Lady Ice

Jennifer O'Neill became a star as the distant object of Gary Grimes' voyeuristic attention in the wonderfully nostalgic Summer of '42. That film showed that she could be captivating when viewed from afar, but her career went off the rails while she was still in her twenties owing to a shortage of technical chops. Simply put, she had the looks of a movie star but not the presence. Here we see Jennifer driving around Miami in a 1970 Maserati Ghibli, taking a late night swim, sunning herself in a bikini, flying off to the Bahamas... Mansions, speedboats, planes and jewels provide the rest of Lady Ice's eye candy. It's all very appealing to look at, but herein lies the problem. The movie is all surface gloss with nothing underneath to drive the wheels. Someone forgot to tell the producers that heist movies are crime thrillers, and crime thrillers are plot driven. They need tight pacing, high stakes, plot twists, none of which appear in this film. The only action is provided by a little routine fast driving. Otherwise, everything meanders along in predictable fashion. Some greedy people are interested in some jewels. No surprises here. The producers could have recut Lady Ice as a four minute music video or an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and lost nothing.

As stated by other reviews, this is strictly a watch for Jennifer O'Neill fans.

This feels like someone wanted to do a modern detective noir along the lines of Elliot Gould's The Long Goodbye, Gene Hackman's Night Moves etc, with intrigue, ambiguous characters, sexual tension, suspense and the usual twist, turns, red herrings and chicanery that a good 70s crime film needs.

However someone forgot to tell the writer that most people don't have a clue about the goings on in high stakes insurance investigations, and that other than being very convoluted it's also incredibly dull.

Coupled with the film feeling like an episode of Columbo, with Donald Sutherland as your cocky overly sure of himself investigator (Though he is enjoyable to watch), the film misses the mark by a long long way.

Robert Duvall takes a small turn, and makes you wish he filmed a few more action thrillers and reminds you to rewatch the Outfit, Killer Elite, and The Eagle Has Landed.

Jennifer O'Neill is stunning and probably the main reason you'll watch the movie, possibly the reason it got made. If they put out a directors cut with 30 mins extra of her driving the Ferrari or Maserati then I'd definitely queue up to buy it.

Very light entertainment, something to stare at.

Jennifer O'Neill is a top-end jewelry fence in Florida. When a pricey set of hot rocks goes through her hands, insurance investigator Donald Sutherland is on the case. Sparks fly between the two.

The production of this film was clearly inspired by THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. This movie, however, lacks all the heat and style of that earlier movie. There's little chemistry between the two performers, the music is 1970s chick-a-boom, the camerawork by Lucien Ballard is workmanlike but unimaginative, and director Tom Gries largely wastes a good cast that includes Robert Duvall Patrick Magee and Dana Elcar. All the performances are minimalistic, with insurance executives empty suits saying banal lines as if they are of great import. Sutherland has a few flares of humor, Miss O'Neill is exceedingly lovely, but it's an uninspiring movie.

Andy Hammon (Donald Sutherland) steals a diamond necklace from a criminal type. He's a newly hired mechanic working for Paul Booth. He gets fired after flirting with the bosses' daughter Paula Booth (Jennifer O'Neill). They get into a car chase and he offers her the $3M necklace. It turns out that the Booths are fences working with Peter Brinker (Eric Braeden). Police detective Ford Pierce (Robert Duvall) is frustrated with Andy Hammon who is actually working with the insurance companies looking to collect his 10%.

It's a lot of Florida. It's a lot of sunshine and water. It's trying to be a stylish thriller. It seems to be spending a chunk of change. Sutherland seems to be playing around with the material. It has the potential but it ends up as a muddle. There are questionable choices all the way through the movie. I don't know why they are measuring the jewels in a moving RV other than injecting some unnecessary action. I don't know why the plot goes from Florida to Chicago. I'm never certain what is happening at any one time. I look up director Tom Gries and am not surprised that he is mostly a TV director. He's trying to give the visual style but doesn't have the skills to pull it off. That's the movie in a nutshell. It's trying to be a flashy big budget thriller but it doesn't have it.

Sultry O'Neill fresh from her career defining role in 'Summer of '42' plays the spoiled, enigmatic but emotionally aloof daughter of a wealthy British magnate (Magee, whose character disappears midway through the picture) being covertly pursued by tenacious insurance investigator Sutherland until she eventually succumbs to his easygoing charm.

Attractive cast, an array of classic fast cars (and some spectacular car chases) and location photography (Miami, Nassau) elevates a convoluted plot that requires close attention to follow. Duvall is solid as the special agent reluctantly co-operating with rogue Sutherland (who's only after his 10%), Cypher is O'Neill's overbearing fiancé and co-conspirator, whilst Braeden shows up late in the picture in what turns out to be a minor role as an international jewel launderer (and for what it's worth in what seems like an editing slip, he momentarily appears to look at the camera crew in the scene where he's seen walking away from Sutherland following the pool encounter). Sharp eyes will also spot Dana Elcar in an uncredited appearance as one of Sutherland's employers just before sunset.

Despite likeable performances from the beguiling O'Neill, charismatic Sutherland and a fine score by composer Botkin, director Gries' high concept crime caper doesn't always seem to know its destination nor are the motivations of the characters always clear. O'Neill's character displays a highly uneven temperament which seems to be deliberate, but it does make her behaviour in certain situations difficult to fathom (I'm not sure what was happening in the scuba diving scene for instance). There's a scene in with she explains herself as being 'fragments' of different personalities which is perhaps reaching for some psychological explanation, but it's awfully vague. Anyway, despite being unusually complex to read, she's still a specimen to behold.

Jazzy and energetic, it's got all the elements to be a success, but sadly lacks coherency, and is tonally too erratic to fulfil its significant potential.