Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
Directed by Paul Mazursky; Starring Robert Culp, Natalie Wood, Dyan Canon and Elliot Gould, and introducing Leif Garrett as Ted and Alice’s son.
Leif Garrett’s first film – a quiet little movie about a couple of swingers – happens to be one of my favorites. Not only does it debut the ’70s pop star when he was just a tot, but it is also a hilarious vestige – an heirloom, if you will – of bygone days when wife-swapping was as widespread as Nehru jackets.
Bob (Robert Culp) is married to Carol (Natalie Wood). And Ted (Elliot Gould) is married to Alice (Dyan Canon). The couples have been friends for years. After punching pillows and hugging strangers at an EST-like weekend retreat, Bob and Carol decide to emancipate themselves from conventional etiquette and begin a series of extramarital affairs.
As the more conservative couple, Ted and Alice are initially appalled, until Bob and Carol convince them to jump aboard their free love ride.
While it’s hard to imagine that there would ever be a world in which Carol would want to have sex with Ted – Gould was just as hirsute 30 years ago as he is today – the movie’s finale occurs when the two couples head to Vegas for an evening of swinging and swapping.
Leif Garrett, who plays Ted and Alice’s son, appears mid-way through the film in the unmistakably late ’60s pool party scene in which both Wood and Canon sport Pucci bikinis.
"If you blink, you might miss me," Garrett said recently.
Needless to say, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice isn’t the most appropriate fare for an 8-year-old.
"I wasn’t allowed to see it when it first came out," Garrett said. "I was 14 by the time I first saw it."
But for those of us who are over the age of 18, this is definitely a must-see. It’s far out and funny and Robert Culp is irresistible in an ascot and a Jaguar. – JS