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The April Fools

The April Fools

Drama · Comedy · Romance · 1969

Newly-promoted if none too happily married Howard Brubaker leaves a rowdy company party early with the stunning Catherine, whom it turns out is herself unhappily married — to the boss. They spend an innocent night in New York becoming more and more attracted to each other, so that when Catherine announces she intends to leave her husband and return to Paris, Howard asks to go along too.

Movie details

The April Fools

“He has a wife. She has a husband. With so much in common they just have to fall in love.”

1969 Drama · Comedy · Romance 1h 35m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.1 / 10

1.6K votes

Metacritic

47 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Newly-promoted if none too happily married Howard Brubaker leaves a rowdy company party early with the stunning Catherine, whom it turns out is herself unhappily married — to the boss. They spend an innocent night in New York becoming more and more attracted to each other, so that when Catherine announces she intends to leave her husband and return to Paris, Howard asks to go along too.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The April Fools?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Stuart Rosenberg

Written by

Hal Dresner

Jack Lemmon

Jack Lemmon

Howard Brubaker

Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Gunther

Peter Lawford

Peter Lawford

Ted Gunther

Jack Weston

Jack Weston

Potter Shrader

Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy

Grace Greenlaw

Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer

Andre Greenlaw

Kenneth Mars

Kenneth Mars

Les Hopkins

Court is in session

Put The April Fools on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.