For Pete's Sake

1974 "Zany Barbra!"
6.2| 1h30m| PG| en
Details

Henry is a woman who would do anything for her husband Pete, including borrow money so he has a chance of making his dreams come true. But now there's the loan sharks to deal with...

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NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Claudio Carvalho In New York, the housewife Henrietta Robins (Barbra Streisand) and the taxi driver Pete (Michael Sarrazin) have financial difficulties since they got married very young and Pete has not concluded the college education. When Pete receives an inside information from a coworker that the pork bellies will raise their price since the Americans and the Russians are negotiating a great business transaction, Pete needs US$ 3,000.00 to invest in the market. Henrietta decides to help Peter and secretly makes a loan with a mobster. However the price of the pork bellies fall and she is not able to pay the loan. The loan shark promises to kill Pete and Henrietta accepts that her debt be sold to a madame by a higher amount. After many problems, her debt is increased and sold to mobsters and then to a cattle thief. What will happen to Henrietta and Pete?After forty-four years from its release, "For Pete's Sake" is still a very funny comedy. Barbra Streisand shows great talent performing the role of Henrietta Robins, who gets in a sequence of troubles trying to help her beloved husband. There are many hilarious situations and the film has not aged. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Nossa, que Loucura!" ('Wow, What Madness")
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.
kenjha Struggling financially, a young couple needs quick cash to invest in pork bellies, prompting the wife to concoct a series of wild schemes to raise the cash. This is basically a vehicle for Streisand to engage in some zaniness, trying to duplicate the success of "What's Up, Doc?" a couple of years earlier. Unlike the latter film, however, this one does not have a particularly inspired script. Babs tries hard, but is unable to raise the material beyond a level of mild amusement. To pay off loan sharks, she goes through a series of jobs, including prostitution (taken rather lightly), each meant to setup hilarious situations but the payoff isn't there.
max von meyerling I didn't see this picture, FOR PETE'S SAKE, when it came out because the notion, as the picture was marketed at the time, about Barbra Streisand turning tricks to support her husband, was ugly and prima facia ugly. Now that I've seen it I have to say I'm glad I didn't waste a dollar or how ever much it cost to see a movie at the time. It is flat out awful. Really it's nothing more than a series of gags constructed for Babs that are executed on a sub- I Love Lucy level. It's strange because director Peter Yates has shown himself to be a master of very complicated mise en scene in action films like BULLET. Here it's clear that no one working on this picture has the slightest sense of humor.Pete, a cab driver, wants to be rich and has the opportunity to invest in pork bellies (see, its funny already). His wife borrows the money from a loan shark and can't pay it back. Instead of being rubbed out for not paying back her loan her contract is sold, first to a madam who turns out Babs but, guess what, she has a series of hilarious accidents and never actually has sex. So typical. Right down to Pretty Woman, Hollywood movie hookers never, ever, have sex. Then one belabored, unfunny, poorly played and poorly executed gag after another. Michael Sarrazin, as Babs' husband, is injected onto the screen at intervals for reasons neither he nor the director really understands. In the old days, when women ruled the box office, women were the biggest and most important stars. The male stars were known as leading men. They were around to give the women something to play off of. In FOR PETE'S SAKE Barbra Streisand doesn't need anyone else to play off of. As a comic she has eliminated the straight man. The results are monumentally flat. And so unfunny. Just terrible.This will make you appreciate Peter Bogdanovich all the more, his ability to produce a coherent, constantly funny comedy with multiple characters playing off each other. Even the little known I WONDER WHO'S KILLING HER NOW, with a similar structure, is a masterpiece compared to this ego trip. I have the terrible feeling that Streisand had become a monster by this time and did everything her way, and the only that was photographed here was her out-sized ego. It's not for nothing that this bummer never gets revived. Like Orson Wells she directed from in front of the camera. Except that Wells had talent. Streisand only has fans.P.S. As if one didn't have enough reason to hate these people for appearing in a crap movie, check out the huge apartment across the street from Prospect Park. In New York we hate people with great apartments like this especially if they're rent controlled.