Love and Money (1982)

Love and Money (1982)

“What you must accept is that my people are no longer for sale.”

Synopsis:
A bored banker (Ray Sharkey) falls in lust with the wife (Ornella Muti) of an industrialist (Klaus Kinski) who has hired him to influence his childhood friend (Armand Assante) — now a leftist dictator of a South American country.

Genres:

  • Infidelity
  • South and Central America

Review:
Writer/director James Toback’s follow-up to his critically lauded debut film, Fingers (1978), was this incredibly tedious clunker. Filled with self-absorbed characters, trite dialogue (“Why are you asking me this: to hurt me, or to excite yourself?”), and a ludicrously derivative storyline (set partially in L.A., partially in an unnamed South American country), it appears to exist namely as a vehicle for showing off sexy Ornella Muti’s bronzed bod. Simply squirm-worthy.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Not much of anything

Must See?
No; don’t bother seeking out this pablum. Really.

Links:

2 thoughts on “Love and Money (1982)

  1. First and last viewing. …Bleh.

    Outside of seeing this title listed in Peary’s book, I had never heard of it. Not before. Not since. I can only imagine that it was released…somewhere, Peary saw it and took note of it (for some bizarre reason – I’m guessing because of Muti’s beauty, period), it then tanked and entered oblivion.

    ~where it belongs.

    We can sense early on just how bad this flick is going to be. Sharkey (ahem) ‘meets cute’ with Muti and his pick-up line to her (re: Kinski) is “If you ever touch him again – or any other man – I’ll kill you.”

    LOL

    Bad…everything: direction, performances, script, dialogue (as indicated, often laughably bad).

    That said…it’s great seeing director King Vidor as Sharkey’s grandfather (who has Alzheimer’s). But those who appreciate his appearance most will be those who are fans of the films he directed. The inclusion of his character is a curious sidebar – you may start feeling the film should have been about him instead.

  2. Not seen this and having endured Exposed (1983) from the same creep who made this I have no motivation to seek it out. Notably, it was made in 1980 and sat on the shelf for two years before release.

Leave a Reply