simon_sparrow

Julie Christie is magnificent as Phyl Mann, wife of Nick Nolte's Lucky "Fix-it" Mann. Age has not been kind to the couple until they find an odd path to revitalization. Nick Nolte makes the offbeat casting work, and Charlotte Rampling has a magnificent supporting role.

Rita Tushingham is an intensely vulnerable actress. In her early classics, such as The Trap and A Taste Of Honey, directors used these distinctive qualities to capture cinematic eloquence. In this Hammer film, these traits become parodies of themselves, and as a result, Rita and those around her, are merely grotesque. This is especially true of the strikingly pretty psychotic for whom she falls, played indifferently by Shane Briant. For all its faults, the film does have two remarkably clever scenes, but they are no so good as to warrant exposing yourself to 90 minutes of this sewage.

All attempts to be cool fall horribly flat in this showcase for some of the weaker musical talents of the 1960's. Roddy McDowell delivers the worst performance of his career in a character as shrill as he is inconsistent. It then proceeds in tortoise-like fashion to an obvious conclusion. This is a worthy candidate for the worst big budget film in the history of the cinema.