sws-3

This isn't much of a thriller, and, as a character study, it is also pretty thin entertainment.

TWILIGHT is worth seeing, however, for James Garner's elegant performance. That he steals the film, with such ease, from three great pros (Newman, Sarandon, Hackman), makes it an even more impressive achievement.

Scorsese completely missed the the ironic tone Wharton maintains

in the novel. Worse, the film contains an endless stream of

narration; though this is beautifully spoken by Joanne Woodward,

it's distracting, and almost an admission of defeat. Scorsese's

interest in narrative film has been wilting since GOODFELLAS;

this film is a preview of the disaster that is CASINO.

Multiple sexual entanglements and jealousies keep things tense at the Piccadilly club. Anna May Wong shines as a dishwasher who becomes the club's star attraction. This film shows what Wong was capable of, and the talent Hollywood wasted by not giving her starring roles. Nice cameo by Charles Laughton as a drunken boor. The compelling sexual and ethnic politics are exploited to full effect by director E.A. Dupont.