I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968) User Reviews

A soul searching movie! Great fun

[kulaboy · 6/10 · 27 November 2004]

I was born 8 years after this film came out, so I'm a little out of touch with the generation. BUT! Look closely at this film. Sure, it stereotypes hippies and seems a bit out of date. What this film really is becomes a search for one man (Petter Sellers) to find out who he is, and to avoid the traps of life that he suddenly sees as conventional. As Harold Fine, he questions what life and marriage have to offer and he seeks to discover what else is out there. The pot brownie sequence opens up his world to new dimensions, he breaks off his marriage to be with a hippie chick, he drops out, he tries to free himself. Do I relate to Harold Fine? Heck yes! The film mirrors much of Peter Seller's life himself, confunsed, unsure, searching. The scene with his guru cracks me up- Sellers face is priceless as he tries to stop trying and learn who he is.

This film deserves a lot more attention then what it receives. This isn't just a time capsule into the dropout 60s world- it's a good time capsule into soul searching.

Sellers drops out in charming time capsule

[dfranzen70 · 7/10 · 28 February 2000]

Harold Fine (Peter Sellers) is an uptight lawyer, a member of the Establishment. His longtime girlfriend Joyce finally has pinned Harold down on a wedding date, and his life seems to be settling down. But wait! Harold meets Nancy, a friend of his hippie brother, at a family funeral. Turned on by her free thinking, free loving, and free living, Harold leaves Joyce at the altar to be with Nancy. He drops out of society and into hippiedom! Sellers isn't the most likely person to play this role, but he's very good in it. Leigh Taylor-Young, as Nancy, is positively ravishing. The movie takes you back to the late sixties, even if you've never been there. All the sights and sounds are lovingly created by director Hy Averback. And the script! Nearly every aspect of counterculture society in the late sixties is covered, and there's hardly a stagnant scene. In particular, the wild parties at Harold's apartment and the scene where the policeman come upon Harold and Nancy in the backseat of his car are real gems.

An interesting relic of the 1960s

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 10 January 2010]

This is a film that I strongly think your opinion of it will depend on your age. Younger folks who have no recollection of the 1960s will probably find this film less interesting. Those who vividly remember this strange decade will probably get more from the film. Me, I was only a young kid during this time, so my opinion seems to fall somewhere in the middle.

The movie begins with Peter Sellers playing a Jewish attorney living in Los Angeles. His life is very "normal" and he is on track to be quite successful and marry his sweetheart (Joyce Van Patten). However, when his brother's lover (Leigh Taylor-Young) slips Sellers and his fiancé and his parents a dish of hashish-laced brownies, Sellers' straight-laced veneer vanishes and now the 35 year-old "square" wants to drop out and become a hippie. Much of the rest of the film concerns the ins and outs of such a life and by the end of the film, it seems that Sellers isn't content with either life...and still longs for a deeper sense of meaning.

I noticed that many people called this film a comedy. While there are some mildly funny moments, I wouldn't describe it as this at all and it's NOT much like Sellers' other films. I am NOT saying it's a bad film--just not exactly a comedy. Instead, it's like a time capsule--an interesting one, but one that many probably won't find all that compelling unless they lived during this time. Generally, the film is well made and acted and it's worth a look--and that's really about all.

FYI--The reference to Alice B. Toklas regards her being the first to publish a recipe for marijuana or hashish brownies. You hear her name sung repeatedly throughout the film but otherwise the film has nothing to do with her nor her lover, Gertrude Stein.

Kiss My Ahnk

[binaryg · 7/10 · 17 November 2009]

I saw this in '68 when I was about in the same place Harold Fine was, in his social development. I was already married and had kids though. At the time of its release this seemed like an important movie. It was funny and satiric but it ended in a positive note for someone ready to drop out. If we'd only known where that was going to lead, but it was fun for a time.

I'm so glad I revisited this over 40 years later (yikes!!) Some of the film I remembered as if I saw it yesterday. Some scenes I had no recollection of. Peter Sellers is marvelous and the rest of the cast is fine. It is a time capsule of a film and really blends film styles. It has a definite TV flavor. Hy Averback mostly worked in TV so that's not a surprise. The film though, is authentic to the time and it was fun to watch for this old hippie.

