Immediately after I finished the screenplay, Bob Evans sent me on a wild goose chase to Rome to cast a part he had already cast—I found out months later—with Max Schell.

"[8] Martin was reluctant to act but said yes "because Bob assured me this was the first film in Hollywood history with this kind of money behind which would show tennis in a totally authentic and good light.

It includes a scene shot during the 1978 Wimbledon Championships: prior to the start of the ladies' final between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, the production filmed Dean-Paul Martin and Guillermo Vilas walking onto Centre Court and bowing to Princess Margaret and the Duchess of Kent in the Royal Box.

[13] Shooting had to be suspended at one point when Martin fell ill.[14] Schulman recalled: The company went to Mexico [for the filming], and I couldn't get Evans to show me the dailies.

Mr. Schulman's dialogue doesn't help, nor does the direction by Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter), who never discovers a source of narrative energy to compensate for the emptiness of the characters.

"[17] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2.5 stars out of four, and wrote: "The problem with the script is that both characters are totally unlikable.

These are the sort of selfish, me-centered characters we suspect populate Beverly Hills and environs, people interested only in cars, clothes, sex, and money.

"[18] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Unfortunately, it is much better on court than on courtship ... After one amusing scene when they meet, there is scarcely a line that does not sound as if it were something being read aloud, rather than thought or felt and said.

"[19] Brendan Gill of The New Yorker wrote: "Verisimilitude is achieved during the tennis sequences by furnishing them with people borrowed from real life; those sequences aside, there is little real life to be found in Players, thanks in part to an ill-written script by Arnold Schulman and in part to the incompetence of its star, Ali MacGraw, who is very good-looking and is unable to recite even the simplest lines with conviction.

"[20] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote: "As certain to be laughed off the screen and written off financially as Hurricane, another Paramount loser, Players should clinch MacGraw's reputation as the most ridiculous leading lady of the '70s.

What prompted producer Robert Evans, director Anthony Harvey and screenwriter Arnold Schulman to foist on anyone a love story as unformed and uninteresting as Players (definitely not to be confused with the Don De Lillo novel of the same title)?