I Ought To Be In Pictures (1982)

A young girl (Dinah Manoff recreating her Tony award winning stage role) travels from New York to Los Angeles to meet the father (Walter Matthau) who abandoned his family 16 years ago. She wants his help in becoming an actress. Based on the play by Neil Simon and directed by Herbert Ross (THE TURNING POINT). In the 1960s and 1970s, a Neil Simon play was gold and a sure thing to be turned into a hit movie. But somewhere around the early 1980s, even though the films were based on hit plays, the movie versions floundered. This dud is one of the stinkers. The banter and the one liners aren't up to Simon's best work and when he gets "serious", he's heavy handed and trite instead of insightful. With Ann-Margret (the best thing about the movie) and Lance Guest.