The Goodbye People

Coney Island. Director Herb Gardner; Producer David V. Picker; Screenplay Herb Gardner; Camera John Lindley; Editor Rick Shaine; Art Director Tony Walton

Judd Hirsch
Martin Balsam
Pamela Reed
Ron Silver
Michael Tucker
Gene Saks

The Goodbye People marks stage author and director Herb Gardner's first foray into film direction. Based on his late 1960s stage flop of the same name, neither time nor the transferal of media has improved the story of three eccentric losers who band together in hopes of changing their luck.

Basically a one-set human comedy, the film centers on Arthur Korman (Judd Hirsch), a man in his 40s trapped in a job he cannot stand. To relieve the tension stemming from his inability to chuck working at a toy firm, he makes a daily early morning excursion to Coney Island to watch the sunrise. It is there he meets Max Silverman (Martin Balsam), the former owner of a boardwalk hot dog stand.

The uneasy alliance between the characters is treated in a glib fashion by Gardner.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1984. Running time: 104 MIN.

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