This film is about private detectives in New York City. It is shot on location with stars like Ben Gazzara, Audrey Hepburn, John Ritter, the late Dorothy Stratten, and others in this character driven piece. Despite some problems with the film, it comes across as an ensemble delight. Ben and Audrey are perfect together. Dorothy Stratten was murdered shortly after they filmed this movie and it's dedicated to her. She had a promising career as an actress and model but cut short by violence. There are other cast members but the film's appeal is New York City in the early 1980s where it was still gritty and fun. John Ritter does a fine job here and a world apart from Jack Tripper. Glenn Scarpelli has a small role as the son to Audrey Hepburn's character. The film is a lot of fun to watch and see over again if not for the great actors and the setting. The cast is excellent and an ensemble piece.

A gentle, wistful comedy that plays with audience expectations as much as the fates of its many characters, "They All Laughed" is a hard film to characterize but a pleasure to watch for those of us who remember its central character, the island of Manhattan, way back when.The plot, after much ambling, centers on a trio of stalkers who work at the Odyssey Detective Agency, circa 1980. They have been hired to watch over a pair of ladies suspected of straying by their suspicious husbands. We figure out well into the movie that the detectives themselves are the very people unknowingly threatening these troubled unions.The 1930s introduced the "remarriage comedy;" this could be called a "demarriage comedy." Film lovers will find much to enjoy here. As romantic comedies go, it's not an especially funny or clever film, but "They All Laughed" remains amusing throughout and quite engaging with its idiosyncratic pacing and quirky characters.Would this film pack the same punch without the tragic death of co-lead actress Dorothy Stratten just after filming wrapped? I suspect not. Like the World Trade Center, which figures in the background of several scenes, Stratten's Delores character makes for an arresting central image that's hard to miss, as much as you wish otherwise. This ices some of the humor but adds resonance about the passage of time.As far as the film's premise is concerned, a character that no doubt echoes director Peter Bogdanovich blurts out: "I don't know what I'm going to do!" Ben Gazzara's lead character, John Russo, replies: "Who does?"Gazzara is the center of the film, his quiet authority suggestive of Frank Sinatra whose songs permeate the eclectic score. He speaks in koans much of the time, and this can be annoying, except he seems plugged into a sort of wisdom "They All Laughed" espouses."I'm a charmer," is how he introduces himself, and he is.It's enjoyable watching him trade lines with Odyssey's other two detectives, played by John Ritter and Blaine Novak. Likable romantic foil Ritter does a lot of physical humor, not far removed from his Jack Tripper character on TV's then-hit sitcom "Three's Company," while Novak, a total blank to me, sticks out with his wild hair and goofy patois."Look at it this way, Chas, she's in pre-bop with the boyfriend, she's in post-bop with the husband," he says. "If she gets into post-bop with the boyfriend, she'll be in ex-bop with the husband, the case is over, we get paid, and well, then it's every man for himself."Is Bogdanovich too self-indulgent, too in love with Stratten, too caught up in the moment to explain to us the audience what's going on? Yes, and for 45 minutes we have no dialogue to tell us what it is we are supposed to be watching. But that same reticence becomes a kind of magic when you watch the film again and see how things flow so well. The challenge is sticking with this movie enough to watch it once, let alone multiple times. But it's a pretty fun ride once you make that effort.Bogdanovich calls this his personal favorite of his films, which I can't relate to. "What's Up Doc?" is a far funnier romantic comedy, for one thing. But "They All Laughed," with its springtime visions of Broadway, Rockefeller Center, and Audrey Hepburn saying little but holding our attention as she crosses Fifth Avenue looking like a cross between Yoko Ono and Jackie O, makes you care despite your understandable confusion. Like Gazzara's character, it's a charmer.

