FILM · 1977 · USA
The Late Show
24 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (24)
- #001
As the film opens, the camera pans from an old typewriter to a framed photograph of Martha Vickers. Vickers played Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep (1946), a Raymond Chandler story featuring the famous detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart). It is one of many nods to the film noirs of the 1940s.
- #002
Art Carney won the National Society of Film Critics (US) Best Actor Award for his role in this film.
- #003
At one point Ira Wells tells Margo that he refuses to have another operation for his ulcer. This is a personal reference by director-writer Robert Benton to his own father, who underwent numerous operations later in life and eventually died rather than face further surgery.
- #004
Robert Benton initially wanted producer Robert Altman to direct the film. Altman read the script and took on the producing duties but felt that Benton should direct it.
- #005
Margo's apartment building is named La Paloma, a reference to The Maltese Falcon (1941), the name of the ship that brought the black bird to San Francisco.
- #006
Actor John Davey was listed as "Sergeant Dayton" in the end credits of the theatrical release, but he does not appear. In the television version, the actor appears in a scene following the fatal shooting outside the boarding house where Miss Schmidt is staying. The missing scene, however, is referenced in the theatrical version.
- #007
Body count (8): Harry Regan, Brian Hemphill, Ray Escobar, Mr. and Mrs. Whiting (her body is seen but his is not), Jeff Lamar, Ronald Birdwell and Charlie Hatter.
- #008
The film received a Golden Globe Award nomination. Lily Tomlin was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, but tied against Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977) and Marsha Mason for The Goodbye Girl (1977).
- #009
It was director Robert Benton's first solo screenwriting credit, having previously worked with David Newman.
- #010
Among the five theatrical film collaborations between Lily Tomlin and producer Robert Altman, this was the only one Altman did not direct, as he served only as producer. Tomlin was directed by Altman in Nashville (1975), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993) and A Prairie Home Companion (2006); the latter was Altman's final film. Before this film, Altman had recently directed the detective film The Long Goodbye (1973), adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel.
- #011
In the film, Group Theatre founding actress Ruth Nelson played the landlady Miss Schmidt, a character name that was a play on the German aircraft manufacturer "Messerschmitt." Surprisingly, this film was Nelson's first screen role in nearly thirty years.
- #012
The film's editor, Lou Lombardo, cut three neo-noirish private detective parody films from the mid-1970s. These pictures were The Late Show (1977), The Black Bird (1975) and The Long Goodbye (1973).
- #013
A framed picture of Humphrey Bogart is displayed in the restaurant.
- #014
Robert Benton paid tribute to the detective genre twice: with this film (the detective films of the 1930s and 1940s) and with Twilight (1998) (film noir).
- #015
The film entered development and production when screenwriter Robert Benton brought his script to Robert Altman in early 1976. After reading the script, Altman decided to make the film and serve as its producer.
- #016
As film critic Leonard Maltin noted, the short-lived American series Eye to Eye (1985) was a spin-off of this film.
- #017
Howard Duff, John Considine and Ruth Nelson later appeared in A Wedding (1978), directed by Robert Altman, who also produced this film.
- #018
A photograph of Marc Bolan hangs on the wall above Margo's makeup table.
- #019
Robert Benton was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar but did not win, losing to Woody Allen for Annie Hall (1977). This was Benton's second nomination and, since he had not won before, it was his last Oscar nomination before he won two Oscars for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).
- #020
When Ira Wells (Art Carney) first meets Margo Sterling (Lily Tomlin), she asks Ira how he feels about cats, and he replies: "I don't know." In his superb performance in Harry and Tonto (1974), Carney loves his cat Tonto very much and travels across the country with the cat.
- #021
It was included on the American Film Institute's list of 500 nominated films for the 100 Funniest American Films of 2000.
- #022
One of the 1970s imitations of the 1940s film noir and hard-boiled detective films of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; some of them also featured Humphrey Bogart, the main target of the parodies. Among these films are Murder by Death (1976) and The Cheap Detective (1978), both from Neil Simon, The Big Fix (1978), The Black Bird (1975), Gumshoe (1971), Peeper (1975), The Long Goodbye (1973), Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (1972) and The Man with Bogart's Face (1980).
- #023
Ira Wells's (Art Carney) daily fee of $25.00 would be equivalent to approximately $138.00 in 2026.
- #024
Private detective Ira Wells's (Art Carney's) daily fee was twenty-five dollars, excluding expenses.
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