Where's Poppa?

Back in July, TCM did a programming tribute to the late Carl Reiner, running a couple of movies that I hadn't seen before. This gave me the opportunity to watch Where's Poppa? recently, and finally do a post on it.

George Segal plays Gordon Hocheiser, and the movie starts with his morning routine in his Manhattan apartment. Part of this routine involves getting breakfast ready for his mother (Ruth Gordon). Dad died some years back, and Mom is now suffering from dementia although it's not called that in the movie. Gordon cuts up mom's orange, and she complains that it's only cut into four pieces, not the six that she likes, a sign that she can be a bit demanding.

Well, a bit demanding is putting it mildly. Mom keeps wondering where "Poppa" is, making life extremely difficult for Gordon, and aready having driven off multiple care nurses. But it's not just Gordon's home life that's a mess, as the lack of sleep and running around caring for Mom has made it harder for him to function properly in court, as we see with the trial where he's currently a defense attorney.

Gordon is interviewing new nurses to take over the job and get Gordon some relief, and when he meet Louise (Trish Van Devere), he knows he's got the right nurse. Of course, it's the right nurse for Gordon as he falls in love with her at first sight. Gordon brings Louise home, and Mom bollixes everything up as she's afraid of this strange woman.

The obvious solution is the difficult decision to put Mom in a nursing home, but there's a catch. Gordon and his brother Sidney (Ron Leibman) promised Dad on his deathbed that they would never put Mom in a home. Heck, Gordon has actually had thoughts of killing mom, a la Throw Momma From the Train. Not that Sidney would go for that either. And Sidney also has a wife who has no sympathy for the situation, not even wanting her husband to help Gordon out in an emergency.

Where's Poppa? goes on like this for about 90 minutes, purporting to be a black comedy. Unfortunately, I found the whole thing grating and had a whole bunch of problems with it. First, there surely have to be nurses out there who understand dementia, even back in 1970 when the movie was released. Louise, in her defense, says that her references are poor, but you'd think the agency would send nurses who could handle dementia patients.

Second, a lot of the stuff that happens away from Mom feels like it doesn't necessarily fit into the movie and is often not funny. Neither of the trialsat which Gordon is a lawyer works (watch for Rob Reiner as a defendant), but even worse is the indignity Sidney has to suffer. He walks through Central Park to get to Gordon's apartment, and gets waylaid repeatedly by a gang of muggers who, in one case, force him to commit rape. None of this works at all.

Still, some people may enjoy this sort of stuff, so as always, watch and judge for yourself.