Little Murders

1971 black comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: No.

This is the type of fun and subversive dark comedy that could only be made in the seventies.

There are some terrific performances here, and they all seem to get their chance at some outrageous monologue. Doris Roberts and John Randolph play Elliott Gould's parents and are both great. Gould's great, too, and so is his love interest played by Marcia Rudd. Donald Sutherland comes in and blows the doors off the joint as he officiates a wedding, but then director Alan Arkin comes in for about five minutes of baffling screen time and delivered this ultra-eccentric character who just about made me wet myself. Blackouts, random shootings, obscene phone calls. I'm not really sure what it adds up to now, and I'm not sure what it would have added up to in 1971, but I dug it.