User Reviews

Forget about old age guilt. To watch pros Fred Astaire and Helen Hayes play husband and wife facing their twilight years is a class in theater and classic movie history, well over a hundred years combined in their careers at this point which were far from over. They are coming from a family get-together when Astaire suffers a sudden heart attack which does indeed turn their family world upside down. Their adult children Efrem Zimbalist Jr. And Patty Duke, daughter-in-law Patricia Crowley and grandson Brad Rearden all stick together initially, but as his condition gets worse, the family begins to fall apart over their own emotional upheaval over the situation. You can't call any of these people truly selfish or cruel because their reasonings are realistic and understandable, and anybody who has ever been in a situation like this will relate to it.

Top-notch performances by the entire cast, particularly Astaire and Hayes, makes this one of the top TV movies of the 1970's, and one of the best movies ever about aging. It's way better even than "On Golden Pond" which was released theatrically just a few years after this. It's similar in nature to the 1937 classic "Make Way for Tomorrow" which starred Astaire's frequent co-star Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi, and showed a much more selfish family. To indicate which film is more realistic is impossible as every family is different, and there are moments of great happiness just as there are moments of great sadness.

The grandson, Scott, is one of those rare blessings to a family, a young man who respects the older generation and is particularly close to his grandfather. When he indicates that he doesn't want to see his grandfather, it's easy to relate to how he feels, and Rearden is very sincere in his performance. Duke is also very good as the daughter who feels that she hasn't really been appreciated, and when she turns down his request is that they take them in, she isn't saying it from a selfish nature but from an aspect of her. The perfect script oh, excellent Direction and all-around terrific performances makes us a TV movie that is a definite must see.

No time for victimhood wallowing here, a problem is raised, dealt with and we move on.

It's all about putting things right the best way you can before you die and choosing to spend your final days exactly how you would like to.

The generational problems are here but no one is unreachable. Or inarticulate.

We don't need to know how this story ends because we are shown all the outcomes, via worries voiced, compromises made and most imporatantly of all , deciding what is your priority and sacrificing for it at all costs.

It is our life after all,and we should be allowed to say how we would choose to end it.

Not sure if any actress of this age, other than Hayes, would have made me take this movie seriously. And Astaire CAN act.