Stephen Schiff

“Mary Steenburgen has been a vague little bunny of an actress in her previous films—Goin’ South and Time After Time—but here she’s hit upon a comic balance that really works. With her strange, logy drawl, she’s bright and sleepy, sexy and silly, all at the same time. Her performance is translucent: you watch events touch her, watch her think things over and come to a decision, and when she talks or listens to somebody, you can’t see her acting; it’s as though she really had no idea what the next line of dialogue would be. Tall and slender and frizzy-haired, Steenburgen has a slinky body and a Kewpie-doll face. When she first leaves Melvin, she becomes a go-go dancer, and though she knows that her flirty wiggling tantalizes the denizens of the bald-headed row, she’s so unaffected and guileless that it’s as though she believed her audience were yelling and hooting out of happiness for her. When Melvin comes barging into the Sex Kat club, she’s thrilled, and so she shimmies in his direction. She doesn’t mean to taunt him, just wants hihm to share in her fun; when she says she’s working there because she loves to dance, you believe her.

“Steenburgen’s Lynda is a nymphet with the body of a sexpot, and people are drawn to her. For Melvin, she’s like a little piece of that providence which keeps leaving and coming back. In fact, she’s an investment, too…. Melvin just knows that if he can get Lynda on the [TV game show Easy Street], Easy Street will open before them….”

Stephen Schiff
Boston Phoenix, date?