Hard to believe that Maureen Stapleton was only 50 when she made this movie. Charles Durning was two years older. Yet they're portrayed as a couple of frumpy and hopeless old fogies--especially her--grabbing for some last romance before they reach the graveyard. I felt also that even though most of these characters appeared to be Jewish, their ethnicity was played down too much--perhaps to appeal to a general television audience. Regardless, the story realistically portrays a woman rescued at the last moment from her family and friends' expectations. Her children want her to be a sexless grandmother-cum-babysitter living in their spare bedroom, and her sister and friends think she should be a proper widow without an emotional life. Naturally they're disappointed when she decides to live the rest of her life as a free woman who still has desires and dreams. (Durning, on the other hand, was more of a cipher. He confides that he has a wife, but nothing more is said about her. Is she an invalid? Are they living apart?) The ending was a little abrupt, but I liked the film's message that we're never too old for romance. Who would make this movie today? More important, who would go see it? Well, how about all those aging boomers who are wondering about the many loves they found, lost, or never explored in the first place when they were younger.
Review of Queen of the Stardust Ballroom
