Así no se trata a una dama

I turned this gem of a film on one afternoon having no idea what it was about. The opening scenes with Rod Steiger as an Irish priest calling on unsuspecting, soon-to-be victim Marline Bartlett was truly startling in its viciousness. Why have I never heard of this movie before and why has it been shelved all these years? This movie is definitely a cut above the rest in the genre of thrillers featuring serial killers. Rod Steiger is brilliant in a tour-de-force as he assumes various identities-- i.e., an Irish Priest, plumber and effeminate hair stylist--as a psycho on the loose who targets middle aged women and whose calling card is to draw a pair of lips in red lipstick on each victim's forehead. Steiger is pitted against underdog detective George Segal, who plays an overworked cop who gets no recognition for his work. Lee Remick plays the love interest who adds spice to the movie and supporting actress Eileen Heckart plays detective Segal's overbearing mother who bureates him for being a cop (and Jewish) every opportunity she gets. Heckart as the overbearing stereotypical Jewish mama is annoying, to say the least. Remick's character is a free spirit who gives museum tours and she is HIP! In fact, her dialogue suffers in part from an effort to be *too hip* and contemporary: in one scene she tells Segal, "I swinged, and I swang until I swung", in explaining a previous relationship. The most interesting victim plays a drag queen in a bar who is scorned by the other bar patrons and met with homophobic comments, but this was, after all 1968. All the acting is good, though the best scenes are those involving Steiger and his unsuspecting victims. One slight flaw is that the idea that the police department could control what the media prints and use it to manipulate the killer is a little too contrived, and the movie's ending is mediocre, doesn't satisfy and wraps it up too quickly. The scene involving Remick and Steiger is also contrived, and it's a little inconsistent with Remick's character that she would let a total stranger into her apartment, especially since she's dating a cop.

In spite of the mediocre ending, this is an excellent movie.

Rod Steiger plays a psycho who likes to strangle women to death. George Segal plays a Jewish cop after him. Lovely, young Lee Remick plays Segal's love interest. Unfortunately Steiger is interested in her too.

Very odd movie. The dialogue is crisp, sharp and handled expertly by the cast. It just sounds different--I mean this in a good way. Steiger chews the scenery again & again & again & AGAIN as the killer. Segal is just fine, but he (understandably) pales next to Steiger. Remick is astonishingly beautiful and having a whale of a time in her role. Also Eileen Heckart is a scream as Segal's very Jewish mother. The sequence between her and Remick is a definite highlight.

All in all, a strange, but enjoyable, mix of suspense, humor and romance. Not for everybody but worth a look.

Only debit--more than a few homophobic comments are thrown about as jokes. But then this was made in 1968.

Rod Steiger is excellent as Christopher Gill, a hammy theater manager and psychotic master of disguise. Gill stalks and kills various women all due to his love/hate relationship with his dead mother, who was a respected stage actress. He uses his talents of disguise as a plumber; a priest; and policeman to gain the confidence of his victims. He starts a cat-and-mouse game with a NYPD detective Morris Brummel(George Segal),who himself is quite the "mama's boy" still living with his mother. At every chance she tries to shame him for being a Jewish cop. Gill begins calling in tips of his crimes to Brummel, who is slowly putting together the clues to the serial killings; and on the back burner trying to figure out his feelings for his new girlfriend(Lee Remick). The Segal/Remick relationship seems no more than a silly teen-aged romance. Steiger is perfect for the role. Segal's character needs a backbone. Remick works effortlessly and is so easy to look at. In supporting roles are:Murray Hamilton and Eileen Heckart. Very interesting to say the least.

ROD STEIGER has an actor's field day assuming many different disguises when he decides to play a cat-and-mouse game with detective GEORGE SEGAL who is hot on his trail to capture a serial killer. That about sums up the plot contrivances of NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY, which has Steiger donning various make-up disguises so that he can gain entry into unsuspecting female's apartments and promptly strangle them.

The dark humor is always on the surface of this comic showcase for actor Steiger, who dons each disguise with relish and gives a performance you're not likely to forget.

EILEEN HECKART is his overbearing (ultra so) Jewish mother who has unwittingly driven her son to the brink of madness. She's so good at "overbearing" that she almost drives the audience mad too, but LEE REMICK is rather wasted in a colorless role as a dame who's been around the block a few times and likes to spout smart talk. It's not a well developed role and Remick can do little with it but look good in plenty of make-up and mascara.

For pure titillation and subject matter, this is way ahead of its time, a comic thriller that is largely forgotten and deserves some attention, if only for Rod Steiger's tour de force role, all played in tongue-in-cheek manner.

No Way to Treat a Lady (1968)

A showpiece for Rod Steiger. He's a great actor, and he takes on the role of an actor taking on a variety of roles, one by one, as a killer with a few issues to work out. The other two people have full fledged roles but they end up secondary: Lee Remick marginally overacting a ditzy but charming young woman and George Segal in what might be the performance of his life as a low key detective.

Called a comic thriller by some, it hovers undecided...it's not a goofy comedy with thriller trappings like the 1960s Pink Panther movies, and it's not a thriller with some humor giving it humanity like much of Alfred Hitchcock's. So we flipflop from some really funny, if somewhat predictable, lines between the detective and his mother (about Jewish clichés) and some really chilling murder scenes, hammy but gruesome, too.

If you can rise to the surface and enjoy all the pieces as they come together, maybe swallowing a little during the overdone last ten minutes, it's a pretty intensely enjoyable farce and psychodrama.