For Pete's Sake (1974)

A cab driver (Michael Sarrazin) is struggling to earn enough money to pay for his schooling. When he gets a hot tip on the stock market, his wife (Barbra Streisand) borrows $3,000 from a loan shark but tells him she got the money from a rich relative. As the stock tumbles, the interest rate climbs as she struggles to pay the money back. Directed by Peter Yates from an original screenplay by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin, the Oscar winning writers of PILLOW TALK. This screwball comedy is flat and heavy handed with none of the charm and lightness that Shapiro and Richlin brought to their Doris Day comedies. I place the blame at the feet of Yates. Whoever thought the director of films like BULLITT, FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE or THE DEEP was the right man to direct a screwball comedy? Streisand goes into overdrive trying to make it work but when the material isn't there, it isn't there. As an actress, Streisand is always at her best when she has a strong male co-star like Robert Redford, George Segal or Nick Nolte. I've liked Michael Sarrazin in other films but here he's weak, Streisand obliterates him. With Estelle Parsons as her shrewish sister in law, William Redfield, Molly Picon and Louis Zorich.