Word: arkins
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Falk's foil is a very withdrawn Alan Arkin. The two meet because their children are getting married. Arkin-a Manhattan dentist with suburban house and wife-isn't pleased with Falk's vague description of his line of work. "Dad is always making these mysterious phone calls," his son says. Falk gets into trouble in a big international monetary scheme, and drags Arkin into a mess of chases and narrow escapes...
...Arkin never holds up his end of the comedy, and at several points he lets it fall with a thud on the audience's feet. The screenplay calls for him to respond continuously to Falk's antics with a series of outraged quips and grimaces, but instead of playing a genuinely angry man or countering Falk's lunacy with his own, Arkin is stone-faced. At one point he literally falls into a stupor...
...recalls the joyous anarchy of the Road pictures; at its worst, it looks like overexposed outtakes from Gilligan's Island. Luckily, the weak sections never run on too long. Every time The In-Laws starts to stumble into oblivion, Peter Falk cocks his head, stares the manic Alan Arkin in the eye, and launches into an earnest if bizarre discourse about the travails of being a CIA agent. "The trick [of my job] is not to get killed," confides Falk, sotto voce. "That's the key to the benefit program...
...Falk and Arkin are thrown together when their respective children decide to marry. The newlyweds (Penny Peyser and Michael Lembeck) are upstanding graduates of Mount Holyoke and Yale; the dads are students of Groucho and Chico. Sheldon Kornpett (Arkin) is a very nervous man who delights in being "among the first dentists in New York to use the drill that spritzes water." Vince Ricardo (Falk) claims to have dreamed up the Bay of Pigs invasion. Sheldon wonders if Vince might be nuts, but Vince has proof of his most famous exploit: an autographed portrait of J.F.K. with the inscription...
...about freeze-dried coffee or The Price Is Right. His inventive writing could not be in the hands of a better cast. Sounding a bit like the bastard son of Bugs Bunny and Humphrey Bogart, Falk delivers his wildest speeches with a cool sincerity that bespeaks true comic madness. Arkin is the wailing violin that accompanies Falk's gravel-toned bass. Together these actors form the funniest comic team since Zero Mostel met Gene Wilder in Brooks' The Producers. Not only should the in-laws reunite as soon as possible, but they should also bring Co-Star Libertini...