'' Your Three Minutes Are Up '' is a 1973 American

road movie A road movie is a film genre, genre of film in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the the ...

starring

Beau Bridges Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor. He is a three-time Emmy Award, Emmy, two-time Golden Globe Award, Golden Globe and one-time Grammy Award winner, as well as a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award nomine ...

and

Ron Leibman Ron Leibman (; October 11, 1937 – December 6, 2019) was an American actor. He won both the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play in 1993 for his performance as Roy Cohn in ''Angels in Ame ...

Plot

Charlie is a sad sack of a man, working at a depressingly dull office job and stuck in a passionless engagement to a neurotic woman. One of the few bright spots in his life is his friend Mike, who seems to be living a life of carefree bohemianism. When the two end up on a long road trip together, they are forced to re-examine their lives and worldviews. Mike may have independence in some ways, but it has come at a price. Charlie, in turn, may feel trapped, but how much of the trap is of his own making?

Cast

as Charlie *

as Mike *

Janet Margolin Janet Natalie Margolin (July 25, 1943 – December 17, 1993) was an American theater, television and film actress. Early life Margolin was born in New York City to a Jewish family. Her father, Benjamin Margolin, was a Russian Jewish accountan ...

as Betty *

Kathleen Freeman Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost i ...

as Mrs. Wilk *

David Ketchum David Ketchum (born February 4, 1928, in Quincy, Illinois) is an American character actor and comedian best known for his appearances in television sitcoms, including ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', '' Camp Runamuck'', and ''Get Smart''. Ketchum s ...

as Mr. Kellogg *

Stuart Nisbet Stuart Nisbet (January 17, 1934 – June 23, 2016) was an American character actor and former President of the Nesbitt/Nisbet Society of North America. Early life Born in Los Angeles, California, Nisbet studied theater at Los Angeles City Coll ...

as Dr. Claymore *

Read Morgan Read Lawrence Morgan (January 30, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American film and television actor. He was perhaps best known for playing Sergeant Hapgood Tasker in the American western television series '' The Deputy''. Life and career Mo ...

as Eddie Abruzzi * Sherry Bain as Sugar * June Fairchild as Sandi * Larry Gelman as Mr. Roberts *

Lynne Marie Stewart Lynne Marie Stewart (December 14, 1946 – February 21, 2025) was an American actress, widely known for her performance as Miss Yvonne, "the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppet Land." She originated the role in the 1981 stage show ''The Pee-wee Herma ...

as Ibis Lady * Nedra Volz as Free Press Lady

Production

The film was based on an original screenplay by actor James Dixon, who would go on to a long collaboration with filmmaker

Larry Cohen Lawrence George Cohen (July 15, 1936 – March 23, 2019) was an American filmmaker. He originally emerged as the writer of blaxploitation films such as ''Black Caesar (film), Black Caesar'' and ''Hell Up in Harlem'' (both 1973), before becomin ...

as both actor and screenwriter. Director

Douglas Schwartz Douglas Schwartz is an American television screenwriter and series creator who, along with Michael Berk, worked as a writer on the television series '' Manimal'', and multiple made for television movies. He is most famous for creating co-produci ...

would work extensively in television, where he would become best known as the creator of the long-running series ''

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American Drama (film and television), drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz ...

''. The film was mostly ignored when it came out in August 1973, but reviews were largely positive. Writing in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', critic Gary Arnold called it “a surprisingly bright and enjoyable comedy, with serious undertones … The material takes funnier turns and develops more dramatic intensity than one anticipates.” In his '' Movie Guide'',

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

wrote that it was an “unpretentious film

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

says more about our society than many more ‘important’ movies.”

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Your Three Minutes Are Up 1973 films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films