"Everybody hated Bogdanovich's homage, a trivial story slotted round some Cole Porter songs... It may be a movie we'll come back to later and find we all like it."
— W. Stephen Gilbert, Time Out
At Long Last Love is a 1975 musical film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starring Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, and Eileen Brennan.
It features Cole Porter songs and was realized without lip-synching in an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the very earliest musical films, a choice that made the production particularly difficult and long beyond expectations. It was an enormous box-office bomb and gained scathing reviews, yet some have re-evaluated it, at least as an example of So Bad, It's Good.
This movie provides examples of:
- All Love Is Unrequited / Love Dodecahedron: Of the four protagonists, Michael's in love with Kitty who's in love with Johnny who's in love with Brooke who's in love with Michael. Lampshaded by Kitty and Brooke in the "I Loved Him {But He Didn't Love Me}" number.
- Subverted later on, as it's implied in dialogue in the climactic ballroom dance that both Michael and Johnny fall in love with Brooke and Kitty (respectively), since both remark that the partner they're pining for has never looked more beautiful than they are dancing with the other.
- Double subverted, depending on how you interpret the final shot of the music box that bookends the movie.
- Subverted later on, as it's implied in dialogue in the climactic ballroom dance that both Michael and Johnny fall in love with Brooke and Kitty (respectively), since both remark that the partner they're pining for has never looked more beautiful than they are dancing with the other.
- Auteur Licence: After earning this with The Last Picture Show and holding it through What's Up, Doc? and Paper Moon, Peter Bogdanovich lost his prestige in Hollywood after At Long Last Love bombed - he would never again reach the critical heights of his early period.
- Book Ends: The movie begins and ends with a shot of a music box, with animatronic dancers switching partners.
- Genre Throwback: To Golden Age movie musicals.
- Homage: To the classic '30s movie musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
- Jukebox Musical: As a homage to classic Golden Age movie musicals, the soundtrack is made up entirely of Cole Porter songs.
- Period Piece: Set in the 1930s. Well, in the glamorous Old Hollywood version of the 1930s, at least.
- Pretty in Mink: Brooke has a white mink wrap. Kitty has a white fox cape.
- Re-Cut: The version most readily available for viewing has been extensively remade to better match the director's vision after the initial cut done by the studio proved so poorly received.
- The '30s: Takes place during that time.
