For Pete's Sake (film)

This article is about the 1974 film. For the 1934 Our Gang short, see For Pete's Sake!
For Pete's Sake
DVD cover
Directed byPeter Yates
Written byStanley Shapiro
Maurice Richlin
Produced byStanley Shapiro
StarringBarbra Streisand
Michael Sarrazin
Estelle Parsons
CinematographyLászló Kovács
Edited byFrank P. Keller
Music byArtie Butler
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • June 26, 1974 (1974-06-26) (United States)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$11 million (US/Canada rentals)[1]

For Pete's Sake is a 1974 American screwball comedy film starring Barbra Streisand and directed by Peter Yates. The screenplay by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin chronicles the misadventures of a Brooklyn housewife. In 1977, it was used as the basis for the Hindi film Aap Ki Khatir.

Plot

Henrietta and Pete Robbins are a young couple in Brooklyn struggling to get by on the income he earns as a cab driver. His pompous sister-in-law Helen delights in reminding them that an early marriage robbed him of a college education and how much better off she and her husband Fred are. When Pete gets an inside tip on pork belly futures, Henrietta borrows $3,000 from a Mafia loan shark to purchase the commodity. Unfortunately, its value doesn't increase as rapidly as she anticipated. When she's unable to pay her debt, her contract is sold to Mrs. Cherry, a grandmotherly-type who operates a prostitution ring. When Henrietta's initial attempts at entertaining clients prove to be less than successful, her contract is sold yet again...and again, as Henrietta fails to fulfill the requirements of each new individual to whom she becomes indebted — each time for more money — and tries to keep her new enterprises secret from her unsuspecting husband.

Principal cast

Production

The title tune "For Pete's Sake (Don't Let Him Down)," was written by Artie Butler and Mark Lindsay, and sung by Barbra Streisand.

The movie was filmed on location in Brooklyn, New York, and Los Angeles. The suburban scene at Helen and Fred Robbins' house was filmed in Paramus, New Jersey.

Critical reception

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film "an often boisterously funny old-time farce" and added "The movie may not hold together as any kind of larger comic statement, but the laughs are self-sustaining throughout...Miss Streisand's comedy range is narrow, like a cartoon character's, but For Pete's Sake operates almost entirely within that range. She's at her best in this kind of farce."[2] '

References

  1. ^ "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 44
  2. ^ New York Times review