Just Tell Me What You Want

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Just Tell Me What You Want
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySidney Lumet
Written byJay Presson Allen
Produced byJay Presson Allen
Sidney Lumet
StarringAli MacGraw
Alan King
Peter Weller
Myrna Loy
Dina Merrill
Keenan Wynn
Tony Roberts
CinematographyOswald Morris
Edited byJack Fitzstephens
Music byCharles Strouse
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • January 18, 1980 (1980-01-18)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2 million[1]

Just Tell Me What You Want is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Sidney Lumet. It stars Ali MacGraw, Peter Weller and Alan King, and was also Myrna Loy's final film. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, adapted from her novel, won her the David di Donatello Award for Best Screenplay of a Foreign Film. This is MacGraw's last leading role in a film.

Max Herschel, the married, wealthy, vulgar, egotistical, middle-aged head of a corporate empire, is satisfied with the somewhat casual love/hate relationship he shares with his mistress and protegee, television producer "Bones" Burton, just as it is, but she wants a more serious commitment.

The young woman attempts to extricate herself from the affair—or perhaps force her lover into taking the next, more permanent step—by dating a younger man, off-off-Broadway playwright Steven Routledge. Max, however, is not a man to accept defeat in any of his endeavors, and he retaliates with a vengeance.

The two engage in an escalating battle of wits, with Max discovering that money cannot resolve everything when he is outsmarted by business rival Seymour Berger and his grandson Mike. It leads to a comic fight between Max and Bones at New York's Bergdorf Goodman.

Cast (in alphabetical order)

Production

The film features the last motion picture performance of Myrna Loy, who plays Herschel's confidential secretary.

Interiors of the Warner Bros. Pictures release were filmed at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, with Manhattan exteriors (and the scene inside Bergdorf Goodman) shot on location.

Critical reception

References

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