One of the best comedies of the 1960s

[JasparLamarCrabb · 7/10 · 8 March 2006]

One of the best comedies of the 1960s and one of the most subversive as well...it's difficult to believe that Warner Bros. released I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS. Peter Sellers, in his most American role, plays Harold Fine, an uptight mama's boy putting off any commitment to girlfriend Joyce Van Patten. He falls head over heels for free-spirited Leigh Taylor Young and all hell breaks loose. Sellers is brilliant, Van Patten is pretty funny, and Taylor-Young is striking. The movie is nearly stolen by Jo Van Fleet as Sellers mother, a shrike to be sure, and hysterical eating a "special" brownie. She's priceless...once again giving a great performance as a character of a substantially more advanced age...she was 54 playing 43 year old Sellers mother! Hy Averback's direction is clever and the film is filled with a lot of funny gags...a highlight is Sellers and crew driving ALL OVER Los Angeles in search of a funeral.

Mister Everyday joins the flower crowd

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 10 November 2001]

Entertaining film with lots of 60's memories like psychedelic cars, hip, cool, groovy lingo, long hair wigs, and, naturally....pot. Mr. Uptight just couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to be a straight or be hip, which caused him to alienate himself from both circles. Fun and funny picture.

So Hip It Hurts

[slokes · 4/10 · 30 June 2010]

Los Angeles lawyer Harold Fine (Peter Sellers) is one hash brownie away from a total re-examination of his life. But is he really ready for the consequences of a mid-life freak-out?

Watching "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas" today is to see how the hippie subculture was seen by Middle America back when the Beatles were still together and Woodstock a year or so down the road. Fine doesn't want to upset his Jewish mother (Jo Van Fleet), but those brownies combined with radiant hippie chick Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is too much for him to resist.

One problem with "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas" is that it's really two slapped-together films in one. The first, running an hour, is a well-observed character study, light on laughs but diverting, featuring Harold as prisoner of his middle-class American existence. The second, Harold's hippie freak-out, is a half-hour "Love, American Style" episode utterly at odds with the Harold Fine we have come to know. Sex with Nancy, sure, but are you supposed to believe Harold would be handing out flowers at intersections with just a little help from Duncan Hines? Sellers looks a bit like John Lennon with a long-hair wig, but it isn't enough to convince.

Director Hy Averback worked on several of my favorite "M*A*S*H" episodes, but he's out of his element with this early cinematic treatment of the counterculture. Kids in bad wigs say "groovy" and "far out" in a way that feels as strained as seeing someone shout "Twenty-Three Skidoo" in a 1920s movie or "Friend Me On Facebook" today. Nancy even wants to go to the funeral of a Fine family friend because she thinks death is beautiful. Groovy!

Taylor-Young is part of my problem with this movie. She's beautiful, yes, in that impossible must-be-from-California-or-Sweden way, but she's really put there for sex appeal only, despite setting up an interesting character the film never develops. After she and Harold come to a crisis over her free-love style, she falls by the wayside. Taylor-Young plays her character so wide-eyed and innocent you want more of a resolution of her relationship with Harold. Instead she's left as a go-go-dancing fantasy figure.

To the extent Sellers does shine here, he does so playing off the other characters, particularly Van Fleet and Van Patten, the latter of whom steals what's there of the show as the grasping, aging wanna-be wife. When Harold offers an "area" for when they might be married, she responds: "I know from areas, but I want is a date."

Otherwise, this is a sub-par movie with some fun moments that never really come together, disappointingly so given that there's real potential to see Sellers cut up here. Instead, he plays one of his most buttoned-down characters for an hour, followed by a totally different, wacky guy thereafter. If only Sellers and the writers had done more to connect the dots, "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas" might have been a worthy Sellers comedy.

I Love You Peter Sellers

[angelsunchained · 10/10 · 3 April 2005]

" I LOve You Alice B. Toklas " is a 60s gem. Peter Sellers is out-standing as an uptight, highly successful, Jewish lawyer, engaged to be married, who falls in love with his hippie brother's hippie girl and "drops out".

