"CONTINENTAL DIVIDE".....THE ART OF THE RETRO ROM-COM.....

Continental Divide (1981)   Since we covered the imitation screwball farce "What's Up, Doc?" yesterday, we thought we'd naturally slide right into this equally entertaining attempt to duplicate a Spencer Tracy-Katherine Hepburn comedy. ( as in ...."Adam's Rib", "Pat and Mike", "Desk Set"...)

                Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan had the formula down cold.........tough city guy, rough around the edges, locks horns and matches wits with a classy patrician woman who's way out of his league.......that is, until they wear each other's defenses down enough to fall for each other.

                 As a modernized Tracy character, the film gives us John Belushi as Ernie Souchak, a streetwise Chicago newspaper columnist.  Beulushi's own Hepburn is Blair Brown as Nell Porter, a famed but reclusive wilderness researcher who studies and protects bald eagles from a remote Colorado cabin.

                  You almost start smiling immediately at the thought of capricious fate, in the form of Kasdan's script, throwing these two completely opposite people together.

                   Souchak's blistering print takedowns of a corrupt politico earn him a beating from rogue cops........so his worried editor temporarily exiles him to those snowy heartland mountains, in the hopes of snagging the first interview with the mysterious, hermit-like Nell.

                   That's all the premise you really need to start the laughs flowing........not the frenzied, swing-for-the-fences yocks of "What's Up, Doc".....more of a smooth, gentle wry comedy that comes mainly from the clash of characters rather than from any rapid fire spewing gags.  That's fine with us.

                   And the film's not kidding with its clever, double-meaning title........it's not just the humor that rivets an audience here......you're hooked with it to see how Kasdan and director Michael Apted can possibly come up with a happy ending for a couple whose fundamental differences involve vast gaps in temperament, interests and geography.

                    BQ declares this one a forgotten gem.......the kind of movie that studios have exiled to Netflix (and some of those we'll post on soon, we promise). 4 stars (****)  Any fan of witty romance who've already gorged themselves on the resconstituded Netlix stuff, check out "Continental Divide"........the real thing.