the film was released in the united states by new yorker films on july 21, 1972, about four months after the first u.s. release, by the same company, of "tokyo story". a newspaper clipping, dated august 6, 1972, indicates that, of the new york-based critics of the time, six (stuart byron of "the village voice", charles michener of "newsweek", vincent canby of "the new york times", archer winsten of "the new york post", judith crist of the today show and stanley kauffmann of "the new republic") gave the work a favorable review and one critic (john simon of "new york" magazine) gave it a "mixed" review.