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It's unfortunate that Peter Sellers should be making his comeback just at a moment when American movie comedies are not. Sellers has been at his worst recently with "The Bobo," " Casino Royale " (1967) and "What's New Pussycat?" -- all of which pampered his seemingly insatiable desire to dress in half a dozen costumes and try out new accents.

But Sellers began to turn the corner again in Blake Edwards' " The Party ," and now in "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas" he is back doing what he does best. That is, he plays a character that is orthodox, conventional and almost monomaniacal about respectability -- and the character suddenly gets dumped into a totally different life style.

Our best memories of Sellers all have him in this context: The priggish union leader of "I'm All Right, Jack," who suddenly found himself on television; the timid bank clerk of "Battle of the Sexes," who decided to commit a murder; the military man of "The Mouse That Roared," stalking through Manhattan with bow and arrow; the visitor from India in "The Party." Even Inspector Clouseau was the same basic character: timid, full of bravado, in over his head, struggling to save face.

The trouble with the Inspector Clouseau films ("A Shot in the Dark" and the 1964 " The Pink Panther ") from Sellers' point of view was that they encouraged him to substitute sight gags and pratfalls for what he does best -- building a character. In his other recent films, we saw Sellers as Napoleon, a bullfighter, a nutty analyst -- but never as a classic Sellers character.

In "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas," Sellers is at last back home. He plays a single man of about 35, a lawyer with a great respect for appearances, who finally agrees out of politeness to marry the girl he's been dating for several years. She's the sort of girl who can't wait to leave her fiancé, once he's popped the question, so she can telephone her mother and tell her the news: Enough said.

But Sellers gets rescued from the altar all the same, after his own mother sends him on an expedition to find his brother. The brother has become a hippie and attends the funeral of a family friend wearing the Hopi Indian burial costume. He also brings along a really good-looking chick ( Leigh Taylor-Young ) and Sellers falls for her and, by extension, for the hippie life.

This first half of the film is the best, as Sellers gradually bends the middle-class into non-class. There are perceptive touches: the girl stays all night at his apartment, and he promises ("my word of honor") that the door between their rooms will remain closed. "Are you afraid of me?" she asks. "I won't come in." Again, the, next day, when he leaves, he implores her not to answer the telephone if it rings.

This kind of stuff is good and pretty close to the mark, and Sellers is very funny. Unfortunately, the movie's general approach to hippiedom is what we've come to dread. Hippies wear funny clothes, sleep on the stove, don't wash, read the Los Angeles Free Press, bake pot brownies, put up posters everywhere and operate with a sort of mindless, directionless love ethic. So the movie becomes conventional after all. If they'd dropped Sellers into a real hippie culture, we might really have had a movie here.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968)

Peter Sellers as Harold

Jo Van Fleet as Mother

Joyce Van Patten as Joyce

David Arkin as Herbie

Herb Edelman as Murray

Leigh Taylor-Young as Nancy

Directed by

• Hy Averback

Screenplay by

• Paul Mazursky
• Larry Tucker

Photographed by

• Philip Lathrop

Produced by

• Charles McGuire

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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas Reviews

This dimly predictable comedy tries to have its hashish cake and eat it several times over.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2020

The caricatures of hippies at best will earn cheap laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 13, 2010

This first half of the film is the best, as Sellers gradually bends the middle-class into non-class.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 30, 2006

By the end of it I was feeling a certain amount of resentment at having been had, along with Alice B. Toklas, whose name, apparently, is to become an automatic laugh, like smog and girdle.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 30, 2006

It's conventional and derivative and middlebrow enough to fall back on broad stereotypes of what audiences in Omaha thought of the 'hippie movement.'

Full Review | Jun 18, 2006

It's an embarrassment in Sellers' career, one best forgotten and/or ignored.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 15, 2006

uninteresting

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 8, 2006

I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

Film is not heavyhanded in its approach either to hippie life, or to what is considered 'normal' modes of behavior. Instead, there is a sympathetic look at the advantages and disadvantages of each.