For those too young to remember the 60s this film will probably appear to be meaningless, but it's a classic example of what thousands of Americans went through during this revoltionary decade.

The film however is stolen by the incredible beauty of Leigh Taylor-Young who was making her film debut. What a beauty! A real 10. Nothing fake about her. I recall seeing this movie when it first came out in 1968 when I was 10 years old. Everyone in the theater was rolling in the aisles with laughter. And every guy there had a "crush" on Leigh Taylor Young.

So, turn on the lava-lamb, put on some love-beads, put some pillows on the floor, take off your shoes, and go back to time and enjoy this 1960s comedy classic.

Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 23 March 2014]

I Love You Alice B. Toklas is one nostalgic film, especially for those who partook in the hippie movement. It expresses some of the joy and frustrations of what it entails.

Peter Sellers is your 40 something Jewish lawyer from Los Angeles who has put off matrimony, concentrating on work and material success. Now he's ready to take the plunge with Joyce Van Patten and nothing thrills his parents Salem Ludwig and Jo Van Fleet than to see their son final settle down.

But a chance encounter with hippie chick Leigh Taylor-Young on the Freeway where she's hitchhiking and he tunes in, turns on, and drops out. The second is the most important when after a night of some wild sex Taylor- Young gives him some of those marijuana laced brownies so popular in the day. Even his fiancé and parents partake and the result is the most hilarious scene in the film.

I suppose that people have to have a fling at something equivalent of hippie when they're young. Sad to say there is a time when one has to buckle down and assume a few responsibilities for yourself. If we all could be hippies that would be nice, but we all never will be. It was no accident that they were called flower 'children'.

Which brings me to the ending of this film. Sellers eventually has issue with Taylor-Young and they split, but can't commit to his former life and the relationships therein. Director Hy Averback gives us a happy ending which is both funny and yet sad in a way because we really don't know what Sellers will do because he doesn't know himself. I feared the worst for Peter.

A nice cast supports Sellers and Jo Van Fleet has to be singled out as the ultimate Jewish mother. Also take note of Herb Edelman as Sellers brother-in-law, confidante, and a rebound man from way back.

Nice film. Too bad we aren't all hippies. And it would have to be all of us to make it work.

Wild contrasts--as opposed to funny comparisons--between the squares and the drop-outs

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 10 January 2010]

Screenwriters Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker have a deft idea here--but it only takes an hour on the clock to use up the essence of their idea, leaving nothing but dead space on the screen for thirty more minutes. Milquetoast Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles, about to marry his domineering secretary (an idea which is approved by his demonstrative mother), is reunited with his estranged brother, a flower-child circa 1968. Through the brother's sometime-girlfriend, a comely lass who knows a great recipe for hash brownies, the lawyer realizes he's living an existence without love or freedom. It's wonderful watching bespectacled, buttoned-up Peter Sellers learn how to be liberated...yet, once the lawyer grows his hair out and dons love beads, the picture has nowhere in particular to take us. The satire is unsubtle in its prodding of targets, while writers Mazursky and Tucker ultimately bite off more than they can chew (while leaning precariously on pretentiousness). Still, there are some mild, breezy laughs early on, and the production is bright. ** from ****

A ridicule of the New Age

[eabakkum · 8/10 · 19 December 2016]

