The Movie:

An aging director taking on hip subject matter with a willful young actress - what could possibly go wrong? Such Good Friends was the result of the collaboration between the esteemed Otto Preminger and rising star Dyan Cannon, an ultra-cynical sendup that was greeted with a chorus of yawns upon its original release in 1971.

With a semi-farcical plot centering on a well-to-do housewife and mother re-evaluating her life after her husband is hospitalized, Such Good Friends came along as part of a wave of films examining women's changing roles in society at the dawn of the feminist movement. These included Barbara Loden's Wanda (1970), Richard Brooks' The Happy Ending (1969), Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969), and Frank Perry's Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) - the film that Such Good Friends most resembles in its acidic humor and privileged Manhattanite p.o.v. Where Diary devastatingly went into mental breakdown of a woman (a fantastic performance by Carrie Snodgress) who realizes her marriage and life is a farce, Such Good Friends takes on the superficiality of Manhattan society with gentler bite. Overlong and sloppy, burdened by several scenes which don't move the plot along efficiently, the movie is often kept afloat by Cannon's sympathetic acting job and the sardonic voice of screenwriter Elaine May (writing here under a pseudonym).

Preminger somewhat clumsily stages Such Good Friends as a trippy, stream-of-consciousness excursion into the vaguely unsatisfied mind of Cannon's character, Julie Messenger. At the onset, the vibrant, 30-ish Julie appears to be having it all: a fabulous apartment overlooking Central Park, two rambunctious young sons, and a good relationship with her husband, Richard (Lawrence Luckinbill), a successful children's book author and photo editor at Life magazine. Richard blames his cooled sexual interest in Julie on outside forces, such as his surgery to remove a nonmalignant mole. As Julie discovers from their physician and friend, Dr. Timmy Spector (James Coco), Richard's surgical procedure developed serious complications that require additional blood donations. Julie calls on help from her superficial, socialite mother (Nina Foch) and rounds up all the couple's friends, who summarily forget Richard and turn the hospital waiting room into a cocktail party minus the cocktails. In the midst of all this stress, Julie finds out from the Messengers' photographer friend, Cal Whiting (Ken Howard), that Richard had been carrying on a serious affair with Cal's actress girlfriend, Miranda (Jennifer O'Neill). The revelation of the affair (along with several other trysts, which Richard recorded in a coded book) puts Julie in a vengeful mood - she seduces Cal (who winds up having performance issues), confronts Miranda, then lashes out at Dr. Spector, eventually succeeding with him where she failed with Cal. When Richard's condition worsens, Julie is forced to re-evaluate her life from the top to the bottom.

Dyan Cannon's nervous energy as Julie drives Such Good Friends' prickly frisson. Her continually perturbed screen presence here supposedly came as the results of Cannon's behind-the-scenes clashes with Preminger, although in this context it works remarkably well. The character of Julie is one of those typically '70s beings forever yearning to find her true self - whatever that means. The script is sharply observant, with sophisticated jabs at self-absorbed Manhattanites that wouldn't be out of place in Woody Allen's Annie Hall period. Preminger takes the movie into some weird, not-needed excursions (a fantasy involving a nearly-nude Burgess Meredith, for instance), but for the most part this fascinating quasi-feminist exercise has survived with its acid humor intact. Another case of a movie having an undeservedly bad reputation, I suppose.

After years in vintage-movie purgatory, Olive Films put out Such Good Friends on DVD in 2011. This updated Blu Ray edition is a standalone disc originally released in 2012 as part of The Otto Preminger Collection (with Hurry Sundown and Skidoo). Along with the improved transfer from 2012, this package reinstates the film's original poster art by legendary designer Saul Bass.

The Blu Ray:

Video:

Olive Films' Blu Ray edition of Such Good Friends delivers a good transfer from an unrestored print in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Details are nicely presented, with faded yet decently saturated color, adequate light/dark balances and a fair amount of dust and specks on the celluloid. The visuals can't help but look underwhelming when compared with a pristine presentation like that on Paramount's DVD of The April Fools (1969), but it's up to the fine standards on Olive's other Blu Rays.

Audio:

The soundtrack is in weathered but decent mono, filled with pops and distortion every time characters say "s" words. Dialogue is relatively clear, however, while the music and sound effects are pleasantly incorporated. No subtitles are provided.

Extras:

None. The Blu Ray menu merely offers a simple scene selection.

Final Thoughts:

Dyan Cannon effectively conveys a sampler platter of emotions as a "perfect" upper-class Manhattan housewife who discovers her husband's infidelities while he's dying in a hospital, in 1971's Such Good Friends. Otto Preminger's direction wavers uncomfortably between farce and melodrama, making for a messy if sympathetic feminist treatise. It's a fascinating time capsule, straining at hipness, with a story that was somewhat better done in 1970's Diary of a Mad Housewife. Until that long-missing gem ever turns up on disc, this one comes recommended.

Matt Hinrichs is a designer, artist, film critic and jack-of-all-trades in Phoenix, Arizona. Since 2000, he has been blogging at Scrubbles.net. 4 Color Cowboy is his repository of Western-kitsch imagery, while other films he's experienced are logged at Letterboxd. He also welcomes friends on Twitter @4colorcowboy.