IN SAYING
EVERYTHING ABOUT A MOVIE?
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IN SAYING EVERYTHING ABOUT A MOVIE? |
| GAMES (director/writer: Curtis Harrington; screenwriters: Gene R. Kearney/story by Curtis Harrington & George Edwards; cinematographer: William A. Fraker; editor: Douglas Stewart; music: Samuel Matlovsky; cast: James Caan (Paul Montgomery), Katharine Ross (Jennifer Montgomery), Simone Signoret (Lisa Schindler), Kent Smith (Harry Gordon), Don Stroud (Norman), Estelle Winwood (Miss Beattie), Ian Wolfe (Dr. Edwards); Runtime: 100; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: George Edwards; Universal; 1967) |
| "It's a whodunit, a cheap
variation on Les Diaboliques, that never becomes as
interesting as it should have been, yet is
entertaining without being particularly challenging."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz Curtis Harrington ("Queen of Blood"/"Night Tide"/"Ruby"), a former experimental filmmaker, directs this mainstream dark psychological thriller. It's based on a story by Harrington & George Edwards. Harrington & Gene R. Kearney write the screenplay. Paul (James
Caan) and
Jennifer Montgomery (Katherine Ross) are a pair of wealthy bored
Manhattan socialites, living in a luxurious Central
Park East townhouse that Jennifer inherited from her
deceased mother. The kinky couple, married for three
years, are avid art collectors (specializing in pop
art) and game players, who invite guests over to play
pinball games, use their indoor shooting gallery and
to demonstrate magic tricks. One day a mysterious lady
from France, Lisa Schindler (Simone Signoret), talks her way into
letting Jennifer keep her on as a houseguest. Lisa
intrigues the naive Jennifer when she openly admits to
being a hustling
cosmetics saleswoman and a medium. After presented
with valuable dueling pistols by their psychic guest,
hubby talks Jennifer into playing a game on the
teenager grocery store delivery boy Norman (Don
Stroud) and she
pretends to shoot him with blanks for making sexual
advances. The only trouble is someone put live ammo
into the gun and Norman is dead, until we later learn
he's not dead even though hubby supposedly encases the
corpse into a plaster of Paris statue. The only thing is that the
shaken Jennifer believes she still sees Norman
prancing around the house and is starting to have a
nervous breakdown. Even though it's not that
difficult to figure out that poor Jennifer is being
taken advantage here by an untrustworthy hubby and an
unscrupulous houseguest with an agenda that her female
host didn't figure on, there's enough scary occult
atmosphere created to keep things spooky and the
calculated sang-froid performance given by Signoret is
not great but it is chilling. It's a whodunit, a cheap
variation on Les Diaboliques, that never becomes as
interesting as it should have been, yet is
entertaining without being particularly challenging. REVIEWED ON 7/20/2011 GRADE: B- Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |