VINTAGE FILM The Goodbye Girl

An unwitting muse to a series of Romeos who leave her once they find success, single mother and washed-up dancer Paula McFadden (Mason) risks falling into the same trap with Elliot Garfield (Dreyfuss) – though, of course, they hate each other at first. While Dreyfuss really nails the “Holy cow!” look in another nominated film [link to “Close Encounters”], Neil Simon’s script offered him a fuller range – humiliated actor, hippie, flamboyantly gay king, wannabe Bogart – that made him the youngest-ever Oscar™-winning leading man.