Author! Author! (1982) on Netflix
Ivan Travalian is rehearsing his Broadway play while the backers demand rewrites. His wife Gloria walks out, and five children, four of them hers, are left in his care.
- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb6.2/106,206 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes50%
Trailer
Plot summary
Armenian-American playwright Ivan Travalian is in rehearsal for his Broadway play English with Tears, and the backers are pressing him for changes. At home, his wife Gloria leaves, and the household falls to him: five children, four of them from her earlier marriages, among them Debbie, Bonnie, Spike and Geraldo, plus his own son Igor. The producer has told the investors that the film actress Alice Detroit is signed for the lead, a claim that is not true. Ivan meets with Alice, and she tells him she is a fan of his work and would like to appear in the play. The two begin seeing each other.
Cast
- Elva Josephsonas Bonnie (as Elva Leff)
- Benjamin H. Carlinas Geraldo
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Author! Author! (1982)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dyan Cannon was originally asked to play Gloria Travalian but turned it down because she thought the character was "bitchy" and had played that kind of role before; she was then asked to play Alice Detroit and agreed because she loved the character.
- Al Pacino did not get along with director Arthur Hiller while filming. Pacino said that sometimes people not meant to be together get together in the business for a short time, and that it is unfortunate for all parties concerned.
- Screenwriter Israel Horovitz based the film on his own experience as a divorced father responsible for two of his three children, and also talked with his three children for inspiration.
- Israel Horovitz made the film's protagonist, Ivan Travalian, an Armenian American so that the character would have a strong ethnic identity parallel to Horovitz's own Jewish background.
