Take a dozen surefire box-office elements, cast Peter Falk as a wily Mafioso, Emily Lloyd as his streetwise daughter by mistress Dianne Wiest, Brenda Vaccaro as his raucous wife and sundry other talented players, and what do you get? You get a turkey, that's what! The script isn't too bad, so you have to lay most of the blame at the feet of director Susan Seidelman, who did wonders with similar material in Smithereens and Desperately Seeking Susan, but here displays little sense of the timing or pacing needed for a good comedy. This has only one pace and we're here to tell you it's not fast. Falk and Lloyd at least emerge with decent performances that left their reputations relatively unscathed. Others, like Wiest, Jerry Lewis and Michael V Gazzo, seem either to give it too much or too little, and are probably still licking their wounds.


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