Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

JackCerf A competent, routine late 60s' Hollywood sex comedy based very loosely on Ben Hecht's memoirs of his youth as a newpaper reporter. Young Ben (Beau Bridges), a horny and painfully naive small town boy, comes to the wicked city of Chicago and gets a job as a cub reporter. There he learns the rudiments of the newspaper business and, not incidentally, finds true love and gets relieved of his virginity. The girl (Margot Kidder), is a teenaged prostitute with the proverbial heart of gold who helps Ben break a big political corruption story by stealing the notebook listing the bribes from the coat pocket of a sleeping John. They live happily ever after.It's memorable only for one line. The ferocious city editor (Brian Keith) assigns the kid to go out and find a picture of an accused "sex maniac." As Ben is on his way out through the city room, the editor calls out, "Boy, do you even know what a sex maniac does?" Ben, who has no clue, stammers and blushes. The editor bellows, "A good sex maniac -- SELLS NEWSPAPERS!" True then; true now.

marcslope The first 15 minutes or so are wonderful, a rose-colored reminiscence of small-town America at the turn of the last century that suggests "Ah, Wilderness!" Then the Ben Hecht prototype, played by Beau Bridges with such innocence as to border on retardation, lights out for Chicago, and the narrative loses traction. It's quite a gorgeous, expensive production, and Melina Mercouri helps out as the madam who takes him under her wing (this was right toward the end of the movie era when prostitutes and bordellos were considered automatically titillating and hilarious, hence neither Mercouri nor any of her girls are fleshed out as characters). The always-good Brian Keith is Ben's alcoholic newspaper mentor, and other good actors mill about (Hume Cronyn, George Kennedy), but it's all color and very little forward thrust. Chicago 1910 had to be more interesting than this, and there must be more compelling stories to tell about it.

rollo_tomaso I originally saw this atmospheric turn-of-the-century comedy in the theaters in 1969, and recently saw it during the wee hours on a cable station. It still is charming and a lot of fun. Hume Cronyn is a standout in a key supporting role as a crooked politician. George Kennedy supplies a marvelous counterpoint to Bridges' wide-eyed male inguenue. And Margot Kidder nearly steals the film in her film debut as the prostitute who guides Bridges on his journey to manhood.FYI -- another reviewer mistakenly referred to this as Beau Bridges' first movie, but he was only 20 years off. As a juvenile Bridges appeaed in 3 films -- most notably The Red Pony. As a teen, he was marvelous in the Explosive Generation as high school sex-ed teacher William Shatner's classroom nemesis. In 1967, he was riveting as the crippled hero in Larry Peerce's classic, The Incident.

hillari Ben Hecht wrote a book detailing his experiences as a reporter in Chicago during the early part of the century. It is more entertaining than this mix mash of a movie that jumps all over the place. The film has its moments. However, there are too few of them to see. The colorful characters that Hecht crossed paths with are watered down in this movie.