Max Dugan Returns

It's time to feel good again. Prices are double. Your love life's in trouble. The car won't start. Your boss has no heart. The door squeaks. The roof leaks. Your stereo just went mono. All you need is a little Max Dugan. Max Dugan (Jason Robards Jr.) is an elderly ne'er-do-well whose tenuous mob connections have made him persona non grata with his daughter, Nora McPhee (Marsha Mason). Struggling to raise her restless son Matthew Broderick on her own, Mason is none too pleased when Max returns to the family fold with yet another portfolio of get-rich-quick schemes. Forced to leave town due to the investigative habits of cop Donald Sutherland, Mason's new boy friend, Max does one last good deed to renew the faith of the disillusioned-with-life Broderick. Throughout this sentimental Neil Simon seriocomedy, one gets the eerie impression that we're not seeing Max Dugan in the flesh, but instead his ghost, returned to earth to right old wrongs. While this suspicion is never confirmed, the film's slightly unsettling atmosphere persists long after the credits have rolled. Watch for Donald Sutherland's son Kiefer in his film debut, and for former Kansas City Royals' batting coach Charlie Lau in the baseball-game finale.