Classic Film Guide

Blume in Love (1973)

It's a comedy romance set in California during the Vietnam era when free love was hip and social responsibility was topical, or at least made one feel guilty if they weren't committed to making the world a better place. Produced, written, and directed by Paul Mazursky (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)), who also plays a divorce lawyer in Beverly Hills, it stars George Segal, Susan Anspach, Kris Kristofferson, Marsha Mason, and Shelley Winters in roles you've likely seen before if you've seen any other movies of the type and from the same time-frame.

Billed as "a love story for guys that cheat on their wives", it's really quite a dated story about the collapse of the titled Stephen Blume's (Segal) six year marriage to Nina (Anspach) after he'd diddled his secretary; she'd divorced him and, the rest of the film, he tries to win her back. It features characters that largely don't exist today, especially those played by Kristofferson, who's an out of work musician and a societal dropout that moves in with welfare worker Nina, and Mason, a woman with no self respect that allows her self to be used by sexually by Segal's because she has nothing better to do. Stephen's a partner in Mazursky's divorce practice and Winters plays one of his tearful clients whose husband keeps running off with stewardesses. Stephen and Nina see the same analyst (Donald F. Muhich) who stereotypically listens without offering much else. Arlene (Mason) lives in Stephen's bed; he befriends Elmo (Kristofferson), they smoke grass together, to get closer to Nina. When Stephen eventually gets into Nina's good graces again, he blows it again in a most disturbing way, but his persistence and her hormone affected condition reunites the two in Venice, where they'd honeymooned.

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