California Suite is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Herbert Ross, with a screenplay by Neil Simon adapted from his own 1976 play of the same name.
Four groups of people are staying at the famous Beverly Hills Hotel. They are:
- "Visitors from New York": Hannah Warren (Jane Fonda), a well-to-do Manhattanite—she's apparently a professional but the movie never specifies what she does—has made a hurried trip to L.A. to retrieve her 17-year-old daughter Jenny (Dana Plato), who has run away from home and is now staying with her father, Hannah's ex-husband Bill (Alan Alda).
- "Visitors from London": It's Oscar night, and British actress Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) is up for Best Supporting Actress. She has flown in for the ceremony along with her husband, antiques dealer Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine). All is not well in their marriage.
- "Visitors from Philadelphia": Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau) has come to the West Coast for his nephew's bar mitzvah. His wife Millie (Elaine May) isn't due to arrive until the next day, which gives his sex-obsessed brother Harry (Herb Edelman) a chance to hire Marvin a hooker named Bunny (Denise Galik) for the evening. Things subsequently go awry, however.
- "Visitors from Chicago": Doctors Chauncey Gump (Richard Pryor) and Willis Panama (Bill Cosby) are vacationing together along with their wives Lola (Gloria Gifford) and Bettina (Sheila Frazier). Their visit to Los Angeles starts with their rental car overheating on the freeway, and things go downhill from there.
Maggie Smith, who plays an actress nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, actually did win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this movie.
Tropes:
- The Alleged Car: Chauncey and Willis did not do a good job picking a rental. The car overheats on the freeway. They fix that problem, only to wind up locking the keys in the car when Chauncey slams the hood on the car, which somehow locks the doors. Later, on the way back from the restaurant, they crash the car when the brakes fail.
- Anthology Film: Four separate, unconnected (apart from geographical proximity) stories about visitors to the Beverly Hills Hotel.
- Bandage Mummy: Bettina sprains her ankle playing tennis...Bettina accidentally slams her tennis racket down on her husband's head...Lola slams her head into the medicine cabinet in the room and gives herself a confession...Chauncey and Willis's ridiculous fight sends Chauncey crashing through the glass door...in their last scene all four are swathed in bandages and casts as they stagger through the airport on the way out of town.
- Book Ends: Begins and ends with Diana on the plane, having to watch her own movie.
- The Cameo: James Coburn appears in the film-within-a-film as Diana Barrie's co-star.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Hannah is startled to learn that Bill has given up vices like drinking and smoking after moving to California to write for the movies. She starts smoking up a storm as it comes time to decide what to do about Jenny, telling Bill "I can't be expected to give up my daughter and cigarettes in one day."
- Curse Cut Short: An enraged Chauncey gives Willis a check for the damages.Chauncey: I am writing you a blank check, you fill it out and shove it up your—
Willis: Hey hey hey! Don't use that language in front of the ladies!
Chauncey: The ladies are unconscious, they can't hear us! - Dramatic Irony: Millie, observing Marvin's bizarre behavior and his strange reluctance to let her go into the other half of the suite, says "What's the matter, you got a girl in here?" Marvin laughs a fake laugh and says "That's right, I got a beautiful blonde in my bed!" He does have a beautiful blonde in his bed, namely the hooker who passed out after drinking too much tequila.
- Fake Action Prologue: The opening scene features a man and a woman in a plane in an extremely erratic flight over the Himalayas, with the plane swooping up and down as the man struggles not to crash it. It turns out to be a scene from Diana Barrie's movie.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Marvin wakes up wincing from a hangover after his night of drinking. Things get even more unpleasant when he finds the hooker still in his bed, passed out cold, with his wife due to arrive from the airport at any moment.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Seemingly deliberately lampshaded by Sidney. Diana, who is starting to suspect the truth and is asking pointed questions, asks him what he does with his afternoons when she's working. He says "I lead a very gay life." (By 1978 hardly anybody was using "gay" in its original sense.)
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: The opening credits name the movie as "Neil Simon's California Suite".
- Incompatible Orientation: A particularly unfortunate case in that Diana and Sidney are already married. Diana, who apparently has been in denial for a while about the fact that her husband is gay, finally confronts him about it.
- Newscaster Cameo: Entertainment reporter Army Archerd plays himself at the Academy Awards red carpet. (It was the real red carpet at the 1978 Academy Awards ceremony, the one where Annie Hall beat Star Wars.)
- Noodle Incident: Hannah, calling her boyfriend on the phone, says "When have you known me to be intimidated?" After a pause, she rather sheepishly says "That doesn't count!" The only hint comes moments later when she says she doesn't have time for "erotic conversation."
- Shout-Out: Hannah and Bill are laying on the beach in front of his house. After some conversation a bikini-clad Hannah gets up and says "Can we go? I fee like we're playing From Here to Eternity.
- Toplessness from the Back: Not one, not two, but three times! First there's Toplessness from the Back from Hannah as she's changing out of her bikini at Bill's house. Then there's toplessness from the back from Diana (Maggie Smith fanservice!) as she's changing out of her dress following the Oscars. And it's topped by the Bunny's toplessness in the end...
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Presumably Chauncey and Willis are friends, seeing as how they went on vacation together, but they do nothing but snipe at each other and insult each other from the first time they appear onscreen, as their car is overheating on the highway. Things get angrier and angrier as Willis changes the dinner reservation, and Chauncey and Lola get stuck in a tiny closet of a room, and they wreck the car...eventually matters climax with a ridiculous slapstick fight in which they manage to totally wreck the suite.
