First Monday In October (1981)

After a death causes a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the President's appointee is a staunch conservative (Jill Clayburgh) from California who becomes the first female supreme court justice. She immediately clashes with the cantankerous liberal judge (Walter Matthau) who has been on the court for many years. Based on the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (INHERIT THE WIND) and directed by Ronald Neame (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE). The play was first performed in 1975 with Jean Arthur and Melvyn Douglas and three years later on Broadway with Henry Fonda and Jane Alexander. The play closed after just 80 performances. Ronald Reagan's nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor who became the first woman on the Supreme Court in 1981 made the film timely and topical. As a movie, it's a bore! By 1981, Matthau's cantankerous old man act was getting tiresome and while Clayburgh is appealing, she comes across as too young for the role. They bicker, they chat, they quarrel, they bandy words about while we keep waiting for something to happen that never does. With Jan Sterling, Barnard Hughes, Martha Scott, James Stephens and Ann Doran.