Storyline

As his 30th birthday nears, the aristocratic Elger Winthrop Enders (Beau Bridges) finally decides to leave his parents' home, and he purchases an apartment complex in the slums of New York. The coldhearted Elger plans to boot out the current residents and refashion the crumbling dwelling into a luxurious bachelor pad. But after the spoiled young man befriends locals Francine (Diana Sands) and Margie (Pearl Bailey), he abandons his plans and instead focuses on charming his lovely neighbors.

Plot Keywords

wealthy man, mother, girlfriend, tenant, wife, neighbor, amusing, quirky, sultry, apartment building, brooklyn, n.y., long island, n.y., slum, culture clash, race relations, class distinctions, opposites attract, outsider, change of heart, transformation, love, discovery, 1970s

Short Review

Despite being a bit stylistically dated, Hal Ashby's first directorial effort about race relations in America is as timely today as it was fifty years ago. Elger Enders is a 29-year-old aristocrat who decides to move out of his parents' palatial mansion, buy a rundown tenement building in New York, evict the tenants, and convert it into one massive and swinging bachelor pad. The social commentary offered up in The Landlord foreshadowed what was to come from Ashby over the remainder of the 70s decade – an unequaled string of great satires that tore at the fabric of American society.

Trailer

Streaming Service

1. Amazon Video : Rent from $1.99, Or $0.00 with a Prime membership