Heartburn

By J.C.

ONE IS A LONELY NUMBER

Directed by MEL STUART

Screenplay by DAVID SELTZER

One day Amy threw her husband's copy of Milton out the window and he walked out on her. That was the way the marriage ended. The movie should have too.

But alas, the scene is the opening of One Is a Lonely Number. Amy (Trish Van Devere) spends the rest of the running time slogging around San Francisco in search of a little self-respect and what one adviser calls "the three gets: get a job, get a lawyer, get laid." She eventually succeeds on all counts, after no small amount of heartache along the way. Her only comfort is a kindly old grocer (Melvyn Douglas) who regales her with rather spooky memories of his own departed wife, "married 39 years and never separated."

Director Mel Stuart has made a handful of other movies (If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium; Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) whose most salient characteristics are long titles and low quality. Miss Van Devere, pert and funny in Where's Poppa?, seems to cringe with embarrassment at the start of each new scene, a technique calculated to gain our sympathy if not our interest. . J.C.

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