#david langton

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

Have you seen Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-1975)?

Yes

Partially

No, but I've heard of it

Never heard of it

Voting ended onMay 21, 2025

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[superghfan]

David Langton (Jeff Pomerantz) was a former lover of Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson) . The two had a daughter, Dawn Winthrop. After Dawn’s death, David came to town, where he suffered a heart attack. Monica performed surgery on him. His daughter Nikki (Camille Cooper) joined him. Nikki could feel something between Monica and her father and after he died, she sued Monica for malpractice. After she lost, she went after Monica’s son AJ, who had fallen in love with her. He proposed to Nikki, but she was paid off by Alan and left town. AJ tracked her down later, but she was already married to another man and was pregnant with his child. (1992).

[unsaltedsinner]

"Clouds of Witness" was published in 1926, when flying non-stop across the Atlantic was still rather like going to the Moon today (just as dangerous, anyway, though a lot cheaper). The British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Brown did it first, flying from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Vickers Vimy bomber in 1919.

[dannyreviews]

Quintet (1979)

Three leading men from the great American and European films, one of Ingmar Bergman’s leading ladies, a former French child actress in one of France’s greatest war films and a British character actor known for his role in a famed Masterpiece Theater series. Throw in the king of ensemble directors Robert Altman and you would think that you’d have a surefire hit in “Quintet”. Little would one know that a poorly crafted story, cheesy dialogue and a made up, nonsensical board game would act as the monkey wrench to destroy what could have been one of Robert Altman’s boldest works.

In an unnamed society, during an ice age, civilization is on the decline. The population is dying out and the only solace for its survivors is an alcoholic drink called Booza and an obsessive game called Quintet. For Essex (Paul Newman), it’s an opportunity after he witnesses his friend Redstone’s demise. A paper containing names and a location is found on Redstone’s person which leads Essex to the Hotel Electra and an ongoing game of Quintet. Assuming Redstone’s identity, Essex sees that the game is a survival of the fittest competition and every moment can mean the difference between life and death. 

While watching “Quintet”, I found myself asking this question, is this the same Robert Altman who only 4 years earlier made one of the keystones of ensemble cinema with “Nashville”? While “Nashville” and the equally masterful “Short Cuts” were longer films, but made use of filler time with relevant plot moments, “Quintet” wastes valuable time on long shots, contrived speeches and extended moments of silence. It takes 45 minutes to get to the main plot, which is the human game of “Quintet” and by then, you have no idea what the game is about and why people are dying. Not to mention mediocre cinematography and editing, a set that could be used in a cheap dinner theater production and an atrocious minimalist film score to dull things even more. This from a director usually known for keeping its audience occupied with a cornucopia of action and mesmerizing aesthetics. 

If Robert Altman had assembled the same cast members for a period piece, or contemporary drama, the product could have rather different and much improved. What “Quintet” offers is the cream of the crop of actors giving horrible performances. Paul Newman, who exuded the beaten up, but persevering hero of 1950s and 60s American cinema is reduced to a humdrum and uninteresting shell of a man. It’s as if a body snatcher took his rugged manhood and replaced it with a carbon copy that lacked virility. For the participants in the game; Bibi Andersson, Fernando Rey, Vittorio Gassman, David Langton and Nina Van Pallandt, it’s much more of the same. Characters who are supposed to be at each other’s throats are speaking like its a cheap knockoff of a Beckettian theater of the absurd piece. A survival of the fittest story like “Quintet” should not be using words as action, but bodily engagement. The only performance that had any adequacy was Brigitte Fossey as Essex’s companion Vivia. She was neither great nor terrible and really did not contribute anything significant to the film.

Altman’s problem with “Quintet” is that he’s trying to be too bohemian and European in his cinematic approach. His films were the embodiment of American life and for him to depart from that trademark into uncharted territory resulted in this schlock. It would also lead Altman into a nearly 12 year period where his films weren’t well received by critics, a dry spell that would end in 1992 with his comeback film “The Player”. Altman would depart from the American motif with “Gosford Park”, only that film embodied his ensemble trademark and among one of his finest masterpieces. Altman was trying to do his own “Seventh Seal” and channel his inner Ingmar Bergman, even including Bibi Andersson in the ensemble, but it fell way short.

If “Quintet” came out the following year, it would have had a great chance of competing at the very first Razzie Awards and if so, I would bet that the film would be “well received” by the committee. The film could’ve “won” worst film , Newman “win” worst actor, Fernando Rey “win” worst supporting actor, Altman and his three other collaborators “win” worst screenplay. I beg the people at Mystery Science Theater 3000 to include “Quintet” in a future episode because it has the formula for its prototype; a screenplay and story that goes nowhere, actors that don’t engage and moments that are not meant for laughing.

1/10

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