unrequited love for Johnny, and Brooke of hers for Michael ("I Loved Him, But He Didn’t Love Me"). Rodney, Michael, and Johnny arrive at the club. Rodney dances with Elizabeth, finally reciprocating her affection. Michael and Johnny take to the dance floor and attempt to rekindle their relationships with Kitty and Brooke, respectively. The two couples make up at the dance floor ("A Picture of Me Without You"). The bandleader asks the dancers to change partners and they do. Dancing with Kitty, Johnny observes that Brooke has never been more lovely. Michael, dancing with Brooke, notes that Kitty has never been more beautiful. Cast Burt Reynolds as Michael Oliver Pritchard III Cybill Shepherd as Brooke Carter Madeline Kahn as Kitty O'Kelly Duilio Del Prete as Johnny Spanish Eileen Brennan as Elizabeth John Hillerman as Rodney James Mildred Natwick as Mabel Pritchard M. Emmet Walsh as Harold Production At Long Last Love was Bogdanovich's first musical film, as well as the first motion picture he wrote by himself. He got the idea to do a musical film of Cole Porter songs when his then-girlfriend Cybill Shepherd gave him a book of songs by the composer. "His lyrics conveyed a frivolous era," said the director. "With a kind of sadness, but very subtle... Cole Porter lyrics are less sentimental than, say, Gershwin and more abrasive... Gershwin was the greater musician. But Cole was a better lyricist and I was more interested in lyrics than music." When he heard the lyrics for "I Loved Him", with its reversal of emotion and wry lyric, he decided to use that as the finale and "worked back from there". The film was originally called Quadrille and was equally weighted between the four lead characters. In September 1973, Bogadanovich announced the cast would be Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, Ryan O'Neal, and the director himself. Shepherd had recorded an album of Cole Porter songs paid for by Paramount called Cybill Does It... to Cole Porter. By March 1974, Bogdanovich had decided to not act, and replaced himself with Elliott Gould, who had experience in musical theatre. Gould and O'Neal dropped out. By March 1974, Burt Reynolds had replaced Gould. Bogdanovich says he was "talked into" using Burt Reynolds, who wanted to try a musical. "The whole joke is that he's kind of a nice fellow, good looking, not particularly good at dancing. He can't dally with the girl.