The film I love you Alice B. Toklas gives an excellent portrayal of the counter culture movement in the last years of the 60s, notably in the west coast of the USA. This is a fine place to live, if you happen to be an orange. The movement tried to take a holistic view on mankind, in order to enter a New Age. The ideology incorporates science and humanist psychology, but also for instance eastern mysticism. The aim is total harmony. You invite your analyst for Christmas dinner. The people must be self-conscious but abandon egocentrism. Although the hippie movement was a figurehead of the New Age, the mainstream consisted of bored middle-class individuals, who sought a meaning in life. In the film this latter group is represented in a striking way by the 35-year old lawyer Harold. He is successful in his profession, and is socially embedded in his Jewish community. Good lawyers can let a case drag on for years. Harold has a protracted relationship with his secretary, but clearly her passion is one-sided. Finally he agrees to marry on labor day! But then Harold meets the 20-year old hippie Nancy. She bakes brownies for him, with hashish and carrots, and he loves it. He is high and can see for miles. It makes him run away on his wedding day, because he wants to discover who he really is. On the beach he takes lessons in mysticism from an Indian guru. The film music changes into Indian Zither pieces. Harold lives with Nancy in his car and in his repainted luxury apartment. His T-shirt is offensive in 19 states. He even tries to convert two passing police officers. But naturally Nancy gets bored, and brings other hippies into the house. it is fun with a few more people. The place is transformed into a commune, and this is not the relation that Harold had imagined. Nancy calls him unhip, and Harold insists that he is groovy. This terminates his short hippie career. The last minutes of the film are somewhat confusing. Again the secretary arranges a marriage, and again Harold runs off. She exclaims: "I knew it!", and he shouts: "There must be something beautiful out there!" Obviously the narrative ridicules the New Age ideas, but still the scenes give a stirring picture of its atmosphere. The viewer can engage in shamefaced nostalgia. And whereas the New Age movement is long gone, which indeed makes the setting outdated, the search for the personal identity remains a theme of eternal value.

Kiss my ahnk

[jaster-7 · 6/10 · 4 April 2011]

This one of these movies I remember when it came out but I was too young to see it at the time, yet I remember a touch of controversy around it. As I've now just seen it today (finally!), I realize now controversy was due to the free use of drugs in reference and in use in this movie. It's a broad yet clever story of a man learning to feel, and all the trouble that gets him into. Sellers is great and so is Van Fleet as his mom - her laugh is so infectious when they all inadvertently get stoned on pot brownies, from an Alice B. Toklas recipe - hilarious. (Is that where the term 'toke' comes from?) Someone mentioned this movie is a time-capsule, and I couldn't agree more – it truly is a commentary of social upheaval focusing on a specific time when Stein and Toklas were on the scene, and how this uptight Jewish lawyer gets caught up in the hippy movement and love is everywhere. Even though a parody and farcical, I enjoyed some unexpected laughs at the clever dialog - so many great quotes in this movies! Like when entering into the throes of passion with the always beaming, blissed out Nancy, "Kiss my face…kiss my lips…kiss my ANKH!" – it's classic Peter Sellers comedy. (I'm not sure if that's a spoiler?) The film is highly concerned with marijuana and its use, and I found it refreshing and so much more open than what attitudes and views seem to be now – I don't think you could see a film like this now coming out of Hollywood. The wonderful relish with which they enjoy the brownies is priceless! Anyway I think this movie is all about the chaos of feelings – when we open up to them - wow! They can feel like a tidal wave of wonder, but invariably wreck havoc with the secure and stable foundations of your life – and no matter how you try and put them back in the box, once you've tasted freedom like that, there's no going back.

Peter Sellers at his absolute best

[Challie · 17 August 1998]

I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! is probably my definitive 60s romp.

This movie has so many classic comic moments, I don't know where to begin. It was written by Paul Mazursky and might just be the high point of his illustrious career.

In between great stuff like where Howard, his fiancee and Jewish parents unwittingly eat pot brownies and the scene where Howard's scene turns into a bummer, there's some decent commentary of the hypocricies of the 60s. Plus a focused Sellars performance as Harold Fine with some great Jewish humor.

I'm tempted to quote this movie non-stop.

If you are any kind of fan of Peter Sellars, I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

Nothing to like about this Alice.

[st-shot · 5/10 · 10 April 2014]

Harold Fine (Peter Sellers) is a successful button downed LA accident attorney living life by the numbers with a modicum of passion. Preparing listlessly to marry he runs across flower child Nancy (Leigh-Taylor Young)who offers him an alternative view as well as some mind altering weed brownies that in combination cause him to go Leary and drop out. Hooking up with Nancy they live in his car for awhile before getting a crash pad complete with hanger ons. While Harold is really tuned into Nancy he's turned off by the chaotic leisure and presence of the dead beats. Caught between two worlds, conflicted about where he belongs Harold seesaws with modern day existence.

