It's My Turn (1980)

Director:

Claudia Weill

Writer:

Eleanor Bergstein (written by)

Release Date:

6 March 1981 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Just when she thought she had everything right...in stepped Mr. Wrong.

Plot:

A successful but stressed mathematics professor (Clayburgh) goes to her father's wedding and falls in love with her father's bride's son (Douglas)...

Plot Keywords:

Mathematics | Baseball | Wedding | New York City | Mathematical Equation

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jill Clayburgh	...	Kate Gunzinger
Michael Douglas	...	Ben Lewin
Charles Grodin	...	Homer
Beverly Garland	...	Emma
Steven Hill	...	Jacob
Teresa Baxter	...	Maryanne
Joan Copeland	...	Rita
John Gabriel	...	Hunter
Charles Kimbrough	...	Jerome
Roger Robinson	...	Flicker
Jennifer Salt	...	Maisie
Daniel Stern	...	Cooperman
Dianne Wiest	...	Gail (as Diane Wiest)
Ron Frazier	...	Professor (as Ronald C. Frazier)
Edwin McDonough	...	Professor (as Edwin J. McDonough)
Toshi Toda	...	Professor
Robert Ackerman	...	Good Will Man
Raf Mauro	...	Jerry Lanz Man (as Ralph Mauro)
Michael Alaimo	...	Man at Restaurant
Ernie Lively	...	Man at Restaurant (as Ernie Brown)
Noah Hathaway	...	Homer's Son
Marlyn Gates	...	Homer's Daughter
Raymond Singer	...	Rabbi
David Goodman	...	Man in Baseball Stands
James Desmond	...	Man in Baseball Stands
Steven Fromewick	...	Man in Baseball Stands
Joe Hamer	...	Man in Baseball Stands
Paul Blair	...	Himself
Héctor López	...	Himself (as Hector Lopez)
Joe Collins	...	Himself
Frank McCormick	...	Himself
Larry Doby	...	Himself
Tony Ferrera	...	Himself
Sal Maglie	...	Himself
Bob Feller	...	Himself
Mickey Mantle	...	Himself
Tony Ferrara	...	Himself
Roger Maris	...	Himself
Whitey Ford	...	Himself
Willard Marshall	...	Himself
Al Forman	...	Himself
Frank Messer	...	Himself
Tom Gorman	...	Himself
Johnny Orsino	...	Himself
Bud Harrelson	...	Himself
Dusty Rhodes	...	Himself
Gene Hermanski	...	Himself
Specs Shea	...	Himself
Elston Howard	...	Himself
Ron Tellefsen	...	Himself
Monte Irvin	...	Himself
Bobby Thomson	...	Himself
Ed Kranepool	...	Himself
Bill White	...	Himself
John Kuchs	...	Himself
Sal Yvars	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James Gammon	...	Connie Foxworth (uncredited)
Nora Heflin	...	Maisie (uncredited)
Lou Mulford	...	Woman at restaurant (uncredited)
Daniel J. Travanti	...	Interviewer (uncredited)

Directed by
Claudia Weill

Writing credits
Eleanor Bergstein		(written by)

Produced by
Martin Elfand	....	producer
Norman Gan	....	associate producer
Jay Presson Allen	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Patrick Williams

Cinematography by
Bill Butler		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Byron 'Buzz' Brandt
James Coblentz
Marjorie Fowler
David Bretherton		(uncredited)

Casting by
Jane Jenkins
Jennifer Shull		(uncredited)

Production Design by
Jackson De Govia		(as Jack De Govia)

Set Decoration by
Linda DeScenna

Costume Design by
Ruth Myers

Makeup Department
Damon Grill	....	hair stylist
Lee Harman	....	makeup artist
Diane Pepper	....	hair stylist
Martin Samuel	....	hair stylist: Miss Clayburgh (as Martin Samuels)

Production Management
Bob Schneider	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Rafael Elortegui	....	second assistant director
Tom Fritz	....	second assistant director: New York
David McGiffert	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Geoff Hubbard	....	set designer
John R. Jensen	....	construction coordinator (as John Jenson)
Erik L. Nelson	....	property master (as Erik Nelson)
Charles Truhan	....	set decorator: New York
William Apperson	....	propmaker foreman (uncredited)
James Arrigo	....	propmaker foreman (uncredited)
Michael B. Bunch	....	general construction foreman (uncredited)

Sound Department
Wayne Artman	....	sound re-recording mixer
Tom Beckert	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jeff Bushelman	....	sound effects editor
Michael Jiron	....	sound re-recording mixer
Cabell Smith	....	sound mixer: New York
Pat Somerset	....	sound effects editor
Charles M. Wilborn	....	production sound mixer
Kenneth Schwarz	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Colin J. Campbell	....	gaffer (as Colin Campbell)
James R. Connell	....	camera operator (as Jimmy Connell)
James A. Contner	....	camera operator: New York (as James Contner)
Ron Frantzvog	....	second assistant camera
Michael Genne	....	first assistant camera
James Gray	....	key grip: New York
George Hill	....	key grip
Al Meyers	....	gaffer: New York
Gary Muller	....	second assistant camera: New York
Hank Muller	....	first assistant camera: New York
Mel Traxel	....	still photographer
Garrett Brown	....	Steadicam operator (uncredited)

