The film contains at least two marvelous performances, Mr. Matthau's snarling, monomaniacal editor
("I picked you up when you were nothing―covering Polack weddings on the South Side!") and Austin
Pendleton as the-condemned revolutionary who got his start stuffing fortune cookies with messages
demanding freedom for Sacco and Vanzetti.

Mr. Lemmon is comparatively reserved as the flamboyant Hildy, never quite letting go of his familiar
comic personality to become dominated by the lunacies of the farce. He always remains a little outside
it, acting.

Carol Burnett has an even tougher time as Molly Malloy, the self-described $2 Clark Street whore who loves
Mr. Pendleton. This role may well be impossible, however, since it requires the actress to play for straight
melodrama while everyone around her is going for laughs. Two lines sum up the difficulty of the role as they
define the spirit of the movie. When Molly, in a desperate effort to save her lover, jumps out the courthouse
window to what could be her death, one reporter shakes his head and says, "All whores are a little goofy,"
while another races to his telephone to report, "Shady lady leaps for love!"