... about a Navy guy (James Caan) who gets his shore leave in Seattle extended due to a combination of medical and bureaucratic red tape issues. He becomes smitten with a prostitute (Marsha Mason) in part, because she's raising an 11-year old kid (Calloway) in a dive apartment in a dive part of town. Caan's character feels sorry for the kid and tries to lend him as much guidance as he can, while trying to raise Mom's self-esteem too.
Things take a turn when Mason's social worker spills the beans about the fallen woman's pregnancy. Caan isn't the father, but he makes an effort to treat the new arrival as his own and commit himself to Mason and her soon-to-be growing family. He's not sure how things are going to work out and improve everyone's lives, but he's ever the optimist in believing that despite life's twists and turns and ups and downs, things will work out in the long run somehow, some way. Eli Wallach plays Caan's former commanding officer who gets drummed out of the Navy, but plays a crucial role in the final scene that leaves a lot of unanswered questions but provides hope that things are going to work out.
If ever a movie deserved a sequel, it would have been this one. The characters are honest and believable, given the circumstances they confront daily. For as old as this movie is, I had never seen it before and found it quite enjoyable.
Things take a turn when Mason's social worker spills the beans about the fallen woman's pregnancy. Caan isn't the father, but he makes an effort to treat the new arrival as his own and commit himself to Mason and her soon-to-be growing family. He's not sure how things are going to work out and improve everyone's lives, but he's ever the optimist in believing that despite life's twists and turns and ups and downs, things will work out in the long run somehow, some way. Eli Wallach plays Caan's former commanding officer who gets drummed out of the Navy, but plays a crucial role in the final scene that leaves a lot of unanswered questions but provides hope that things are going to work out.
If ever a movie deserved a sequel, it would have been this one. The characters are honest and believable, given the circumstances they confront daily. For as old as this movie is, I had never seen it before and found it quite enjoyable.