Welcome back to my blog. Here’s my recommendation of a movie to check out today and hope you punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” OK, for today, let’s go back to 1983 and one of my all-time favorites: “Max Dugan Returns” with Marsha Mason, Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland and Matthew Broderick in his debut on the big screen.
“Max Dugan Returns” opens with a single mother (Mason) and her son (Broderick) and their quiet, pretty much poverty-level existence on her salary as a public school teacher. Well, Robards, who is Mason’s estranged father, slips into their life on a rainy night with … a satchel full of money he ripped off from the mob in Las Vegas.
Robards, who is the title character “Max Dugan,” claims to be dying of an undisclosed malady and want to get a final connection with Marsha and establish one with Matthew. Of course, the money affords him quite an elevated status with Broderick, but Mason, whose developing a relationship with a cop played by Sutherland, is a much more difficult sell.
“Max Dugan Returns” is simply splendid because of both the work by the sterling cast and also by the sterling writing of Neil Simon. The splurges of luxury from a new Mercedes coupe to a literal house full of new appliances and gadgets to private baseball lessons from the top hitting coach of the day (Charley Lau of the Chicago White Sox) are great, but it is the relationships and dialogue that make this one quietly spectacular.
You’ll pretty much enjoy every scene; every encounter; and every twist to the plot. You cannot go wrong with watching this film. Oh, while it’s not a “family” film, it doesn’t overwhelm you with profanity and certainly not violence.
So, I say punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” and get 98 minutes of pleasurable cinema from “Max Dugan Returns.” It is only available to rent on streaming services, so find it! Watch it! Don’t worry, you’ll thank me later for “Max Dugan Returns.”
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