Cinema: Second-Class Male

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The Tiger Makes Out. On the dark streets of Manhattan, a neurotic off-duty postman (Eli Wallach) goes on the prowl. Tired of being a second-class male, he decides to turn himself into a parcel of sexual energy. Mumbling to pretty girls as they pass, he ends every sentence with a proposition—and remains ignored. In manic desperation, he zeroes in on a likely target, claps a raincoat over her head, and spirits her away to his apartment.

The mugged girl turns out to be a bugged housewife (Anne Jackson) with even more identity crises than he. She is surrounded by mink coats, but only wants a sheepskin to prove that she has a mind. He is merely a hero-worshiping intellectual—his walls are covered with pictures of Napoleon, Schweitzer and Einstein—who wants to be a womanizing tiger.

From the brittle material of his off-Broadway play The Tiger, Author Murray Schisgal has fashioned a cinematic cornucopia overflowing with sight and sound gags. In the end, the film degenerates into flat-out vaudeville buffoonery, but along the way it offers enough laughs to supply an entire season of canned TV comedies. The near-perfect performances of Jackson and Wallach—recreating their stage roles—are augmented by a parade of outstanding character actors. The funniest: Charles Nelson Reilly, as a clock-watching university registrar whose face is a festival of tics.