By Variety Staff

Variety Staff

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Film is not heavyhanded in its approach either to hippie life, or to what is considered ‘normal’ modes of behavior. Instead, there is a sympathetic look at the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Pic derives its prime value from an excellent screenplay. Story is relatively simple: Peter Sellers, an LA lawyer, turns on to hippie life as an escape from conformity and hypocrisy. Later, he finds out that human nature is independent of superficial environment, returns briefly to his former life, but winds up running away again.

Film blasts off into orbit via top-notch acting and direction. Sellers’ performance – both in scenes which spotlight his character as well as ensemble sequences in which everyone is balanced nicely – is an outstanding blend of warmth, sensitivity, disillusion and optimism.

Popular on Variety

Jo Van Feet is simply brilliant as Sellers’ mother, with Salem Ludwig also on target as his dad. Joyce Van Patten’s performance as Sellers’ pushy fiancee is delightful.

• Production: Warner/Seven Arts. Director Hy Averback; Producer Charles Maguire; Screenplay Paul Mazursky, Larry Tucker; Camera Philip Lathrop; Editor Robert C. Jones; Music Elmer Bernstein; Art Director Pato Guzman
• Crew: (Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1968. Running time: 92 MIN.
• With: Peter Sellers Jo Van Fleet Leigh Taylor-Young Joyce Van Patten David Arkin Herb Edelman

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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

Where to Watch

Peter Sellers (Harold Fine) Jo Van Fleet (Mrs. Fine - Harold's mother) Leigh Taylor-Young (Nancy) Joyce Van Patten (Joyce) David Arkin (Herbie Fine) Herb Edelman (Murray) Salem Ludwig (Father) Louis Gottlieb (Guru) Grady Sutton (Funeral Director) Janet Clark (Mrs. Foley)

Hy Averback

A thirty-something square falls in love with a hippie and decides to "drop out" himself.

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More about I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

I love you, alice b. toklas / a fine madness / the loved one.

Satires that aspire to tap into the cultural zeitgeist often age about as well as mayonnaise left out in the sun. …

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Movie Review

I love you, alice b. toklas.

US Release Date: 10-18-1968

Directed by: Hy Averback

Starring ▸ ▾

• Peter Sellers ,  as
• Jo Van Fleet ,  as
• Leigh Taylor-Young ,  as
• Joyce Van Patten ,  as
• David Arkin ,  as
• Herb Edelman ,  as
• Salem Ludwig ,  as
• Louis Gottlieb ,  as
• Grady Sutton as
• Funeral Director

Peter Sellers as an aging hippie.

“I love you Alice B. Toklas… And so does Gertrude Stein.” These are lyrics from the incredibly catchy theme song that plays seemingly throughout this comedy about an uptight Los Angeles lawyer that meets and falls for a hippie chick and then rashly decides to join the counterculture. The title refers to Gertrude Stein’s lifelong lover’s recipe for marijuana brownies. They play an important part in the movie and are the impetus for its funniest scene.

Writers Paul Mazursky (he would later direct such hits as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Down and Out in Beverly Hills ) and Larry Tucker wrote the subversively funny, and very of its time-era, script. They had previously written an episode of the television show The Monkees together. They manage to poke equal fun at the status quo and the hippie movement by showing the absurdity of human nature. When a hippie guru tells Peter Sellers that he will know himself only when he stops trying, Sellers replies, “I’m trying to stop trying, Guru.”

In the funniest scene in the movie Sellers unknowingly serves marijuana brownies to his parents and fiancée. His parents begin to laugh hysterically while his fiancée keeps telling Sellers to “take me now.” Jo Van Fleet steals the scene. She plays Sellers’ very Jewish mother. Her laugh is infectious as hell. She was a very talented actress as she had demonstrated the year before playing Paul Newman’s Southern redneck mother in Cool Hand Luke . These two mothers are polar opposites but she pulled them both off beautifully.

