Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna wrote and star in this story of two hopelessly lost souls who find one another. Each is the product of a dysfunctional home and each has struggled to find an anchor in this world. Their adult years are filled with failure and heartache and endless searching ... until they find each other.This comedy/drama is a showcase for Renee Taylor who mines much of her own life for the character of Panda Gold, a hilariously untalented woman yearning to become a star and with a stage mother (Helen Verbit) to end all stage mothers. Bologna stars as Giggy Panimba, the coddled mama's boy who also fails at everything he tries ... including entering a seminary ... with his mama (Olympia Dukakis) right behind him.They meet in a group therapy session and form an on-and-off alliance against the world that may or may not lead to a happy ending.Taylor is funny and heartbreaking as she haplessly veers from job to job, always sure stardom and happiness await her. Her night club act in which she asks the coy question, "who am I now"? while doing a terrible impersonation of Rita Hayworth singing "Fire Down Below" is so bad it's funny. Bologna is appalled and tells her the act is terrible, but nothing penetrates, and she persists in thinking herself supremely talented. Audiences are just too dumb to get her act.Co-stars include Paul Sorvino and Louis Zorich as the fathers, Peggy Pope, Ron Carey, Despo, and Norman Shelley as group members. Look fast for Adam Arkin, Candy Azzara, Eddie Barth, and Nancy Andrews.In real life, the couple won an Oscar nomination and Writer's Guild nomination for the film version of their play "Lovers and Other Strangers" and earned another Writer's Guild nomination for this film.Wonderful film.

I saw this film once when it can out in 1971 and it has been in the back of my mind all these years. A super comedy that is all the more funny because it deals with real people like you and I. No fancy settings or beautiful people, two "misfits" careen through life tied together by the bonds of love, surviving all that the world can dish out. A real jewel of a film, wish it were on VHS.

Great comedy is rarer than the unicorn. Why keep this funniest of funny films from us? How about the initial scene with the encounter group and the hyper-anxiety frazzled to the bone woman complaining about the toilet that has leaked for years on end and has driven her far beyond mad. To which another male group participant meekly offers, "Did you try jiggling the handle?"

Why isn't there a video of this hilarious film, which is seldom shown on television. One of many priceless snatches of dialogue -- PANDORA (ecstatic) Mother, last night I had my first orgasm. MOTHER: Orgasm? In my day, we didn't have them.