Director: Norman Lear

Name	Occupation	Birth	Death	Known for
Paul Benedict	Actor	17-Dec-1938		A white guy on The Jeffersons
Bob Elliott	Comic	26-Mar-1923		Half of Bob & Ray
Vincent Gardenia	Actor	7-Jan-1922	9-Dec-1992	Cher's father in Moonstruck
Ray Goulding	Comic	20-Mar-1922	24-Mar-1990	Half of Bob & Ray
Edward Everett Horton	Actor	18-Mar-1886	29-Sep-1970	Prolific 1930s comedic actor
Barnard Hughes	Actor	16-Jul-1915	11-Jul-2006	High priest in TRON
Graham Jarvis	Actor	25-Aug-1930	16-Apr-2003	Canadian-American character actor
Maureen McCormick	Actor	5-Aug-1956		Marcia on The Brady Bunch
Bob Newhart	Comic	5-Sep-1929		The Bob Newhart Show
Tom Poston	Actor	17-Oct-1921	30-Apr-2007	Handyman on Newhart
Peggy Rea	Actor	31-Mar-1921		Lulu Hogg on Dukes of Hazzard
Jean Stapleton	Actor	19-Jan-1923		Edith on All In The Family
Dick Van Dyke	Actor	13-Dec-1925		The Dick Van Dyke Show
M. Emmet Walsh	Actor	22-Mar-1935		Grizzled character actor

REVIEWS

Review by Timothy (posted on 23-Sep-2007)

One of the best (and yet lesser known) post-"Rob Petrie" roles for Dick Van Dyke, a must-see for Van Dyke fans. The film has plenty of co-stars (such as the late Tom Poston), and a uniquely interesting plotline. A major cigarette company makes a "publicity" offer which is intended to "prove" that smoking is so embedded in our society that anti-smoking efforts are useless: they offer any community that can quit smoking, 100%, for one month, a one million dollar reward. They are confident that it cannot be done. In the small Iowa town of Eagle Rock (on-location filming done in Eagle Grove, Iowa) the residents all vote to win the prize to solve their town's budget crisis, and the effort is headed up by a local minister (Van Dyke), who had once quit smoking, but re-starts to show the townsfolk that they can succeed, and to be a part of the effort. Interestingly, this movie is significant in that prior to the release of this film, most anti-smoking efforts were fairly limited to advertisement by a handful of charitable organizations such as the American Lung Association; but independent efforts grew stronger following the film's brief first run. Dick Van Dyke's two most notable films of the era are family / children's films (Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and his earlier efforts in more sophisticated films did not fare so well (such as Fitzwilly); perhaps this is why there was not as much focus on this film as it deserves.

Have you seen this film? We would love to see your review. Submit your review for this film

Locate a copy of this film here.

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile

Copyright ©2008 Soylent Communications