“Whoever shot and murdered these little kids is a human animal — he’s worse than an animal, he’s a beast; he’s a mad dog!”
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Review: P.S. DVD Savant notes in his review of Murder, Inc. that this hard-to-find film is a cult favorite, though it’s not listed as such in Peary’s book. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“Any guy that we hit, he asked to be hit.”
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Whenever Falk is in the picture (which is most of the first half of the movie), the story hums along, as we watch in trepidation to see what will happen next to his unwitting victims — the perennially frightened Stuart Whitman and his foolishly outspoken wife (Britt).
Unfortunately, the second half of the movie — in which police diligently work to topple the syndicate, and crime boss “Lepke” Buchalter (David J. Stewart) makes a fatal mistake — moves slowly, ultimately feeling more didactic than thrilling. Yet the film remains worth a look at least once, simply for its fine performances throughout (especially by Falk). Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“What have I done? I’ve loosed that bloody maniac upon Utopia!”
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Response to Peary’s Review: Note: Director Nicholas Meyer would return to the concept of time travel for his contribution to the “Star Trek” film enterprise, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“Gee, it’s elegant over here: alleys and dumps and goats and wood…”
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Review: Note: Norman Taurog won an Oscar as Best Director of the year, Cooper was nominated as Best Actor of the year, and the screenplay (by Joseph Mankiewicz and Sam Mintz) was nominated as best Adaptation. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“What am I? Alive or dead? Man or beast? What have you done to me?”
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… will work on humans — experiments on his own naive assistant (Bruce):
hoping to win Bruce’s girlfriend (Evelyn Ankers as a concert singer) for himself:
— only to find Ankers has fallen for her accompanist (turgid Turhan Bey), who must also be gotten rid of.
Zucco is quietly effective as the calculating doctor, while Bruce — whose zombie make-up is creepy without overpowering:
— eventually wins our sympathy as the unwitting Jekyll-and-Hyde who loses both his humanity and his girl. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“That girl knows exactly what she’s doing — and she likes it.”
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Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“It is the middle of the dark ages — ages darker than anyone had expected…”
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The rest of the movie is an almost unbearably muck-filled journey into what Gilliam clearly posits as the *real* Middle Ages, when Britain’s citizens lived a miserable life of dung and filth:
Only those “lucky” enough to see the world through rose-colored glasses, like Michael Palin’s clueless young cooper:
who is desperately in love with the spoiled, sullen, obese daughter (Annette Badland) of a fishmonger (Warren Mitchell):
are able to make their way through the perils of daily life with enough nervy stupidity to survive, simply through dumb luck. Meanwhile, there’s precious little humor to be had throughout the movie, leaving one to wonder what the point of it all really is. Perhaps most frustrating is that Palin’s protagonist is an utterly hapless and accidental “hero”, never really demonstrating growth in either intelligence or bravery; his final fate is thus both undeserved and under-appreciated. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“Here, in this bachelor flat on Pacific, Professor can relax and get away from all those amorous college girls.”
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… heartthrob Richard Beymer (a year after his leading role in West Side Story):
… and 18-year-old Tuesday Weld:
Tashlin does indeed keep the film moving quickly, and shows evidence of his skill at directing broad slapstick, but the storyline itself falls completely flat: Terry-Thomas’s “irresistible” appeal to women of all ages never once rings true (not even as a gag), and Weld’s rash decision to pawn herself off as a juvenile delinquent (rather than revealing that Terry-Thomas’s absentee fiancee is her mother) feels equally forced. If you enjoy this type of mindless, colorful piffle, certainly feel free to seek it out; otherwise, film fanatics should feel no obligation at all to watch it. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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