Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

DKosty123 The balancing of Lily Tomlin and Art Carney as the stars of this feature is a brilliant idea for a team. Lily's whims bounce off Carney very well. While Carney is no youngster here, age has never bothered his acting. He is great.Robert Altman wanted thee 2 to star in this detective noir type of film. there is little reason to doubt this would work, and it does. I really enjoy watching these 2 pros work together and a strong script and story make it go smoothly,The coincidence is Tomlin looking for her kidnapped cat, just a couple of years after Carney had a cat in his brilliant film "Harry & Tonto." This movie is much more serious but there are several spots where the humor shows brightly through. Bill Macy from TV's Maude is one of several very good supporting actors in the cast.The Late Show is a very good movie.

dougdoepke Inventive blend of humor and gumshoe. Carney's an over-the-hill keyhole peeper, while new-age Tomlin can't settle on any identity. All in all, it's a great send-up of all those tough-guy private dicks of the 1940's. But don't try to follow the murder plot, which has more little twists than a mountain road. Actually, more than a whodunit, the story's about two lonely people managing to overcome personality and generational differences. There's that, plus hints that old Ira's (Carney) ulcers may have failed, but the glands are still working. As the odd couple, Carney and Tomlin shine in low-key fashion, which is as engaging as it is offbeat. There were a lot of these Chandler-Hammett spoofs at the time, (e.g. The Black Bird {1975}), but none are more imaginative than this-- after all, how many tough guys ride buses to work, or are hired to find a missing cat. Then too how many other send-ups can stand on their own apart from the spoofing format. Cleverly, this one can—as a poignant character study that somehow works. Kudoes Robert Benton for coming up with a truly novel approach to familiar subject matter. The result is both amusing and touching.

Lee Eisenberg I actually found "The Late Show" a little confusing. True, there are some funny scenes, as detective Art Carney and Hollywood connection Lily Tomlin have to loosely team up to solve a murder. Much like in '40s film noirs, certain people often meet each other and start shooting. But I recall that the movie tries to present itself as a comedy, while it comes across as more of a detective story; the bulk of the humor lies in Carney's and Tomlin's personalities occasionally bouncing off of each other.Mind you, it's not a bad movie by any stretch, just a strange one to advertise as a comedy. Maybe with Lily Tomlin alone, it would have been a full-scale comedy. Also starring Bill Macy.All in all, it looks like Lily found a sign of some kind of life in the universe!

dwdan I love this bittersweet story. I agree with other commentators that plot is not what drives this tale forward: it reaches a point where it's not longer important who did what to whom and why. What is important are the character portrayals, which are handled deftly by Art Carney, as aging private eye Ira Wells, and by a ditsy but lovable flower-child leftover played by Lily Tomlin. The supporting cast members are excellent.The other thing this little film has is atmosphere, in spades. It's 1970s L.A., with echoes of 1940s Raymond Chandler L.A. And director Benton makes good use of certain small iconic bits like the vast mountain of burial vaults, in the cemetery where we first meet the three principal characters, and the static last shot of an L.A. bus stop bench with Boris Karlof's Frankenstein face advertising the Hollywood wax museum.And finally: the title theme is a hauntingly moody torch song ("What Was is Just What Was"), which ought to be a jazz standard--right up there with "Laura." I love this movie and watch it once every few years, ideally late at night with a drink in hand.