It's My Turn (film)

It's My Turn
Movie Poster
Directed byClaudia Weill
Written byEleanor Bergstein
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBill Butler
Edited by
Music byPatrick Williams
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • October 24, 1980 (1980-10-24)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$11 million[1]

It's My Turn is a 1980 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Jill Clayburgh, Michael Douglas, and Charles Grodin.

The film was directed by Claudia Weill and written by Eleanor Bergstein.

Plot

Kate Gunzinger is a mathematics professor at a Chicago university. She lives with divorcé Homer, in a comfortable but not terribly passionate relationship.

Kate travels to New York for a job interview and to attend the wedding of her widowed father. She is offered the job, though it does not look promising, as she will not be able to continue doing research. She meets the bride's son, Ben Lewin, a former professional baseball player.

Ben is married, but a relationship develops with Kate. He takes her to Yankee Stadium for an old-timers' game, and after the game they sleep together. Kate goes back to Chicago and breaks up with Homer. She returns to work, where she is greeted with a gift sent by Ben.

Cast

Production

The film's title track, "It's My Turn", played during the final credits, was sung by Diana Ross, with music by Michael Masser and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager.

The film had a tumultuous production due to conflict between Weill and producer Ray Stark. After Stark's death, Weill said he "was a real bully, and so it was a difficult situation.” Weill claimed Stark would undermine her authority in front of the crew, and overly-scrutinize her work. Later she found out that while editing the movie, Stark had hired a shadow editor to cut a different version of the film. Due to the overall experience she directed no more films outside of television.[2]

Critical reception

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 stars out of 4:

It's My Turn is one of those movies where you can almost keep a mental list of the important topics as they're ticked off in the dialogue. The people in this movie don't seem to be having conversations; they seem to be marching through current feminist issues.[3]

The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay for Eleanor Bergstein.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ "It's My Turn (1980) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
  2. ^ Joy Press. "Promising Young Women". Vanity Fair.
  3. ^ "It's My Turn :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. 1980-10-28. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  4. ^ Wilson, John (2005). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-69334-0.