Some of them promised they'd never fall in love.


Peter Bogdanovich wrote and directed this quirky romantic comedy that was shelved by Twentieth Century-Fox for a year, until Bogdanovich purchased the film from Fox and tried to distribute it himself, with limited success. Suave John Russo (Ben Gazzara), inept Charles Rutledge (John Ritter), and hip Arthur Brodsky (Blaine Novak) all work for a detective agency, where they are assigned to follow a trio of beautiful women -- Angela Niotes (Audrey Hepburn), Deborah Wilson (Patti Hansen) and Dolores Martin (Dorothy Stratten) -- whom their husbands think are cheating on them. Soon the three detectives all become romantically involved with the women they are trailing. In a real life scenario that overshadowed the film itself, Bogdanovich was having an affair with Dorothy Stratten during the production and they were being followed by a detective hired by her husband Paul Snider, who as a result ended up murdering his wife and himself.


They All Laughed is a 1981 film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, John Ritter, Colleen Camp, Patti Hansen, and Dorothy Stratten. The movie was based on a screenplay by Bogdanovich and Blaine Novak. It takes its name from the George and Ira Gershwin song "They All Laughed."


They All Laughed was the last theatrical film in which Audrey Hepburn played a lead role (she would later star in a made-for-TV film entitled Love Among Thieves and a cameo role in Always). According to an interview conducted by Wes Anderson in the DVD features for the film, director Peter Bogdanovich claims Hepburn and Ben Gazzara fell in love and had an affair while shooting Bloodline (1979). Though the affair was short-lived, it inspired the characters they would each play in They All Laughed.
Dorothy Stratten was murdered by her estranged husband/manager Paul Snider before the film's release. Stratten had begun an affair with Peter Bogdanovich during filming, and Snider hired a private detective to follow her. They separated and Stratten moved in with Bogdanovich, planning to file for divorce. When Snider was certain he had lost his wife and protegé, he murdered her, and killed himself.
Along with Heaven's Gate, Cruising, and One from the Heart, They All Laughed is generally regarded as the end of the New Hollywood period, and the director-driven studio films of the 1970s. Since the very public failures of these four films, Hollywood studios have never again allowed directors to control the films that they finance.
In recent years the film has experienced a level of positive reappraisal, with the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson now praising the film.[2] The movie was released to VHS on January 31, 1995; HBO Home Video released the film to DVD (as a 25th Anniversary Edition) on October 17, 2006.


Before the film was released, Time decided to shut down its movie making division. Bogdanovich decided to distribute the film himself. His manager later claimed the director spent $5 million on it but it made less than $1 million in ticket sales. This contributed to the director declaring bankruptcy in 1985.[3]
Bogdanovich later wrote about the making of the movie in The Killing Of The Unicorn - Dorothy Stratten 1960-1980.

Release Date: November 13, 1981


Distrib: Moon Pictures