 1970 and to be fair I don't think it ages as well as some of Cassevetes other films. I found myself kind of It was not well received when it came out and was trashed by some prominent critics, including Roger Ebert. It is a film more for cinephiles who are interested in the evolution of Cassavetes work. It is interesting to see him go from this to A Woman Under the Influence.

Falk is playing another working class guy in this. He's solid as always and there's a natural likability to him. There's a likability to everyone. The three main actors, Cassavetes, Falk, and Ben Gazzara. have great chemistry as they were frequent collaborators, Falk would bring them both along in different aspects to Columbo, check out Etude in Black to see Cassavetes play a murderous composer, and they're friendship rings true. But it's not as interesting of a film as something like A Woman Under the Influence.

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