Item #: 5315DVD Category: NOIR Format: DVD MPAA Rating: U

Woolly Rating: 5/10 (18 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

DKB	Mar 22, 2005 @ 17:59:26

PRETENTIOUS NONSENSE
Hollywood never tires of reminding us what an ugly business the film industry really is. Charley Castle (Jack Palance) has become rich and famous making schlock movies for Stanley Hoff and his studio. Now his contract is up for renewal for seven more years of the same. But Charley is sick and tired of this crap and wants to do something meaningful with his life. Trouble is, he's being blackmailed by Stanley for a fatal traffic accident for which someone else took the fall. When bit actress Shelley Winters threatens to spill the beans, Hoff targets her for murder and expects Charley to go along. Big dilemma, dontcha see? This film suffers from overwritten, pretentious dialogue (e.g. the idealist Charley suffers from "Peritonitis of the Soul" says his wife)! Rod Steiger is either good or awful in his over-the-top portrayal of the monomaniacal movie tycoon Hoff. Shelley Winters is fine in her familiar boozy floozy role. Palance is OK, but not too believable as a matinee hunk. His much mentioned idealism is never defined. One wonders why he couldn't have satisfied his idealistic impulses by donating much of his wealth to some worthy charity? But then, there's no movie in that, eh? Nearly two hours long, but seems much longer.

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