Io sono perversa

If there's ever been a movie ruined by a soundtrack, it's THE BIG BOUNCE: a late-sixties balance of sunny sea-blue and rural-gray tones, adapted from Elmore Leonard's Neo Noir novel beginning with a convict bashing an inmate's face with a baseball bat, and then, on parole and stuck within the small town, he's both feared and revered...

Depending who's around, and where he's at, and, while still in the film's rushed rudimentary stages, he seeks work for a dishonest rancher who exploits cucumber farm workers...

But with the help of a particular friend, he lands a soft job as a maintenance man at a beach side motel, where so much potential, pitting Ryan O'Neal against one of the sexiest sirens of Neo Noir... played by his then-wife and former PEYTON PLACE co-star Leigh Taylor-Young, who's the buried lead here: A seemingly sophisticated femme-fatale, she's bad news and big trouble.

Author Elmore Leonard said all adaptations before GET SHORTY and JACKIE BROWN never got it... But maybe, in critiquing BIG BOUNCE piecemeal, he saw a dark ray of hope in Taylor-Young's Nancy Barker, both effectively sinister and sexy...

The aforementioned crappy music, arranged by the usually capable Tony Curb, sounds like The Beach Boys possessed by folk singers drowning-out an otherwise groovy Jack Nitzsche-like surf music score -- one particularly godawful track repeats Nancy's name over and over... killing whatever edge her character's supposed to have.

But it's not all that bad: the overall vibe is lean and edgy, and there are terrific moments when Jack and Nancy hang out, night and day, discussing an upcoming heist, and possible murder. But Jack spends too much time with his old-timer friend played by veteran actor Van Heflin... so overly (and quickly) helpful to Jack's plight... he hardly has any obstacles in his way, or rungs to climb, or corners to paint himself out of.

It's really all about our femme fatale Taylor-Young being really bad and getting progressively worse (as in, badder and badder): and then, possibly becoming lethal while keeping her ridiculously beautiful poker face intact...

But really, TV director Alex March needed the intentionally flawed heart-of-gold convict ani-hero to take more risky chances, early on, to live up to any manipulative competition. And it wouldn't be the first time Ryan O'Neal would get what was supposedly his first-billed vehicle stolen by a close relative. He probably never got over PAPER MOON belonging solely to daughter and Oscar winner Tatum O'Neal.

Unsure of where to go after wounding a vengeful local in baseball match and told to flee town, a Vietnam War veteran takes up with the mysterious young mistress of a produce farm owner in this little seen drama starring Ryan O'Neal in his first screen role. It is not the greatest debut for the Oscar nominated actor, but in what was only her second screen performance, Leigh Taylor-Young is excellent as the tantalising mistress. A femme fatale of the post-Production Code era, she plays a seductress like few others before her, revealing lots of skin and boldly parading around in the buff. She is just as effective with her clothes on too as there is an ambiguity as to whether or not she genuinely likes O'Neal or is just using him for a scheme revealed in the film's final third. That said, the scheme comes too late to provide much vigour, and easy as Taylor-Young is on the eyes, there is little else propelling the first hour. Van Heflin has a nice, understated turn as a justice of the peace, and Cindy Eilbacher is adorable, playing a surrogate daughter to O'Neal, but it is not enough to carry the film. The opportunities for more are all too apparent. Why not explore O'Neal's criminal background in further depth or how serving in Vietnam has affected him? Why not establish his desire for a daughter further? By all accounts though, the film was promoted as a vehicle for its two stars (married in real life at the time) and therefore it is easy to see why the filmmakers took a less exciting route. The film is not worthless as some of its dissenters might say, but it sure could have been a lot more.

Well basically my description says it all... not a bad movie but terrible music, especially from a period of such GREAT music. The music really ruins the movie. It's about a worker who gets in a fight and hits another worker in the face with a bat and well i dont want to ruin the movie if you feel like seeing it, despite the music....

"Elmore Leonard called this adaptation of his book "an awful movie"...IMDB Trivia.

"The Big Bounce" is Ryan O'Neal's first theatrical film. I saw it mostly because one of the supporting actors is Van Heflin...a darn fine actor from Hollywood's golden age.

Jack (O'Neal) is a guy who's drifted since being discharged from the Army. He also is a guy with a criminal record for Burglary and Assault. Perhaps this is why Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is so smitten with him. Regardless, she takes her clothes off OFTEN to get the drooling Jack to do what she wants. Now he protests a lot...but off come her clothes and he complies. This leads to complications, such as when she runs a dune buggy off the road (possibly killing the occupants) for kicks. She also proposes he help her with a robbery...one that will be 'fun'. And, once again, he agrees to go along with this flaky lady...and you assume it's because of her super-powers of persuasion...in other words, her hot bod. What's next? See the film yourself and find out.

In some ways this is a tough movie for some to watch. After all, there are not 'good guys' in the film. But it is a mildly interesting character study of a woman who appears to have a Borderline Personality with strong Antisocial features (I used to diagnose folks when I was a therapist and this one is right or at least close!).

You probably noticed the quote from IMDB where the writer calls this an awful film. Obviously he wasn't thrilled with it. I didn't think it was terrible, though a few of the characters and plots are WAY underdeveloped...especially the one involving Lee Grant and her onscreen daughter. It's almost criminally underdeveloped and it really doesn't work well...as if they edited out most of this plot but forgot to edit out it all. But as far as the plot involving Young, it is compelling. After all, you wonder....is she some nutty thrill-seeker or is she setting him up? Neither one is good...and possibly the nutty thrill-seeker angle is worse considering how extreme her behaviors are! I liked but didn't love the film...and think it's worth a look.

By the way, this film has a significant amount of nudity. You might not want to show it to your kids or your mom or Father O'Reilly.

Most of the other comments on here are pretty accurate. This movie really showed the loosening up of Hollywood as far as female nudity went. We get to see the beautiful Leigh Taylor-Young in various stages of nudity and looking good dressed too. Ryan never looked better. Lee Grant perfected the role of a perpetually uptight woman in Valley of The Dolls and this seems to be a continuation. The only actress in this movie that really shined was Cindy Eilbacher who could act rings around any other child actor of this or later era. Her few scenes really stand out and almost seem to be from another movie. Loved the cars, the clothes, the great character actors and YES I did love the music but it was all wrong for this movie. I think this music was meant for Dean Martin's last Matt Helm movie with Sharon Tate that never got made. It was lush orchestrated loungy pop music but was all wrong for a crime-noir movie. It really threw me off but I enjoyed hearing it from another room when I wasn't watching the screen. This also has some really great campy lines mainly from Van Heflin calling Leigh a "Quiff" in one scene and various other vague vulgarities. I really enjoyed watching Van go near the edge of camp and then pull back a bit. James Daly was perfect as a high class sleazebag. Look for Ryan's brother Kevin as the passenger in the dune buggy scene.

Overall much better than the horrendous remake, especially if you like movies that are so bad they are good.