Leigh Taylor-Young made her movie debut here as the sex-kitten, hippie-chick that Sellers falls for. Herb Edelman, that you may recognize from The Golden Girls (he was Dorothy’s ex-husband Stan), plays Sellers’ horn-dog, law-firm partner and best friend.

The climactic scene involves a houseful of hippies and Peter Sellers saying to his girlfriend, "I've got pot, I've got acid, I've got LSD cubes, I've got... I've got this thing here... (gesturing towards a stoned guy sitting on his stovetop) I'm probably the hippest guy around here. I'm so hip, it hurts!"

In one scene a white auto mechanic (the familiar faced Sidney Clute) tells Sellers that his son has run off to San Francisco with a “colored girl”. Later a black gas station attendant tells Sellers’ mother that his daughter has run off to San Francisco with a “white boy”. Both fathers are equally dismayed at their children’s actions. The black father is played by Roy Glenn, the same guy that played Sidney Poitier’s father in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner the previous year.

With its long hair, love beads, lava lamps and throw pillows on the floor this movie positively screams 1968. It's a funny look at the foibles of the hippie movement where everyone tosses the word “Love” around but no one has any concept of responsibility.  

Photos © Copyright Warner Brothers/Seven Arts (1968)

© 2000 - 2017 Three Movie Buffs. All Rights Reserved.

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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

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Film Details

• Articles & Reviews

Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, hy averback, peter sellers, jo van fleet, leigh taylor-young, joyce van patten, david arkin, photos & videos, technical specs.

After constant badgering from his persistent 33-year-old secretary/girl friend Joyce, Harold Fine, a successful Los Angeles Jewish lawyer who suffers from asthma, finally consents to set a wedding date. On that day his car gets banged up in a parking lot mishap and he borrows a psychedelically-painted station wagon from a garage. At the insistence of his mother, he agrees to attend the local butcher's funeral, and he stops by for his hippie brother Herbie, who has in tow a beautiful flower child named Nancy. A hearse drivers' strike results in Harold's loading the butcher's casket into the psychedelic wagon and delivering it--after much delay--to the cemetery. Later that day Harold encounters Nancy a second time and lets her stay the night in his apartment. By way of thanks, she uses a recipe from the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book and bakes him some marijuana-filled brownies which subsequently intoxicate Joyce, Harold, and his parents. Later, when Harold finds Nancy working in a dress shop, he decides he loves both her and her way of life, and he literally walks out on Joyce during their wedding ceremony. He then quits his job, lets his hair grow, and turns his apartment into a crash pad for about 40 assorted hippies. Eventually, however, as his asthma returns, he tires of communal living, as well as Nancy's attentions to others, clears out his pad, cuts his hair, and returns to Joyce. But upon entering the marriage hall where the wedding guests have assembled for the second time, Harold again balks and races from the scene.

Herbert Edelman

Salem ludwig, louis gottlieb.

Grady Sutton

Janet e. clark, jorge moreno, jack margolis, carol o'leary.

Sidney Clute

Joe dominguez, william bramley, vince howard, robert miller driscoll, karen mickievic, elmer bernstein, audrey blasdel, jack cunningham, pato guzman, everett a. hughes, robert c. jones, philip lathrop, charles maguire, paul mazursky, jean burt reilly, bert steinberger, bob thompson, larry tucker, theadora van runkle, photo collections.

Hosted Intro

The Essentials-I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

Trivia-I Love You, Alice B. Toklas - Trivia & Fun Facts About I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS!

Trivia-i love you, alice b. toklas - trivia & fun facts about i love you, alice b. toklas, the big idea-i love you, alice b. toklas, behind the camera-i love you, alice b. toklas, i love you, alice b. toklas, critics' corner-i love you, alice b. toklas, critics' corner-i love you, alice b. toklas, i love you, alice b. toklas - peter sellers in i love you, alice b. toklas.

