Modeled on his Plaza Suite Neil Simon shifted to the West Coast for California Suite four separate playlets combined that ran on Broadway 445 performances in 1976-77. Retained from Plaza Suite is Walter Matthau whose presence in a Neil Simon work is almost a requirement.Matthau pulls out all the stops again when caught in an act of infidelity as he arrives a day earlier for his nephew's bar mitzvah. What a good brother Herb Edelman was setting him up with a hooker who got totally wasted on their night of revelry. Denise Galik is the hooker and Elaine May deadpans her way through the part playing beautifully off Matthau.More physical comedy is the order of the day when two couples, husbands both medical professionals do their vacation together. Dr. Bill Cosby and wife Sheila Frazier and Richard Pryor and his wife Gloria Gifford share expenses. But everything goes right for Cosby and oh so wrong for Pryor who gets the vacation from hell.Jane Fonda has traveled west chasing her daughter Dana Plato who ran away to be with her estranged father Alan Alda. The two have differing parenting ideas, in fact place different priorities on a lot of things.Best known of the quartet is the one with visiting British couple Maggie Smith and Michael Caine. Both are actors, she far better known than he and Maggie is here for the Oscars. She's been nominated for Best Actress and we see the before and after the ceremony with them. Smith's whole life is her career whereas Caine has a lot of different and varied interests. Simon moved into Noel Coward like territory with what he wrote for Caine and Smith. She missed the Oscar in the film, but Maggie Smith won Best Supporting Actress for California Suite. The film also got nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Art&Set Decorations.California Suite because of its timeless material and situations holds up well. It is just as fresh for 2018 as it was in 1978.

This is one of those classic films labelled by some as amazing. I find the film indulgent, slow & tedious & incredibly annoying. All that whining and complaining and nasty back & forward sparring. If you can't find enough of that in the world already, then watch the movie. But if you are looking for a movie that will lift your spirits and not stress you out, avoid at all costs. I can say that comedy has evolved a lot since this period. Another reviewer criticised the portrayal of African Americans- valid point. But basically it just has this juvenile quality about it, a bunch of spoilt western prats who should know better. Towards the last half hour I found myself using the fast forward button

A bland quartet of tales via Neil Simon all set at the Beverly Hills Hotel is a West coast version of Simon's Plaza Suite. The film directed by Herbert Ross entwines the four stories that were presented separately on stage thus the film has no real climax, conclusion or resolution:it just ends. This film like so many others wastes Richard Pryor's genius, and the segment Pryor shares with Bill Cosby is an embarrassment. The scenes between Jane Fonda and Alan Alda couldn't be less interesting, in fact, the only interesting thing is that the late Dana Plato plays their daughter. Michael Caine and Maggie Smith are watchable as a couple in a third skit, though hardly worthy of the Oscar Smith received. For me, the film belongs to Walter Mathhau and Elaine May. Particularly funny is a scene of Matthau trying to put stockings on a passed out hooker. And this is one of the rare instances where Elaine May's distinctive comedic style has been put to good use on film, but 1 out of 4 does not make a worthwhile movie. Fonda fared better in Simon's Barefoot in the Park(67) as did director Ross with Simon's The Goodbye Girl(77). Say goodbye to this one.

Despite a talented all-star cast, "California Suite," which was based on a hit Neil Simon play, is a wildly uneven film. The episodic story traces several unrelated couples from across the U.S. that check into a Beverly Hills hotel. Like a comedic "Grand Hotel," the film cuts between the stories, although the editing makes no comments, ironic or otherwise, between the episodes. Actually, the often foolish, self-centered characters make "California Suite" more a "Ship of Fools" in the sunshine than a "Grand Hotel" under the palms. The original play was a follow-up to the more successful "Plaza Suite" and demonstrated Simon's shakier take on the West Coast than on the East. For the most part, the hotel guests speak and behave like the transplanted or visiting New Yorkers that they are.Jane Fonda portrays the ultimate New York snob, and her bitchy banter with ex-husband Alan Alda only underscores her arrogance and intolerance of anything that exists west of the Hudson. Alda is a New Yorker's stereotype of a Californian with pastel sweaters and perpetual tan. While a few amusing lines pass between the terminally mismatched couple, Fonda and Alda's episode is more grating than funny. However, the New York couple display Noel-Coward wit in comparison to the wasted talents and misfires in the scenes that involve Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby as vacationing doctors. The premise of two couples that arrive to find a reservation for only one has promise. However, director Herbert Ross should have studied Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd before he devised the broad, unfunny physical stunts that will leave viewers grateful that both Pryor and Cosby survived the mess and moved on to better material.However, the film does have some fine moments between comedic experts Walter Matthau and Elaine May. When Matthau arrives in LA a day early, his brother surprises him with a prostitute, who passes out from too much tequila and cannot be awakened in the morning. Of course, Matthau's wife, the always-delicious Elaine May, arrives, and the comedy moves into high gear. The best episode in the film, however, involves an English actress, Maggie Smith, and her bisexual husband, Michael Caine. The couple arrives to attend the Academy Awards, because Smith is a Best Actress nominee. While Smith has some of the best-written lines in the film, her role also has a depth and poignancy that goes far beyond the cardboard characters in the other episodes. Although Caine is equally fine, Smith's role is showier, and she won a deserved Academy Award for the part. The film's special irony is that the part of an Oscar-losing-actress won an Oscar for the actress who played her."California Suite" is one of those films in which a few superior scenes make it worthy entertainment, and the Smith-Caine episode pulls the film several notches higher than it otherwise deserves. Add the sparkling Matthau-May scenes, and there is at least one-half of a good movie. Although the Fonda-Alda episode is bearable and occasionally amusing, the Pryor-Cosby scenes are often labored and unfunny. However, with a strong finger on the fast-forward button, there is a good hour of comedy and fine performances to be had in this inconsistent film.