I love this movie so much

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Every once in a while, you watch a random film, and hours, days, weeks, a lifetime later, it's one you find you just never forget.This, for me, is one of those films.Flying under the radar, and IMMENSELY underrated, this one quietly showed up in 1982, and then seemed to be gone and forgotten about, by nearly everyone.Though it did have a video (vhs) release, criminally, it was never released on DVD.But now, the little film that could, is FINALLY available on DVD, as part of 20th Century Fox's Cinema Archives series.Maybe, just maybe, the rest of the world will now slowly catch on to this sneaky little gem of a movie, and find themselves remembering it hours, days, weeks.......or even a lifetime later.

Wonderful film with Neil Simon again showing that he is the master of writing.Dinah Manoff is just marvelous as the precocious 19 year old who goes to California to see the dad she hasn't seen in 16 years.The film is touching as it first shows that Matthau knows so little about his daughter (and son) but then as the film goes on, he shows all the attributes that a father shows.As Matthau's girlfriend, Ann-Margret is very good. The picture itself provides no screaming of usual Matthau antics. He is genuine here in every sense of the word.The film shows the strong bond that is formed and we're sorry when Libby takes the bus back to N.Y. At least, there is a commitment by the father to keep in touch. We also have to wonder what kind of woman he was married to that drove him away years before.

what an outstanding and heart-tugging performance by DINAH. i never miss a rerun and go out of my way to see it. i can't believe she was not nominated for something. a perfect bit of acting by her and WALTER MATHAU. my wife says, "i guess you're.... just in love". the first time i saw the film was totally by accident. i was in a dentist's office for an appointment for teeth cleaning. the movie came on in the waiting room and after it was thirty minutes into filming the nurse came out and said "next". by a stroke of luck it was the last appointment of the day. i asked the dentist, who is also a dear friend, to let me continue watching. well, we both watched. the nurse had gone and he worked on my cleaning himself. he said it was worth it.

This is a modest but affecting little film. Besides his gift for one-line zingers, Neil Simon has a way of giving his characters lines that are both surprising and believable. Dinah Manoff is perhaps a bit abrasively cooky at first, but she moderates the Brooklyn shtick after awhile and comes over as more complex and real. Walter Matthau as her bewildered but finally disarmed dad is consummately believable. Ann Margaret has little to do, but she does it with superb subtlety. Just watch how well she listens and understands