Entre o Desejo e a Morte

Ghastly vanity project by a fading star. Most bad movies have a camp, unintentional comedy value but this doesn't even have that.

Sylvia Koscina is very lovely to look at. She also has an amazing bubble flip that never gets missed, even after getting out of bed or wearing a wig over it.

Automobiles furnished by Lincoln-Mercury.

Fans of Kirk Douglas will love this kitschy detective mystery. Douglas is in his early fifties and his best films (Spartacus in 1960 and Seven Days In May in 1964) are behind him. He still has the chops to be believable as a lothario law and order cop in the style of 'Dirty Harry'. (Although 'Dirty Harry' won't be released for another three years.) The problem is Douglas' character doesn't know if he's Matt Helm (Dean Martin) or Lew Harper (Paul Newman). The result is an unoriginal, contrived and disjointed story with little character development. Douglas swaggers through a myopic and distorted Hollywood version of the "Summer of Love" in a desperate attempt to appear relevant, cool and of the times. Kenyan Hopkins generic musical score of jazz idioms doesn't help matters. The bed hopping, free wheeling playboy with the cool car (1968 Ford Mustang) is just sad and dated up against more realistic and dour character studies like Steve McQueen's character in 'Bullitt' released in the same year. Sylva Koscina is enchanting as the supposed femme fatale and Eli Wallach is semi-ridiculous as a "southern" defense attorney. The "mystery" is tricky enough to keep your attention but just barely.

Yes, in this typical comedy crime flick from the mid sixties, showing a cool detective, I would have bet my last shirt on George Peppard for the gumshoe role; check his filmography, Universal Studios, and also his usual characters for this period. This character should have been for him and not Kirk Douglas, what a midcast. But this isnot a crap, only a detective plot, plenty of charm and atmosphere of this unique period for the movie industry, directed by a TV director, involving rich people. Paul Newman as Harper for instance should have been the best, or why not Steve Mc Queen, though they were both too good for this kind of junk. This is too light hearted, but amusing.

For some reason this film which used to be shown frequently on TV in the 70s and early 80s has not been available for years until just recently. I saw it in theater and innumerable times on television, but only once again just now.

Kirk Douglas stars in this drama/mystery in which he recycles his tough cop from Detective Story. Unlike his character there whose penchant for violence was thoroughly explored, his cop in this film is just as violent without the issues. After beating some out of town hoods who probably deserved it, Douglas quits the force after complaints of police brutality. Even Dirty Harry Callahan didn't do that. But in terms of violence this film was only a hint of what was to come.

Eli Wallach playing a mush mouth deep south criminal defense attorney who is defending lovers Sylvia Koscina and Kenneth Haigh on a murder charge, they supposedly killed Koscina's husband. One of the things I did remember distinctly from previous viewings was Wallach in his role. Eli really looks like he's enjoying himself here.

As for Kirk his job is to guard Koscina and of course he starts thinking with his male member and getting warm for her form. She maintains she really is innocent and Douglas would like to believe her and pin the whole thing on Haigh. It's his determination to nail the boyfriend that totally skewers his objectivity. Once he gets over thinking like a rival he solves the murder.

This part was no great strain on Kirk Douglas's talents, his character while a tough cop is a pale shadow of what he did in Detective Story. It's a good made for TV movie and probably should have been sent there and not even had a big screen run.

It was run a lot on TV for years.

"A Lovely Way to Die" is a lot like Frank Sinatra's "Tony Rome" combined with "Dirty Harry" and it kind of works....sometimes. For the most part, it is a disappointment and could have been a lot better.

When the story begins, you see that Jameson Schuyler (Kirk Douglas) has two things he loves...womanizing and beating the crap out of criminals. After his latest violent arrest, he knows he's going to be disciplined...so he quits the police force. Soon after this, a hot-shot attorney (Eli Wallach) approaches Schuyler and offers him a job. He's to keep an eye on a flakey rich lady who is being indicted for murder...and do odd jobs as needed.

Schuyler is a bit of a pig, though what makes the film harder to like is that the accused woman is simply annoying. She is flaky and very inconsistently written. Considering she's on trial for murder, you'd think she'd take this seriously...which she clearly doesn't. And, because she doesn't care, the audience is inclined to feel much the same. An okay film up until the very stupid ending, and it could have easily been better.