What do Billy Crystal and Joan Rivers have in common - apart from the Oscars and both being New Yorkers? Crystal, the curly-haired stand-up comic, made his starring film debut as the world's first pregnant man in the poorly received Rabbit Test in 1978, a film written and directed by Rivers.
Thankfully, his choice of films has improved since and the actor who first became famous as the acerbic gay stepson on Soap has appeared in both popular and well-received movies, notably When Harry Met Sally (1989) and City Slickers (World, 9.30pm).
Tonight's film, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (Parenthood and Splash ) from a story by Crystal, carefully combines slapstick, an emotional undercurrent and well-timed wisecracks to create a genuinely warm and affectionate film held together by the friendship of the main characters.
Crystal plays Mitch Robbins, a man in the throes of a mid-life crisis, who, along with two friends, Ed Furillo (Bruno Kirby) and Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern), spends two weeks on a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado.
At first, the trio demonstrate their complete lack of cowboy skills but, as they gradually learn to rope and ride, they discuss their childhood hopes and adult disappointments.
Despite the - on occasion - stomach-achingly funny script, the best remembered scenes are at the start of the cattle drive when Jimmy Durante sings Young At Heart and when they triumphantly bring in the cattle humming the theme from Bonanza.