I'm trying to stop trying, guru. - Harold Fine

Mondo Teeth. What a concept. Teeth, teeth, and yet, more teeth! - Harold Fine

I've got pot, I've got acid, I've got LSD cubes. I'm probably the hippest guy around here. I'm so hip, it hurts! - Harold

The film's title is a tribute to Gertrude Stein's lifelong partner, Alice B. Toklas, who published a cookbook in 1954 which contained the first printed recipe for hash fudge. In the movie's most famous scene Nancy serves some cookies laced with marijuana to Harold Fine and his parents.

Location scenes filmed at the Leo Carrillo State Beach, California.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States Summer August 1968

Released in United States on Video July 18, 1990

Released in United States July 1996

Paul Mazursky has a bit part in the film.

Released in United States July 1996 (Shown in New York City (Lighthouse Cinema) July 19-20, 1996.)

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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

• A thirty-something square falls in love with a hippie and decides to "drop out" himself.
• Peter Sellers stars as Harold Fine, a self-described square--a 35-year-old Los Angeles lawyer who is not looking forward to middle age and his upcoming wedding. His life changes, however, when he falls in love with Nancy, a free-spirited, innocent, and beautiful young hippie. After Harold and his family enjoy some of her "groovy" brownies, he decides to "drop out" with her and become a hippie too. But can he return to his old life when he discovers that the hippie lifestyle is just a little too independent and irresponsible for his tastes? — <[email protected]>
• Thirty-five year old Los Angeles based Jewish lawyer Harold Fine is straight-laced and conservative. He has just asked his long-time girlfriend Joyce, who also happens to be his and his business partner Murray's secretary, to marry him. The marriage proposal was done more out of pressure than want, as he isn't sure if he really loves her. Marriage to Joyce just seems to be the next logical step in the natural progression of their relationship and his preordained life. Due to a family situation, Harold tracks down his hippie brother Herbie Fine, whose lifestyle is the bane of their overbearing mother's existence. Through Herbie, Harold meets twenty year old flower child Nancy, to whom he is attracted. Eventually, Harold's attraction to her leads to him ditching his conservative life and becoming a hippie himself, which centers on his new romantic relationship with Nancy and everyone's love of her pot-laced brownies. As Harold's hippie life and relationship to Nancy progress, he comes to a conclusion whether his former life or his current life is what he wants for his future. — Huggo

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

This dimly predictable comedy tries to have its hashish cake and eat it several times over.

The caricatures of hippies at best will earn cheap laughs.

This first half of the film is the best, as Sellers gradually bends the middle-class into non-class.

By the end of it I was feeling a certain amount of resentment at having been had, along with Alice B. Toklas, whose name, apparently, is to become an automatic laugh, like smog and girdle.

It's conventional and derivative and middlebrow enough to fall back on broad stereotypes of what audiences in Omaha thought of the 'hippie movement.'

It's an embarrassment in Sellers' career, one best forgotten and/or ignored.

uninteresting

Additional Info

• Genre : Comedy
• Release Date : October 4, 1968
• Languages : English
• Captions : English
• Audio Format : Stereo

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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

• There are no locations currently available for this title

• Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Dennis Schwartz The caricatures of hippies at best will earn cheap laughs.
• Filmcritic.com Christopher Null uninteresting
• Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert This first half of the film is the best, as Sellers gradually bends the middle-class into non-class.
• DVDTalk.com David Cornelius It's an embarrassment in Sellers' career, one best forgotten and/or ignored.
• New York Times Vincent Canby By the end of it I was feeling a certain amount of resentment at having been had, along with Alice B. Toklas, whose name, apparently, is to become an automatic laugh, like smog and girdle.
• DVDJournal.com Mark Bourne It's conventional and derivative and middlebrow enough to fall back on broad stereotypes of what audiences in Omaha thought of the 'hippie movement.'

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‘Am I OK?’ Review: When It’s Time to Grow Up

Dakota Johnson stars in an expansive friendship comedy about coming out in your 30s and finding yourself.

