''Any Wednesday'' is a 1966 American

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

romantic comedy film starring

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Jane Fonda, various accolades including two ...

Jason Robards Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill, Robards received two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes ...

, and Dean Jones. It was directed by

Robert Ellis Miller Robert Ellis Miller (July 18, 1927 – January 27, 2017) was an American film director. Filmography * '' Breaking Point'' (1963) - TV Series * '' Any Wednesday'' (1966) * '' Sweet November'' (1968) * '' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1968 ...

from a screenplay by producer Julius J. Epstein based on the

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

play of the same name by

Muriel Resnik Muriel Resnik (August 15, 1915 – March 6, 1995) was an American playwright and novelist. She was known for her comedy play ''Any Wednesday'', performed for the first time on Broadway in 1964 and starring Sandy Dennis, Don Porter, Gene Hackma ...

, which ran for 984 performances from 1964 to 1966."Any Wednesday"
on the

Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade asso ...

The film was titled ''Bachelor Girl Apartment'' in the UK. The story centers on a Manhattan woman (Fonda) who is trying to decide between two suitors, one married (Robards) and one not (Jones), on the day of her 30th birthday.

Plot

John Cleves (

) is a businessman with an office in New York and a home in New Jersey. On one day of each week, Wednesday, he spends the night in the city, lying to wife Dorothy (

Rosemary Murphy Rosemary Murphy (January 13, 1925 – July 5, 2014) was a German-American actress of stage, film, and television. She was nominated for three Tony Awards for her stage work, as well as two Emmy Awards for television work, winning once, for her ...

) that he is out of town on business when he actually is seeing Ellen, his mistress (

). A business client from

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

, Cass Henderson ( Dean Jones), comes to town and is unable to find a hotel room for the night. Cleves' new secretary knows of an "executive suite" the boss maintains in town, so Cass is sent there for the night. When he meets Ellen, he mistakenly assumes she is a certain kind of lady hired by Cleves to entertain him. The secretary compounds the error by telling Dorothy about the apartment. Dorothy goes there and discovers Ellen and Cass, assuming them to be a young couple. The women take a liking to each other so Dorothy invites them to spend an evening out on the town with her and John. Dorothy eventually catches on to what her husband is up to and leaves him. Ellen invites her to use the apartment. John goes there and tries to win his wife's love back, but she just tells her husband to come visit her on any Wednesday.

Cast

as Ellen Gordon *

as John Cleves * Dean Jones as Cass Henderson *

as Dorothy Cleves, reprising her role from the Broadway production. *

Ann Prentiss Ann Prentiss (November 27, 1939 – January 12, 2010) was an American actress. Early life Prentiss was born Ann Elizabeth Ragusa in San Antonio, Texas, to Paulene (née Gardner) and Thomas J. Ragusa. Her father was of Sicilian descent. Her eld ...

as Miss Linsley *

Jack Fletcher Jack Fletcher is an American voice actor, casting director, writer and voice director. He has done voice acting and directing for anime and video games. He has been the English voice director for the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series, starting wi ...

as Felix *

King Moody Robert "King" Moody (December 6, 1929 – February 7, 2001) was an American actor, best known for playing Shtarker in the television series ''Get Smart'' and for his portrayal as Ronald McDonald in the McDonald's commercials from 1969 to 1985. ...

as Milkman *Kelly Jean Peters as Girl in Museum *Monty Margetts as Nurse

Production

Exterior location scenes for ''Any Wednesday'' were filmed in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. During the course of the 28-month run of the play ''Any Wednesday'' on Broadway, the role of Ellen was played by Sandy Dennis – who won a

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

for her performance – and

Barbara Cook Barbara Cook (October 25, 1927 – August 8, 2017) was an American actress and singer who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals '' Plain and Fancy'' (1955), ''Candide'' (1956) and ''The Music Man'' ( ...

. Don Porter and

Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...

also appeared in it.Passfiume, Andrea
"Any Wednesday (1966)" (article)
on TCM.com

Critical reception

Richard F. Shepard of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' was fairly positive, writing that the story had made the transition from stage to screen "not much the worse for wear," though he felt "it might have been better if it were shorter. The funny lines, and there are a good number, would have been even sharper." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "an outstanding sophisticated comedy" with "solid direction and excellent performances." Philip K. Scheuer of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' wrote, "Neither Jason Robards nor Jane Fonda strikes me particularly as a 'natural' comedian (whatever that may be) and the timing of both seems off ... In the case of Robards, a superior actor whenever he is permitted to be, I must admit to some surprise that he was willing to waste his time and talents on such a contrived and cinematically weak affair as this."

Richard L. Coe Richard Livingston Coe (New York City, November 8, 1914 – Washington, D.C., November 12, 1995) was a theater and cinema critic for The Washington Post for more than forty years. Coe became known as one of the most influential theater critics outsi ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' called Fonda "miscast" because she "is simply not the sort of girl who doesn't know what she is doing." He thought Rosemary Murphy stole the film with an "immensely amusing" performance. ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' wrote, "A moderately entertaining film version of a Broadway stage production; but it could have been much more so if director Robert Ellis Miller had a lighter touch."

Awards and honors

Jane Fonda was nominated for a 1966

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

in the category "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy"."Awards"
/ref>

Home media

On August 18, 2009,

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

released the movie on DVD-R as part of the

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inten ...

References

Notes

External links

* * * * * {{Robert Ellis Miller 1966 films 1966 romantic comedy films Adultery in films American romantic comedy films American sex comedy films 1960s English-language films Films scored by George Duning American films based on plays Films directed by Robert Ellis Miller Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Warner Bros. films 1960s sex comedy films 1966 directorial debut films 1960s American films