John T. Ryan FOLLOWING THE GREAT success, box office and critical acclaim of Director Peter Bogdanovich's WHAT'S UP, DOC? (Warner Brothers/Saticoy Productions, 1972), the World took notice of Miss Barbara Streisand, not only as a singer, but also as a comedienne. Her teaming with Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn,Kenneth Mars, Sorrell and Austin Pendelton (among others) under the auspices of Mr. Bogdanovich proved to be a game changer.NOT THAT THIS feature film of a couple of years later was quite on the same level, nor was it done in the same genre. Whereas WHAT'S UP, DOC? was true 'Screwball' in the 1930's sense, FOR PETE'S SAKE was more along the lines of situational, or 'Sit Com', as we would call it today.THE STORY LINE, such as it is, concerns a rather contrived plot in which Pete Robbins(Sarrazin), Husband, drives a cab in order to support himself and Henrietta (Streisand), wife; while at the same time that he is attending college, seeking his sheepskin. The Mrs. is suddenly overcome with guilt and decides to help out by seeking fund$ to invest in the Commodities Market to purchase futures in Pork Bellies. (Do you get that, Schultz?) AMONG THE SCAMSS that Henrietta (Henry for short) explored was that of prostitution. Great comic situations are created in scenes involving the 'Madame', Mrs. Cherry (Molly Picon).OTHER LITTLE VIGNETTES of inspired comic interactions are fairly well distributed throughout the film. Our favourite is a parody and homage to the then recent film, THE FRENCH CONNECTION (D'Antoni/Schine-Moore/20th Century-Fox, 1971).,It involved Barbara, a very tenacious Police Dog/German Shepard and interplay with the opening and closing of subway train doors.ONE OTHER QUALITY wort mentioning is that the movie is very New York specific; both in locale and feel. That makes for some 'attitude', eh Schultz?

preppy-3 Henrietta (Barbra Streisand) and Pete (Michael Sarrazin) Robins are happily married but not rich. He drives a cab for a living when Henrietta struggles to pay the bills. Somehow they're able to have a maid (Vivian Bonnell) who comes in a few times to clean up. Then Pete finds out that the US and Russia are going to make a deal on pork bellies. If he invests he could become rich--but he needs to put down $3,000 which he doesn't have. Henry borrows it from a loan shark--but the pork belly deal doesn't go through and Henry has to do various "hilarious" jobs to pay him back.The script is weak and most of the humor falls flat (and I think it bombed at the box office) but this is OK to watch. Streisand gives it her all and she manges to make some of the very weak lines seem funny with her readings. I never thought she could do comedy till I saw this movie. Sarrazin is super sweet as her husband and is a likable guy. Bonnell is the token wise-cracking black woman but she still manages to be funny. The only casting misstep is Estelle Parsons as a VERY annoying cousin of Pete. She's supposed to be annoying but funny but comes across as a mean, cruel witch. Just ONCE I wanted Streisand to slap her.This is mostly ignored by Streisand fans but it's not her worst movie ("The Mirror Has Two Faces" is). Worth catching. And Streisand DOES sing a song during the opening credits.

helpless_dancer Lightweight romantic comedy featuring the always delightful Babs as the put upon housewife who goes all out to put hubby into a higher tax bracket. Fairly funny in spots, dull in most: the slapstick was a tad overdone for my tastes. She did a better job in "What's Up Doc?"

arturopanduro Barbra Streisand shines as a woman helping her husband (Michael Sarrazin) get through school, whatever it takes. What takes place is very funny because he has no idea what she does all day as he's working as a cab driver in New York City. She keeps all of her hilarious misdeeds from him, hoping to be able to make the money he needs for school. She'll do anything...all for Pete's sake. My rating: 8