Alice falls somewhere between Reefer Madness and Up in Smoke with its comic exploration of the notorious herb. While it is free of the bug eyed crazies that populated Reefer its just as dishonest with the response by its cast of characters (freaks and straights of all ages) who manage to peak two bites in then go on an oh wow laughing jag for half a day. Made within a year of The Summer of Love and a year before Woodstock it is more a burlesque attempt for mass consumption that would later be more fully informed by the gravitas of Cheech and Chong. Quaint and broad as it may be it does re-classify pot however from the insane drug of Dragnet and Reefer Madness with the comic attitude taken towards Prohibition in silent and early sound films.

Sellers rolls well with the fatuous script and Taylor-Young fills the hippie chic bill with ease but Jo Van Fleet as Harold's mother overacts outrageously along with a bit of feigned stoning by the rest of the cast that beats this labored idea into the ground in no time..

dropping out

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 16 September 2017]

Harold Fine (Peter Sellers) is a Los Angeles lawyer. He's having second thoughts about marrying Joyce. His family butcher dies and he goes to pick up his hippie brother Herbie living in Venice Beach for the funeral. Herbie's free-spirit girlfriend Nancy invites herself and goes home with Harold afterwards. While he's out, she bakes him some groovy brownies. After tasting the brownies, Harold decides to drop out.

With Peter Sellers, I was hoping for something much more hilarious. He's a fish out of water and has the potential for great comedy. His transformation should have been a series of hilarity. He flips a switch with a montage and a lot of potential is lost. Sellers still has some fun with the premise but it could have been better. Alice B. Toklas refers to the progressive writer and her cookbook with a cannabis brownie recipe. Overall, this has some fun with a timely premise.

Definitive 60's time warp!

[Psalm52 · 7 July 2006]

Sellar's character's arc from legal beagle to hippie starts slow. Watching the progress requires paying attention to the details in why his quest for Ms. Taylor-Young is so primal (I related), but once the film hits the mid-point (when she sleeps over his place) it makes sharp observations about: wedding planning, the purpose (love vs. guns) behind the social movement of the 60's against "the establishment", and the hilarious effects of accidental recreational drug use.

If you live in Los Angeles, you will appreciate the exterior scenes in the Venice Beach neighborhood and other areas which we frequent in the present world and how much they have/have not changed since the film was made. The ending comment on Sellar's character's choice NOT to walk down the aisle is not entirely plausible (for my taste) as I found "Joyce" a pleasant enough woman to marry and who is 110% in love w/ him.

Gertie Stein's companion: Alice Toklas ***

[edwagreen · 7/10 · 29 June 2014]

For the first time ever, I got to hear from Peter Sellers sounded like with his real voice. He plays the part of a conventional 35 year old Jewish attorney engaged to his secretary. All this changes rapidly when he meets his hippie brother's girlfriend and falls for her, leaving his bride-to-be at the altar.

The film was a definite triumph for Jo Van Fleet. In my wildest imagination, I never thought that she could do such a fantastic job as his mother in a comical role. She throws out Jewish expressions and must have remembered her vivid portrayal 13 years before as Susan Hayward's mother in "I'll Cry Tomorrow."

The picture is basically a story of the wild 1960s with just about everything going.

Peter Sellers

[beatle1909 · 7/10 · 15 May 2007]

I am so grateful, as an American Jew, that Peter Sellers agreed to play this role. He is the epitome of the regimented middle class Jewish boy, who came of age in those difficult times, know as the late sixties. He has one foot in the past, clinging to values, and one foot in the present, stuck in the mud. How Sellers captured this character so perfectly, down to the mannerisms and spot on accent, is beyond me. I know the history of Sellers, and his Jewish background. But he was English, and had spent little time in America. I can imagine Gene Wilder in this role, but it would not have been the same. This is a quintessential Jewish movie, to be seen on a double-bill with Bye,Bye, Braverman.

Time capsule

[enmussak · 5/10 · 13 December 2002]

This film had its theme song stuck in my head for a week. It was a combination of the B-52 "Love Shack" and Lamb Chop's "This is the song that doesn't end." Overall this film was a bore, but I did enjoy catching a glimpse into the 1960's... albeit from the hand of a seemingly out-of-touch director. Another thing this film did was make me do a little research on Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein, but the film really had nothing to do with them except in the reference to Toklas' invention of the pot brownie.

