A great oldie.
I searched for years after seeing this movie when it was first released, but it didn't seem to be available on VHS. I was very pleased to find a copy - in great condition. Beau Bridges and Pearl Bailey are terrific in this tale of a rich white boy's foray into the black culture of the late 60's/early 70's - the impact of the tenants in the building he buys in a black neighborhood (just beginning to be gentrified) and his on their lives (his involvement with a female tenant who's husband is in jail). But I think the best part of the movie may be Lee Grant's performance as his mother. Underrated as an actress who I believe was mainly known on tv, she hits a perfect note as a spoiled white woman who can't quite remember which of her many beaus she actually married (after a night of drinking with Pearl Bailey). Some hard truths about the gap - culturally and economically - between black and white are played out very well here and the love story is quite touching. Terrific movie that has aged well.

I hope more people stumble upon this gem! to say the least...
...Profound. Nothing short of an algorithm of life's past, present, and future ignorance and faux pas. It has a wide eyed view on what is real, and depicts life in all it's glory and gloom.

Each role will tell you somethings we all should know, but were never, and will never be taught.

A rare retrospect of wisdom captured in film.
A strong allusion of humor and melancholy.

BOLD, ORIGINAL, POWERFUL
I discovered this film by accident while reading a black cinema history book by Donald Bogle. I was fascinated by the movie once I saw it. It's become one of my favorites. This is an art house film about a wealthy white man who becomes a landlord of a Brooklyn tenament and makes connections with two very different black women. I love the boldness and complexity of the film and the directing was dreamy and odd--making it a surreal visual experience. I was captivated, as usual, by the spectacular performance of the late, great superior Diana Sands, who died too soon: I think she would have been one of Hollywood's biggest black actresses had she lived. She is mesmerizing in this film. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone interested in movies that explore race relations and the complexities of human relationships.

Black and White in color
A rich, sharply observed social satire that proceeds from farce to tragedy with logic and integrity. What a pleasure.

Although Hal Ashby, first-time director, and Gordon Willis, almost as new to feature cinematography, deserve the highest praise for their contributions, I split the lion's share of credit for the film's success between Bill Gunn's biting, hilarious script and the perfectly cast ensemble:

Beau Bridges is deceptively nuanced in a deceptively tough role: Elgar Enders, an unmarked, unformed trust-funder whose scheme of renovating a tenement house into a groovy bachelor pad is his trial by fire waiting to happen. His relentless lessons in humility would be exhausting if they weren't leavened with (dark) humor. Had Bridges chewed some scenery, he might have garnered an Oscar. As it is, he opts for a bewildered spontaneity that sure looks like great acting to me.

Elgar's mother Joyce (Lee Grant) and Marge (Pearl Bailey), a tenant in Elgar's building, have a lengthy, hilarious scene over bottle after bottle of fortified wine that would be a comic touchstone if only more people knew about the movie. Observes Marge: "You can get at those hamhocks a little better if you take those gloves off, honey."

Diana Sands as Fanny Copee is flat out hilarious when the script calls for it (Broadly pouting, having sussed what a light touch Elgar is: "Complaints? Well let's see... The roof leaks, the oven door's broke, the toilet runs all day, and you're awful cute to be a landlord..."), equally wrenching when the script calls for that. Marki Bey offers a lived-in performance as Lanie, another of Elgar's romantic intrigues: Lanie is sad, serious, but not despairing. Watch the "Spinal Meningitis Festival Ball" scene closely- she's given almost no dialogue, but her reactions supply all the eloquence required: joy, apprehension, tenderness.

Lou Gossett is first seen embodying The White Man's nightmare version of The Urban Black Male, but it's a put-on. Still, the film plumbs the pain behind the role-playing, and finally it's clear that the pain is bottomless: ("D-don't let them transplant my heart til I'm dead," he pleads, his mind finally snapped). Mel Stewart is the droll, menacing Prof. Dubois, another of Elgar's tenants, who would despise Elgar if such a feeling weren't beneath him. Stingingly aloof as he is, the professor delivers the jab to Elgar's conscience that helps end the film on a hopeful note.

"The Landlord" impresses first with its wit, then with the seriousness of its intentions.

The Landlord a cult classic
Beau Bridges is the son of a wealthy but racist white mom, who falls in love with a black woman named Fanny and who ends up actually having a baby with her!!!

Elgar's mother, Mrs. Enders is the owner of a building in
which several black people live in. Mrs. Enders cares nothing about the people except that they pay her on time with rent.
Elgar, on the other hand, is a sensitive and open minded
guy who gets along with everyone in the building with the

exception of a black racist professor named Professor Duboise (Melvin Stewart). Every encounter these two have, results in either Duboise mocking the white society, or
Duboise, try to show Elgar how superior black people are
to white people. When it was it released it probably got alot of controversy because interracial romances was something that just wasn't shown on screen. Making things more complicated is the fact, that black men and women still didn't have the rights that white people in the time. It's a great example of great cinema directing, in one scene, Elgar Enders (Beau) has just made love to

Fanny, then the girls leans over and tells him that she
loves her boyfriend Copee (played by Louis Gosset Jr in
one of his first movie appearences). The scene then cutaways to Elgar running to talk to another girl for advice while Fanny is telling Elgar this. Copee is a black, jealous and violent boyfriend of Fanny. When he learns that Fanny is pregnant and he is not the father, he goes berserk, beating Fanny into telling him who the father is.

Once Copee, learns who it is, he grabs an axe and goes
after Elgar!!!! I loved the film because it breaks several stereotypes:

*It shows that color doesn't matter when we are talking about love, it's all about the feelings a man and woman feel for each other that is important.

*Elgar represents a group of conscious men who don't see Blacks and other minorities as inferior. In fact, throughout the film, Elgar is actually happier with his black friends than with his own mother.

*There are several messages about the dysfunctional family.

Elgar's mother (Lee Grant) is a rich white woman who has everything, yet she is a cold, miserable woman.

It was interesting to see Louis Gossett Jr. (Copee) as a crazy , jealous boyfriend . He usually plays good guy roles, but in this role, he nails his part by playing a guy who

has completely lost it.

The movie was directed by Hal Ashby, a man who has directed
several important cult films of our time including:
*Being There (1979 film with Peter Sellers ) *Shampoo (Great 1975 film with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie)
* Coming Home (A good 1978 film with Jane Fonda)
This is a very good movie, hard to find on video, but I highly recommend it.