Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuFran Walker (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) walks into a piano bar for pizza. She comes back home with Joe Grady (Warren Beatty), the piano player. Joe plans on winning five thousand dollars and lea... Alles lesenFran Walker (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) walks into a piano bar for pizza. She comes back home with Joe Grady (Warren Beatty), the piano player. Joe plans on winning five thousand dollars and leaving Las Vegas, Nevada. Fran waits for something else. Meanwhile, he moves in with her.Fran Walker (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) walks into a piano bar for pizza. She comes back home with Joe Grady (Warren Beatty), the piano player. Joe plans on winning five thousand dollars and leaving Las Vegas, Nevada. Fran waits for something else. Meanwhile, he moves in with her.
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Typically of the sort of talky romantic mush that Taylor did at this point in her career, it's set in Las Vegas. She's described as being a chorus girl (a 38 year-old one, if my maths is correct) and Beatty, a handsome club piano player, who happens to have a history of gambling woes.
He wants enough money to leave this town of temptation and bad memories, she wants him. And, when 5 year standing flame, the older, and married Charles Braswell, comes back to her, saying he's now divorced and wants to whisk her off to England, cue battle of words, emotions - and the usual. So, who will win her heart? Obviously, neither are suitable but this Hollywood!
It's largely set-bound and often argumentative; Beatty is charismatically watchable but Taylor is just doing the same act and routine, whilst Braswell, intentionally cast as the solid, boring one, is just that. Being (I guess, I couldn't find an age rating) a PG certificate, there's no sex or swearing, both of which, frankly would have added a bit of 'life' into the mix. A jazz score by Maurice Jarre does add atmosphere, though, with melancholic saxophone solos wailing into the night, which helps.
Whilst never quite slipping into tedium, the near two hour running time hardly helps but at least it looks good, with good colour and production values. There are a few casino scenes for those that like such. It's based on a play by Frank D Gilroy, who also adapted it and like so many similar dramas from theatrical sources, you can't help feeling that it'd work better on stage.
So, is it worth watching? If it comes on TV or if you know someone with a copy, yes; you won't see anything new but Lizzy Taylor still is Elizabeth Taylor and Beatty keeps it ticking over nicely. But otherwise, unless you hold a special interest in any of the actors, or the play, then, it's hardly worth pursuing.
Taylor, who is neither built like a chorine nor moves like one, becomes involved with a boyish Beatty, who, according to the story, is two years older than she. (Even the makeup department had their problems with this one.) Afraid to commit herself emotionally because she's seen too much of the sordid sides of life and love, she nevertheless ends up committing herself totally to a compulsive gambler. That he has undergone some type of catharsis and will gamble no more is something she is ready to believe, but, I fear, the audience is not - especially since he has just gambled away his long-sought ticket out of Las Vegas. What she has to offer him (or any man) in the way of understanding, companionship, support and stability is very much open to question. Her own ticket out of Las Vegas, in the person of a married boyfriend who has-against all expectations-divorced his wife in order to marry her, is rejected for an uncertain future as a compulsive gambler's woman. Why? Unless you are prepared to blindly accept the catch-all "because she loves him," you won't find the answer in this picture. Speaking of fantasy, although she proudly insists that she has never taken money from any man, she lives in a beautifully-furnished apartment and has an extensive, very stylish wardrobe - notwithstanding her pointing out (for our benefit, I suppose) that her jewelry is not costly and her furs are not real. Is she lying about her source of income? If so, it is inconsistent with a character who is presented as being emotionally honest, however confused she might be. If her claim is to be taken literally, how can she manage such a lifestyle on a chorus girl's salary?
There is lots more that doesn't ring true in a picture that fails to build, fails to involve the viewer, and ultimately falls flat.
Most of this film is just the two of them talking about how much they do not love the other. When the married lover shows up at Liz' apartment he treats her like a pet (Here, Liz!, Hurry Liz!, Good Liz!). There is no subtlety in his performance, but then he is not alone. You can see the little flashes of greatness in Beatty's acting, he just isn't given much to work with. I never understand what compels him to gamble and why he feels towards money and possessions as he does.
The only bit of fun is seeing if you can identify all of the classic films Liz Taylor is watching whenever she is sitting around in her apartment. And then there is the irony of Beatty playing a compulsive gambler in Vegas about twenty years before he plays the founder of modern Las Vegas, Bugsy Segal. Even for completists of the players involved, I'd say avoid this one.
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- WissenswertesWarren Beatty hates casinos and gambling, he did this movie mainly as a favor to his mentor, director George Stevens.
- PatzerWhen Fran gets off work at the Desert Inn at the beginning, her walk home makes no geographical sense. She is strolling past hotels, chapels and casinos miles apart and in completely opposite directions.
- VerbindungenFeatures Die Maske runter! (1952)
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Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsland
- Sprache
- Auch bekannt als
- The Only Game in Town
- Drehorte
- Produktionsfirma
- Weitere beteiligte Unternehmen bei IMDbPro anzeigen
Box Office
- Budget
- 11.000.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 53 Minuten
- Farbe
- Seitenverhältnis
- 1.85 : 1