Gene Hackman is completely winning as George Dupler, an average Joe who vents after repeatedly being passed over for promotion in his company. So he gets demoted to managing an all-night drugstore - a place with a decidedly weird clientele. He buys some trouble for himself when he pursues new acquaintance Cheryl Gibbons (Barbra Streisand),who's already been getting it on with Georges' teenage son Freddie (Dennis Quaid)!

Overall, an interesting venture for the stars that didn't really deserve to bomb so mightily in its time. It's flawed, to be sure (for one thing, it's not completely resolved to any real satisfaction),but it has a certain endearing quality. In that sense, it's much like the unconventional casting of Streisand here, who was a replacement for Lisa Eichhorn. (Supposedly, Gene and Lisa did not get along, which is one reason given why the switch was made.) But Babs is fairly likeable here, and much of the cast does fine work. "All Night Long" is just offbeat and loopy enough to be watchable, although it works better when depicting the strange folk who come out at night, rather than the romance at the centre of the plot. (The screenplay is by W.D. Richter, who more often than not has specialized in offbeat tales, like his directorial debut, "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the Eighth Dimension".)

Hackman is the main reason to watch. He's at his most engaging, playing this middle aged man dealing with the various setbacks and nuances at this stage in his life. But there's a steady parade of familiar faces in supporting and bit parts to perk things up: Kevin Dobson, William Daniels, Hamilton Camp, Ann Doran, Raleigh Bond, Tandy Cronyn, Terry Kiser, Vernee Watson, Chris Mulkey, Richard Stahl, Bonnie Bartlett, etc.

In the almost 40 years since this release, Gene and Babs have expressed negativity towards the film if they indeed acknowledged it at all. And many Streisand fans denote it as a low point in her career. But the casual movie watcher might not be so harsh, and see this for what it is: a harmless, amiable trifle.

Six out of 10.

Perhaps over the years, this film has grown on me a bit, or maybe it's 25+ years in the corporate world which helps me relate to Gene Hackman's frustration. He hadn't had a really big film since "The French Connection" so this was originally planned as a low budget comedy, the type that would come and go so quickly and ultimately end up with one dusty video on the shelf at your local movie rental store. But in came the Barbra known as Streisand and it moved up to A status. Perhaps the script should have been dusted off because while it's not horrible, it's one that could have been a lot better considering the talent involved.

There should have been a better putting with the unforgettable visual of a chair flying out of a skyscraper window. what part itself isn't bad, but we really don't get an explanation as to why Gene Hackman has gone ballistic, or as I saw it, not one that would make you really rude for him outside of basic work frustration that we all have. The scene reminded me of the better opening of "The Hudsucker Proxy" where Charles Durning danced down the giant table and jumped out the window.

The heads of the company don't want to fire him so they move him to be the graveyard manager of a drugstore, the bottom of the barrel as far as a career professional is concerned. When a distant relative passes away, Hackman becomes entranced by far off inlaw Streisand whom he finds out is having an affair (unseen) with his son Dennis Quaid. Wife Diane Ladd isn't pleased by it either, and when Hackman and Streisand are revealed to be canoodling, it's off to divorce court which follows up with Hackman quitting his job without notice, losing his pension in the process.

There are some memorable moments in this rather dark comedy, particularly those in the drug store, with Hackman trying to stop a prankster with shoplifter and later on encounter with a very tough woman robber. Streisand is playing the type of zany character she had played in those early seventies comedies, and at one point, sings off key a country song, sounding like a Loretta Lynn wannabee, a little nod to the recent success of "Coal Miner's Daughter".

Mixed moments of humor don't make a great film, and the film is often unpleasant in its efforts to be quirky. Kevin Dobson plays a very uncharming relative as Streisand's husband, but Ladd is very good as Hackman's wife. There's also little chemistry between the two stars, and while Streisand is doing her best, she isn't always comfortable being basically supporting when usually the focus.

This is the type of film that Streisand fans will watch once, then switch back to "What's Up Doc?" Hackman suffers from the fact that his character isn't particularly well developed. It's a curious comic flop coming from the same year as "Arthur" in which fellow musical diva Liza Minnelli succeeded far more as support to Dudley Moore and had far more chemistry as well as a better script.

Stuck-in-a-rut businessman Gene Hackman gets fed up with the rat race after being demoted from company executive to manager of an all-night convenience store. He longs to be an inventor (he creates a reverse-image mirror),and ends up divorcing his non-supportive wife over speculation he's having an affair with his teenage son's married girlfriend, a flighty sexpot in lavender chiffon. Comedy-drama has some early promise but not enough jokes, and it starts to sag just 40 minutes in. Hackman displays his effortless charm, and Barbra Streisand attempts something offbeat--though it's a gamble which doesn't quite pay off, as we never get a grip on her wispy Cheryl. The picture is a cracked egg: interesting conception and design, yet unsatisfactory. There are a handful of funny lines and trenchant bits of satire scattered about, and every scene in the drug store is ripe with possibilities which are then left unformed and unrealized. *1/2 from ****