If you're a nut for the 60's go ahead with this one, but otherwise stay away. Sellers isn't really funny at all... but that's because he wasn't given a chance with the awful screenplay.

Groovy !

[Vineddike · 10/10 · 13 August 2018]

This movie is by no means flawless, but I simply love it.

better than I was expecting

[wellsortof · 7/10 · 12 April 2005]

I don't feel like I can rate this movie much higher than 7, although I did rather enjoy it. It began slow, but once Sellers meets his female match in Nancy's character, things start to move. I was personally a fan of all the "inadvertent" troubles Sellers's character kept getting into once he picked up the new psychedelic car, and how he was getting beaten down by all of the things in his own life. I'm sure that, at the time, the scene with the "groovy" brownies was quite new and perhaps had not been seen at all on TV or in movies, but it seems pretty predictable now (particularly with its use in "That 70s Show" and Never Been Kissed). The best thing about it is that it seems to provide a pretty good snapshot of the late 60s, from which my own remembrances of the era are in the form of not being born until 7 years after this movie was made.

Weak period comedy

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 24 July 2000]

I Love You Alice B Toklas may have been cutting edge social commentary in 1968 but now it looks as weary and worn out as its dramatic counterpart, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. By the time you've heard Harper's Bizarre sing the title tune for the third time you'll want to strangle 'em. Sellers is reasonably good, though he tends to rely too much on the vocal tics that were his Achilles heel throughout his career. Better than The Guru, but not by much.

Best movie about Hippie

[vincentik · 10/10 · 25 September 2013]

It's my favorite film and i more happy because screenplay was written by my favorite movie writer Paul Mazursky. It was his first screenplay for full-length movie after many works for serials. Also he was an Actor .... Hippie on Sidewalk (uncredited), executive producer, Soundtrack (lyrics: "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!" (1968) (uncredited)) Was wondered that Mazursky was born in my country - Ukraine) First what i feel after this movie it's freedom. I saw it 20 or more times and it's still seems fresh. I advise you to see this movie first time alone. After this movie i told myself i'll never marry) My favourite character - Herbie - sincere dude, which open mind and soul of his stupid stereotype brother. Nancy are my love for rest of my life. Thanks Director for opening Leigh Taylor-Young' talent. I saw her later in Soylent Green (1973) movie of Harry Harrison. And for final must say that soundtrack for I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! one of the best psychedelic score i ever heard. Enjoy and be yourself! Good luck! Om

I'm OK, you're a bit high. Stay off the freeway!

[bear1955 · 7/10 · 22 January 2014]

There was box office in capitalizing on, and for some, touting, the growing California counterculture in this other films. Not a bad trip yet was likely on their radar. The 'Hollywood' not involved in the mess of "Skidoo" or the heady "Head" made around the same time, went for a a trip presented as a more accessible and intimate story and got themselves a more 'important' actor in Peter Sellers for '...Toklas'.

This is a must-see anyway; well-crafted and I like the bit of a look at period Los Angeles. The smugness and progressive's way of dissing the "square" middle-class using the movie amongst others to give them the finger makes it difficult to enjoy the parts they intend as humor. I enjoy Sellers so much more another 1968 film "The Party" an affectionate, goof, warm-satirical look at their own fabu crowd up in the 'hills'.

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 3/10 · 25 December 2005]

With a strange title, but a memorable title song, this film is meant to be a satire on the hippie era and emancipating oneself. It is popular among those who were around in the 1960s, but is questionable whether the film will amuse other audiences. It is not very funny, with jokes that are more so absent than lame, a rather dull story, and really not very much to it at all. As usual, Peter Sellers brings some sparks to the material; the rest of the cast do very little with their roles, and some verge on being over-the-top. The film deserves credit for the title song, Seller's performance, and perhaps providing a snapshot of an era long past. It is not a particularly good film though. Hy Averback would have more success later on, directing episodes of the TV series 'M*A*S*H'.