Little Murders

Little Murders is a 1971 black comedy film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd, directed by Alan Arkin in his feature directorial debut. It is the story of a girl, Patsy Rodd, who brings home her boyfriend, Alfred Gould, to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages ravaging their New York City neighborhood.

The film opened to a lukewarm review by Roger Greenspan, and a more positive one by Vincent Canby in the New York Times. Roger Eberts review in the Chicago Sun Times was more enthusiastic, saying, One of the reasons it works, and is indeed a definitive reflection of Americas darker moods, is that it breaks audiences down into isolated individuals, vulnerable and uncertain.Patsy Newquist is a 27yearold interior designer who lives in a New York City rife with street crime, noise, obscene phone calls, power blackouts and unsolved homicides. When she sees a defenseless man being attacked by street thugs, she intervenes, but is surprised when the passive victim doesnt even bother to thank her. She ends up attracted to the man, Alfred Chamberlain, a photographer, but finds that he is emotionally vacant, barely able to feel pain or pleasure. He permits muggers to beat him up until they get tired and go away. ........

Source: Wikipedia