Casting Department
Sylvia Fay	....	extras casting: New York (as Sylvia Faye)
Janet Hirshenson	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Cynthia Bales	....	costumer: women
Eddie Marks	....	costumer: men

Editorial Department
Mike Klein	....	assistant editor
Tim McAvoy	....	assistant editor
Joy Wilson	....	assistant editor
Dennis Michelson	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Cliff Kohlweck	....	music editor
Phil Woods	....	musician: saxophone solo

Transportation Department
Richard Belyeu	....	transportation captain (as Rick Belyeu)
James E. Foote	....	transportation coordinator (as Jimmy Foote)

Other crew
Renee Bodner	....	continuity: New York (as Rene Bodner)
Kirk Borcherding	....	auditor
Wayne Fitzgerald	....	title designer
Wilma Garscadden-Gahret	....	continuity (as Wilma Garscadden)
Scott MacDonough	....	unit publicist (as Scott McDonough)
Susan Milrod	....	assistant: Miss Weill
Paula Montgomery	....	production coordinator
Sandra Morley	....	assistant to producer
Larry Rapaport	....	location scout: New York
Martina Ritt	....	production assistant
Nancy Zearfoss	....	location manager
Benedict Gross	....	mathematics consultant (uncredited)

Thanks
Dick Richards	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation
• Rastar Films

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1980) (USA) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1984) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Warner-Columbia Film (1981) (France) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• Columbia Pictures  presents
• McCorkle-Sturtevant  additional casting

Also Known As:

A Perfect Circle

Runtime:

Spain:91 min | USA:91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:L | Australia:PG | Finland:S | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Jill Clayburgh's proof of the "Snake Lemma" at the very beginning of the movie is technically perfect. In Charles A. Weibel's book, "An Introduction to Homological Algebra" (Cambridge U. Press, 1994), there appears the following: "We will not print the proof (of the Snake Lemma) in these notes, because it is best done visually. In fact, a clear proof is given by Jill Clayburgh at the beginning of the movie 'It's My Turn.'"

Quotes:

[First lines.]
Kate Gunzinger: Let me just show you how to *construct* the map S, which is the fun of the lemma anyhow, okay? So you assume you have an element in the kernel of gamma, that is, an element in C, such that gamma takes you to 0 in C-prime. You pull it back to B, via map g, which is surjective...
Cooperman: Hold it, hold it, hold it. That's -- that's not unique.
Kate Gunzinger: Yes, it is unique, Mr. Cooperman. Up to an element of the image of f, all right? So we've pulled it back to a fixed B here. Then you take beta of B, which takes you to 0 in C-prime, by the commutivity of the diagram. It's therefore in the kernel of the map g-prime, hence is in the image of the map f-prime, by the exactness of the lower sequence...
Cooperman: No.
Kate Gunzinger: ...so we can pull it back...
Cooperman: No.
Kate Gunzinger: ...to an element in A-prime...
Cooperman: It's not well defined!
Kate Gunzinger: ...which it turns out is *well* defined *modulo* the image of alpha. And thus defines the element in the co-kernel of alpha...
[...]

Soundtrack:

This Is My Love

SWF, professional,liberated, 30s, seeks "the real thing"

The final chapter in Jill Clayburgh's unplanned "independent woman" trilogy (the first two were "An Unmarried Woman" and "Starting Over"). This one is from the same writer as "Dirty Dancing," which probably explains why the main character in each is a Jewish woman who is very much "daddy's little girl."

Here, the protagonist is perhaps the most glamorous mathematics professor ever (she wears stilettos to class, but earthy gal that she is, removes them while solving equations at the blackboard). She's got relationship issues with her widowed dad who's remarrying, and with her divorced live-in boyfriend, plus she's conflicted about whether to take a new job in a new city that pays much more, but won't allow her to continue her research. She breezily describes her various complications as "modern problems," which tells you that the creators here felt they were at the very cutting edge of portraying the quintessential "liberated" woman. Laura Linney's character in "You Can Count On Me" had a similarly complicated life, but that film didn't feel the need for its characters to be so self-aware.

Michael Douglas enters the picture to help her figure out where/how to get the healthy, giving relationship that everyone around her seems to have, and that therefore is "her turn" to get (get it?)

This is a decent movie that actually doesn't feel particularly dated, (save for Clayburgh's Oscar-bait "big scene" towards the end) despite its obvious 70's era feminist overtones. But perhaps because of its agenda, the romance doesn't exactly sweep you off your feet.

As with most movies from the 80s, part of the fun is seeing what stars/faces of the future show up. Here, we get a young Daniel Stern, almost unrecognizable as Clayburgh's star pupil, and future "Law and Order" District Attorneys Steven Hill and Dianne Wiest.