First Family

White House Follies
"First Family" is a fitfully funny, not raucously so, political satire. Strange that it doesn't have more bite because it's the brainchild of Buck Henry who created "Get Smart" with Mel Brooks and co-wrote the screen adaptation of "The Graduate" with Calder Willingham. Equally strange was this film was released during the Carter Administration so they could have mined that for inspiration. Best bits include the Ambassador of Gorm(Julius Harris) and his command of English phraseology, the First Daughter (Gilda Radner) taking part in a fertility ritual, and the President (Bob Newhart) relating a recurring "soup" dream to his interpreter(Austin Pendleton). Solid work is offered by a veteran comic cast(Newhart, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, et. al.) Radner, who along with Tina Fey was probably the greatest female talent to emerge from "Saturday Night Live", is genuinely wasted in a thankless role. Truth be told Radner was never effectively used on the big screen even in the vehicles...





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