Nice effects though.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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.

I saw this movie when it was released on TV in 1975, right about the time my own widowed grandmother discovered ballroom dancing. I was 17, living with her, and I wondered what in the world had gotten into her--makeup? Sparkly floaty dresses? Horrors! Now I am the same age she was at the time and I see the movie in a whole new light. Now I understand the emotions, the reactions of the family and a lot more. About the music in the film - it's very typical of movies in the '70s. The lighting and the tone are fitting for the story, which is about adults in the sunset years, but they are living their lives to the best of their ability under their circumstances! Give the movie a chance and try to see it with the eyes of someone understanding the feelings of your parents or grandparents. It will make a lot more sense to you over time.

I wish that IMDb.com would have added the soundtrack listing because the songs and melodies were so beautiful.I enjoyed the film immensely for the nostalgia, for a moment to see Maureen Stapleton & Charles Durning once more, for the lovely, wistful songs and much more.Like many audiences, I would have appreciated the ending to be more upbeat. Maureen was only 48 yrs old at the time she performed in this film and I assumed she was playing a 50 to 55 year old lady, therefore, it was not necessary to end the relationship in such a sorrowful way because this is not a normal age for a person to pass away, although it certainly does happen.I think it would have been more realistic to show that middle and old age is not just for dying. There is still a lot to learn and time to grow. It's been said, "It's never too late to change your life (or fall in love)".The choice for them to end the movie as they did was not a major flaw, however.It was still a terrific movie and one I had not seen before. Hope they show it on TV again in the near future.

Love in the autumn years is examined in this tender, yet matter-of-fact, TV-movie that is presented as a quasi-musical. Stapleton plays a widow, used to catering to her husband's needs instead of her own, who begins to blossom under the mirror ball of a local dance hall, The Stardust. Reluctant at first to take part in the festivities, she is approached by sweet-natured mailman Durning and coerced into dancing. Soon, she has revitalized her life and herself, sometimes to the consternation of her sister Rae and her two grown children Sanders and Brandon. She and Durning strike up a late in life relationship that includes an unforeseen challenge or two. Stapleton, an actress who can say more than a lot of other ones with merely a glance or a faraway stare, does an excellent job throughout. The nature of the teleplay forces her to speak-sing a couple of numbers and this takes some getting used to, but once that conceit is adjusted to, it becomes less jarring. Durning, who is excellent as well in an atypical role for him, also has to do an internalized number and, like Stapleton, overcomes the obvious lack of a truly strong musical theatre voice. They make a charming and believable pair worth rooting for. Brandon, in a smallish role as Stapleton's long-haired, caring son, establishes a nice rapport with her. Sanders and Rae are on hand to offer some mild antagonism. The ballroom offers a wide array of amusing types, mostly past-their-prime folks who take pleasure in gussying up and tripping the light fantastic with one another. The dancing sequences (which aren't particularly elaborate, but are appropriate) were staged by no less than Marge Champion! In late 1978, this material was reworked a little (most of the songs replaced and new ones added, including the stunning "Fifty Percent") into the one-act Broadway musical "Ballroom", which starred Dorothy Loudon and Vincent Gardenia and was helmed by Michael Bennett. Compared to the smashing success of Bennett's prior "A Chorus Line", the show was deemed a disappointment and closed after 116 performances.