A faccia nuda

In this 1985 step away of the bond era Moore finally gets to make a great movie. This is probably his best movie, maybe not in acting, but the script is hard to beat. The naked face origins from a novel by Sidney Sheldon. The story is good and it differs from many other in the genre. It is not easy to predict the ending. That alone makes this film worth seeing. There are also other facts that makes this well worth seeing. Rod Steiger plays more than well, making his character disgusting from time to time. Moore acts well and so does all roles. To this one ads good music and you cannot get anything but a great film. I say not it is excellent, but it comes close enough to be more than recommended.

Roger Moore is in uncharacteristic surroundings here, in a very adult thriller. He plays a Chicago psychiatrist who tops the polic's suspect list when a number of people start getting bumped off in the city. You see, all those that are dead are patients at his clinic. As suspicion mounts, Moore does the only thing he can and takes the investigation into his own hands, hoping to clear his name by catching the real killer(s) himself.

Also involved in the film are Rod Steiger and Elliot Gould, both giving enjoyable performances as cops investigating the crimes. The story takes its inspiration from a Sidney Sheldon bestseller, and unfolds fairly intriguingly with various red herrings and killings tossed into the mix at regular intervals. However, the film isn't perfect by a long stretch of the imagination. For a start, the peculiar assassination at the end is supposed to be a twist of some sort, but it makes little sense. Also, the solution to the murders isn't that great (in fact, it's been six years since I saw the film and I can't remember exactly how it all gets resolved). Nonetheless, the film is probably worth a look, especially if you've never seen Moore in one of his more unstereotypical roles.

I think the entire film is a good film but the ending is a little bit too strange and seems not to be necessary. In my opinion we could cut out the last scene. The characters were played well, all in all a good film.

Roger Moore ("Dr. Stevens") is quite effective in this murder-mystery as an eminent psychiatrist who finds himself at the centre of a police investigation into the killing of his assistant and of one of his patients. Desperate to prove his innocence to police lieutenant "McGreavy" (Rod Steiger) and his sidekick "Angeli" (Elliott Gould), he must work out what exactly is going on. Is he the real target? Why? Who? Despite the efforts of a good cast, the writing is a bit lacklustre and it's fairly easy to spot who's pulling the strings - or, at least, who is helping the puppet master fairly early on, thereby robbing the plot of much jeopardy. As to the "why" element of the story, that proves to be really quite contrived, and in best Agatha Christie traditions there are too many new elements introduced near the end for us to have much of a go at playing detective ourselves on that front. It is entertaining to see these old pros on screen together, and that raises the standard somewhat - but basically, it's just a rather light-weight gangster film that you'll forget very quickly.

Contrary to some reviewers' comments, I thought that Roger Moore acted well enough here, portraying emotion such as when talking about his dead wife.

Rod Steiger and Elliot Gould were both good, though I assume that the former's hairpiece reflected what a police lieutenant, rather than a Hollywood star, could afford.

When the reason for the murders, murder attempts and general mayhem became apparent, it was something of an anticlimax as they didn't seem that necessary. The attempt to run down Dr Stevens in the passageway was particular hamfisted.

I'm tempted to see if I can buy a copy of the book on which the film is based, in the hope that it might fill in the several plot holes.

It was strange how the private detective, Morgens,chose to meet Stevens in a particularly isolated and forbidding area

As others have said, the ending was unsatisfactory and suggested there might be more trouble ahead.

Like other reviewers, I was half-hoping that Moore would switch into his Bond persona when he was being beaten up, but I guess that would have prompted me to complain that his Stevens character was not macho enough to do that.

I'm tempted to see if I can buy a copy of the book on which the film is based, in the hope that it might fill in the several plot holes.

EDIT: I bought a copy of the book, which the film generally followed, though the former did include two meetings at their homes that Dr Judd had with the sex-mad ex-actress and the lover of a gay patient at their homes. But the book did end on a clear and positive note, unlike the film - why did they have to tack on that final scene? One or two plot holes were explained, but not convincingly.