Eugene Troobnick Movies

This comedy is set in Boston in the early 1900s and tells the story of a widowed Polish immigrant who begins fearing that he has not earned a proper place in Heaven. He has been in the States many years and has since become a wealthy landlord. But his pursuit of money seems to have cost him his humanity and his chance at eternal happiness as an angry tenant points out. This so worries the landlord that he returns home to tell his daughter that he shall return to his Polish hometown to recapture his good spirit and, in accordance with Jewish tradition, earn a Heavenly reservation by insuring that his daughter marries a brilliant scholar of sacred writings. Once home, he finds such a man and brings him back to his daughter who immediately rejects him because she is determined to marry a genteel American doctor. Since the scholar now lives in the US, he must learn English and so the landlord gets him a tutor who introduces the scholar to the guilty pleasures of secular literature. When the landlord discovers the non-religious books that the scholar has smuggled into the house, he tosses the young man out. Fortunately, by this time, the daughter has taken a liking to the serious youth and helps to broaden his secular knowledge. Romance ensues and by the story's end, everyone finds happiness, including the crotchety old landlord. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Funny Lady, the follow-up to the 1968 Funny Girl which made a movie star of Barbra Streisand, picks up the character of Fanny Brice in the 1930s. Although she is a tremendously famous Broadway star, she has suffered from the stock market crash and needs to boost her finances. Even Ziegfeld, who soon will pass away, is having a hard time raising money for a show. Into this scene bursts brash young Billy Rose (James Caan), an egotistical lyricist with unrestrained ambition. He cajoles and charms Fanny into linking up with him, convincing him that he can produce a revue that will showcase her to their mutual advantage. Out of town, the show is an unmitigated disaster, and Fanny uses her professional know-how to whip the show into shape. It arrives in New York a hit -- and Fanny and Billy arrive an item. Both of their careers blossom, but even though they marry, their relationship suffers. Fanny still carries a torch for first husband Nick (Omar Sharif), and Billy, partially because of insecurities caused by Fanny's feelings for Nick, has a roving eye. In California working on a lucrative radio show, Fanny and Nick connect again -- and Fanny realizes that she is finally over him. Thrilled, she flies to Cleveland, where Billy is working on a new show, ready to commit herself totally to him -- only to find him in bed with another woman. The two part, but years later they meet again to discuss a new show, and it's clear that the chemistry between them is still there. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

The most narratively loose of Robert Altman's '70s films, California Split details the haphazard lives of two compulsive gamblers searching for that ever-elusive big score. Newly single and soon-to-be-unemployed Bill (George Segal) joins live-wire pal Charlie (Elliott Gould), as the pair moves from Fruit Loops with Charlie's hooker roommates Sue (Gwen Welles) and Barbara (Ann Prentiss) to bets on horses, backroom card games, boxing, and basketball. They make it to Reno, but Bill comes to realize that even the big score may not be the answer to the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life. For Charlie, however, that's all there is. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

In this comedy, an even-tempered fireman with a happily tepid life, finds his peaceful world disrupted when he becomes infatuated with the woman he saved from a burning building. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi