La flambeuse de Las Vegas

Bette Midler's a lounge singer in Reno who plots to kill her abusive boyfriend with the help of a hunky card-dealer, leading to a wacky scavenger hunt for the man's hidden loot. Dark-hued comedy takes a long time to get cooking, but there are some big laughs in the second-half, mostly due to Midler's hamming and several of her wicked throwaway lines ("Talk to my a**, my head's had enough!"). Ken Wahl is a tepid stud, but Rip Torn is a hoot as Midler's scummy roommate. Frank D. Gilroy co-penned the screenplay with David Newman, utilizing the pseudonym Bert Blessing. Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography is gauzy and gauche (perhaps he should have adopted a pseudonym as well). Overall, not as atrocious as its bad reputation might leave one to believe. ** from ****

As a Bette Midler fan it is difficult for me to dislike anything associated with her, but even with my fan loyalty, it is too much for me to sit through this movie.

The plot involves a triangle between Bette as a show girl and aspiring actress, her husband, a heavy drinking gambler with no steady job, and a young Vegas dealer. The premise lies in the gambler's ability to win every hand dealt to him by the young dealer, providing him with a steady income and causing the young dealer to lose his jobs and move from casino to casino. The young dealer calls the gambler a "jinx" giving us a title.

From this very strained premise (the movie loses any chance of credibility from the start) the plot moves from boring, to awkward, to outrageous, as in "What the heck is going on?" With a lame plot, poor acting by most of the cast, and no characters the audience feels sympathy for, the only thing this film has going for it is Bette's energy. She really pours her heart into her role, as if she feels like she can make this film great by her efforts alone. But even the Divine Mrs. M. can save this film, I am sad to say.

Don Siegel couldn't have directed this abomination. He must've given it to a new assistant director. I read that this movie bombed at the box office and almost ended Bette Midler's film career before it began, and I can believe it. This has to be one of the worst movies I've ever watched, and I did watch to the bitter end. I kept thinking surely something -- anything -- would happen to turn it around. But nothing turned it around. I hated every character, especially the absurd Ken Wahl character. The plot is absolutely stupid. There are too many things that are unbelievable to even list. The acting is awful. Bette Midler seemed to fluctuate between too cute, too melodramatic, and too weird. The "treature hunt" at the end is utter nonsense, including the painfully horrible and pointless scene with Jack Elam. This isn't a movie, it's a jumbled worthless mess. I'd give it a minus 100 if I could. Note to IMDb -- "must've" and "I've" are contractions, don't you people know English? These are not "spelling mistakes" you morons!

This film, had a very good feel to it, although it did seem to be taking the micky out of itself a little, but that didn't matter because, it was a story that delved into the ridiculous, the storyline was quirky enough to carry the film through.

Bette Midler was a slight more subdued than her usual roles, but then again, it was way before she was really known for for her more famous films, like BIG BUSINESS AND GYPSY but towards the end her character perked up a little.

But how 2 people can fall in love so quickly, and then to plan her husbands end was a bit ( right)ok

but you should really go rent it if you want laughs and enjoyable oneliners like saying to the stripper, HEY YOU KNOW HAROLD BENSON, stripper replys YEA I KNOW THE CREEP, WELL GUESS WHAT HE'S DEAD. and they both fall about laughing, great stuff.

"Bette Midler's in it, how bad could it be??" Boy, was I wrong.

This was a terribly derailed want-to-be dark comedy. There were glimpses hope that this movie had some potential, but everything fell completely flat thanks to the HORRIBLE script writing and character/plot development. I actually wish someone with talent could re-write this somehow so that it made sense, as I spent most of the time waiting for the movie to explain itself.

I love a good class b movie (and worse), but I can't say I would suggest anyone waste their time on this movie that was the definition of a dud; not even funny to watch in an OMG this movie is so bad type of way.