It's really a peculiar film, very engaging even if there is no real intrigue in it but I can watch it endlessly because it makes you feel happy.Why ? Well the city (New York looks superb in early summer) and the relationships between all the characters are shown with great simplicity and love. Director Peter Bogdanovich being a native born New Yorker, it's no surprise that the town is in fact the main character. Here the "Big apple" is very welcoming , very beautiful with the sun shining everywhere.It's like a nest in which are evolving all these characters. It gives the film a peculiar charm , because as i've said the plot here has no importance.Beside New York the other big attraction are the actors. Ben Gazzara, Dorothy Stratten, Patti Hansen, John Ritter... they are all perfect. I mean you have to see Patti Hansen's face as she drives a cab. That's cinema at his best , it's simple but so beautiful because it gives you an emotion. I won't talk much about Dorothy Stratten( it's so sad) but here she appears to be a very promising actress. Needless to say that her beauty illuminates the film .Really Peter Bogdanovich knew how to find and reveal such beautiful and talented girls: Cybill Shephed, Dorothy Stratten, Patti Hansen.

Considered the favorite of director Bogdonovich's own pictures, this is a very personal movie featuring his friends and characters based on his friends and himself. It's also astonishingly indulgent, which may put off many viewers (as it did upon first release.) Gazzara, Ritter and Novak play private investigators, hired to spy on a pair of married women who may be indulging in extramarital affairs. Ritter and Novak are tailing pretty, young Stratton while Gazzara has his eye on wealthy wife and mother Hepburn. During the peeking, peeping and following, other characters are woven into the mix such as the men's employer Morfogen and his efficient secretary MacEwan, sensuous cab driver Hanson, enigmatic Latin Ferrer and bombastic, frenetic country singer Camp. They bop around New York as if it's a tiny hamlet such as Mayberry, constantly running across each other and interacting, associating and cross-pollinating. Ritter, enacting the director's alter ego, goes for slapsticky laughs throughout with middling success. He tries hard, but his character isn't particularly interesting, engaging or even appealing, really. Gazzara coasts through the movie on understated charisma, allowing only an occasionally glimmer of spunk to show through. Hepburn isn't heard until halfway through. She lends an air of grace to the movie that would otherwise be absent, but also seems out of place against most of her other cast-mates save Gazzara. Rail thin, she's like a hairy Q-Tip with oversize designers sunglasses on much of the time. Stratton is truly pretty and occasionally displays a propensity for screen acting, but she has no character to play whatsoever. She's a prop. Novak is even skinnier than Hepburn and hairier, to boot! His "cool" character is frequently annoying. Camp is practically unbearable. Bogdonovich has said that she's basically playing herself throughout which is certainly no compliment! The less said about the rest of the cast the better because they are almost all really bad and, fortunately, most of them only did another project or two before disappearing from the movie camera's eye forever. Hyser and Pena being exceptions. Though the film is a Valentine to Manhattan, and parts of the city have rarely been presented so prettily lit and so affectionately displayed, the good news mostly stops there. The story, such as it is, is vague, non-involving and tiresome while the characters are alternately dull or grating. There is very little to take an interest in or root for, though there is a palpable sense of regret and suffocation where Hepburn is concerned. Music in the film ranges from classy and appropriate to intrusive and obnoxious. There's genuine sadness in the fact that Stratton is seen here playing a lovely woman, married to a lout, being followed by a detective when in real life she was a lovely woman, married to a lout, being followed by a detective and when the detective discovered she was being unfaithful, her husband killed her and then himself. This fact has been blamed for the film's dismal box office performance, but that's not the reason it failed. It failed because it is too personally specific to appeal to most people and too off-putting and self-indulgent to even bother delivering characters and plot that anyone could care about. Were "Giant" and "Rebel Without a Cause" hampered by the death of James Dean prior to their release? Did "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" tank when Spencer Tracy died soon after filming wrapped? Did people stay away from "The Dark Knight" following Heath Ledger's death? No. People actually are curious to see a movie after the star has died suddenly unless the movie is simply no good.