"He's A Pistol"

bkoganbing

Pete 'n' Tillie may provide the most unromantic view of marriage ever put on the
big screen. Two players best known for comedy roles, Walter Matthau and Carol
Burnett play the title roles who are a pair of thirty somethings who kind of just
fall into marriage because they don't want to end up alone.

They have a son played by Lee Harcourt Montgomery who is taken from them.
The question is, can their marriage survive this unspeakable tragedy?

Matthau who does have a bit of wit an extension of his real persona in life gets
by with it. He's a philanderer by nature, but he always comes home.

There is some moment of high drama in Pete 'n' Tillie especially coming from
Burnett. When her son dies and her breakdown comes, you really do forget
you are watching one of the great comic talents of the female gender ever.

Comedy however did get Geraldine Page an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, a very vain woman who was the original matchmaker
for Matthau and Burnett. Burnett and Page square off after Page has a bad
moment in a police station, the best female bout since Marlene Dietrich and
Una Merkel went at each other in Destry Rides Again. Pete 'n' Tillie also got
a nomination for best adapted screenplay.

There's also a very nice turn by Rene Auberjonois as a gay friend of Burnett's
who offers her a different kind of marital arrangement with two people who
do like each other.

After over 45 years Pete 'n' Tillie holds up very well. It should because the
story is timeless.

score 8/10

bkoganbing 27 March 2018

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4106788/