How Do I Love Thee? (1970)

A college professor (Rick Lenz, CACTUS FLOWER) flies to France to see his dying father (Jackie Gleason). While on the plane, he reflects on his childhood and the difficulty of being raised by an atheist father and a religious fanatic mother (Maureen O'Hara). Based on the novel LET ME COUNT THE WAYS by Peter De Vries and directed by Michael Gordon (PILLOW TALK). A potentially interesting premise yields an uninteresting movie. This being 1970, you know it's just a matter of time before the atheist comes around to the way of the Lord. Gleason isn't half bad doing a juggling act with both (mostly) comedy and drama with some assistance from O'Hara and Shelley Winters as a potential mistress. But every time Rick Lenz is on the screen, the movie sucks. His expressionless monotone deliveries sucks the life out of the movie and this is a film that needs all the oxygen it can get. The film did give me one big belly laugh but that wasn't enough to sustain me through the whole movie. With Rosemary Forsyth and Don Beddoe.