• Share full article

By Alissa Wilkinson

The appeal of the late bloomer movie is rooted in its parent genre: the coming-of-age story. Our heroine begins a little naïve and learns some hard but good lessons, maybe falls in love. Sometimes a mentor provides wisdom before leaving her to stand on her own two feet. In a traditional coming-of-age story, the protagonist is usually very young, so that world is full of possibility. Anything could happen next.

But with a late bloomer, the world’s possibilities have been shut down a little, and that shifts the tone. Decisions about career, friendships and family have already been made; the stakes of change are higher. That means a late bloomer story could be a comedy, or it could feel more melancholy, even like a tragedy. There’s an inherent realism in a film like “All of Us Strangers” or “Her” or “20th Century Women” that’s bracing and invigorating.

Depending on your age, Lucy (Dakota Johnson), who is 32, may not feel old enough to be termed a late bloomer. But she certainly feels like she is. The protagonist of “Am I OK?” has settled into a quiet, unchallenging Los Angeles life. She’s the kind of person who stares at a diner menu full of options and then orders the same meal — veggie burger, sweet potato fries, black iced coffee — every time. She spends most of her free time with Jane (Sonoya Mizuno), her childhood best friend, and keeps her life ripple-free. She’s never been in love. At the end of dinners with Ben (Whitmer Thomas), the guy she’s ostensibly dating, she shakes his hand.

By her own admission, Lucy is nervous all the time, “scared of everything.” Worse, she says, she’s not sure if she’s ever been happy, or what even makes her happy. She has built herself a comfortable box to live in, as long as nothing changes.

Her box is about to cave in. One day, Jane announces that she’s moving to London for work, and Lucy suddenly feels unmoored. A feeling that’s been growing inside her is now too strong to ignore: Lucy knows she’s attracted to women. And she’s especially attracted to Brittany (Kiersey Clemons), the peppy new masseuse at the spa where she works as a receptionist.

This one-two punch sends Lucy on a journey of self-discovery, which sounds like it could be the premise for a very annoying movie filled with metaphorical pratfalls and tired, winking tropes. Thankfully, that’s not “Am I OK?,” and there’s an obvious reason: Lucy is the semi-autobiographical creation of the screenwriter Lauren Pomerantz, and the story is based on her own experience.

Directed with a light and understated touch by a power couple — the comedian Tig Notaro and the actress Stephanie Allynne — the movie feels very lived-in, the banter fresh and funny, even if sometimes it feels like it’s standing in place a bit too long (a scene involving a “hammock sanctuary,” while funny, seems out of place in this script).

A late bloomer story depends on the audience believing the character isn’t too naïve, but also has space to grow, and that works well here. While Johnson has had a weird career in the past few years, culminating in the bizarre “ Madame Web ,” this movie, which premiered at Sundance in 2022, gives her the kind of role that matches her matter-of-fact public persona, even if Lucy is much more shy. The right chemistry is there, too — if you told me Johnson and Mizuno had been friends since the third grade and hike on weekends, I’d believe you. (Molly Gordon also appears in a pitch-perfect performance as Kat, Jane’s vibrantly irritating work bestie.)

On the surface, “Am I OK?” is a coming-out tale, and that’s how it’s being pitched by the movie’s marketing. But there’s an expansiveness to it, a sense that Lucy’s sexuality is not the only or most interesting thing about her growth. Really, “Am I OK?” is the story of a friendship growing from one stage to another — of the moment when youthful naïveté about life and friendship, the idea that we’ll just go on together this way forever, has to grow up. It turns out both Lucy and Jane have hard lessons to learn about the selves they’ve grown into, and it’s in their longstanding trust and care that they can start to become more than who they are. Their friendship is blooming into a new era, a bond with a future, and the world is full of possibility.

Am I OK? Rated R for frank discussions of sex and anatomy, as well as some swear words and a sex scene. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. Watch on Max .

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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