The One and Only (1978)

The One and Only must have looked like a surefire hit on paper. After all, the 1978 romantic comedy starred Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz – resident icon at the time of TV’s hugely successful Happy Days – and was helmed by Carl Reiner, who had scored box-office gold the previous year with Oh, God! How could it go wrong?

Easy, at least when your rom-com hero is an unlikable and untalented clod. Try as he might, Winkler couldn’t make The One and Only‘s protagonist anything beyond an obnoxious, uninteresting narcissist.

He stars as Andy Schmidt, a supremely cocky (to say nothing of delusional) actor whose self-confidence is exceeded only by his insufferability. After a mildly amusing prologue showing Andy as a little kid in the 1930s, we shift to his collegiate life. He meets sweet Mary Crawford (Kim Darby) and inexplicably woos her with his brashness. The young woman is drawn to his arrogance. “Do you ever have doubts?” she asks rhetorically. “Yes,” he says, “Thursdays.” Rim shot!

In the process, Andy sabotages Mary’s engagement to a pipe-smoking pre-med student (presumably the pipe makes him an uptight jackass), tosses her out of the car for not sufficiently stroking his ego and alienates himself from her justifiably concerned parents (William Daniels and Polly Holiday). But Andy’s stalker-like tenacity wears down Mary’s resistance. “What I am is great!” he tells her, eyes a-blazin’. “I know it, and you’re afraid of it!”

Andy drags Mary to New York City so he can pursue his dreams of stardom. Unable to find work, he eventually meets up with another actor, Milton (Hervé Villechaize), a womanizing little person who introduces Andy to the over-the-top theatrics of professional wrestling.

The One and Only was written by Steve Gordon, who would have better luck with a challenging hero several years later when he wrote and directed Arthur. That film benefited mightily from Dudley Moore‘s charm. Alas, Winkler is unable to do the same for Andy.

A romantic comedy does not require a hero we love, but at the very least they should be interesting. Andy isn’t just all hat, no cattle – he isn’t even beef bullion. He’s a ham, not a thespian, and his pro-wrestling shtick – Hitler clone, a Gorgeous George parody – is surprisingly bland. It’s impossible to believe Mary sees much redeemable in this nutjob. While Reiner and Gordon do offer up some laughs – particularly from such dependable supporting players as Villechaize, Holiday, Daniels and Gene Saks – it’s not enough.