Such Good Friends (1971)

The second unseen by me Otto Preminger directed movie I found on Amazon is 'Such Good Friends' from 1971. Based on the New York Times best selling novel by Lois Gould, and with a screenplay by Elaine May 'Such Good Friends' stars Dyan Cannon (the 4th Mrs. Carey Grant) as a Manhattan housewife whose successful husband is rendered comatose by complications from a simple surgery to remove a mole. The Kafkaesque absurdity of the whole situation is effectively and efficiently conveyed, it roasts the medical establishment better in 20 minutes then the Paddy Chayefsky penned film 'The Hospital' did in its 103 minute run time, and these movies came out the same year. While Cannon's Julie Messinger battles all this she also discovers that her husband has been cheating on her, for a long time, with multiple people, some of whom she thought of as her good friends. This comedy drama is very smartly written and very witty, there is some great dialogue here. It's not entirely even, the satirical elements and the understandably numbed condition through which Mrs. Messinger navigates the events keep you from getting as deep into her character as a more straight treatment of the material would allow, still Dyan Cannon's good in this as is the large supporting cast including James Coco, Jennifer O'Neill, Ken Howard and Nina Foch. Louise Lasser, Doris Roberts, and of course Burgess Meredith have bit parts. ***