Entre o Desejo e a Morte

Police detective Jim Schuyler (Kirk Douglas) quits his job before he gets investigated for a history of rough treatment of suspects. He takes work from lawyer Tennessee Fredericks (Eli Wallach) and his client Rena Westabrook who is going on trial for the murder of her wealthy husband.

At first, I thought Jim is being hired to solve the murder. Instead, he's not much more than a bodyguard and the movie takes on a slightly comedic tone. I don't see how the clashing tones work in this movie. It's weird and it goes nowhere quick. The murder trial hangs over everything and lacks any tension. I really don't like the music. It takes over an hour before she asks him to find her husband's killer. Why hire a police detective in the first place if not to solve the case? I just wanted him to get going with the investigating.

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.

I've only gotten to see this movie once but it left a pretty vivid impression on me -- a psychedelic era private eye thriller with Kirk Douglas as a cynical detective assigned to protect the sexy defendant in a murder case (sexy Giallo film regular Sylva Koscina) being defended by fast-talking Eli Wallach from being unfairly (or, not) found guilty of murdering her rich old geezer of a husband. At least, I think that's the nature of the plot, my scanty knowledge of the film demonstrated by not even having remembered that Eli Wallach was in it. He's kind of a hard film presence to forget, but since I saw the movie on the tail end of a windowpane fueled Magical Mystery Tour it's not that surprising.

In fact, it's impressive that I recall anything at all, but it was one of those instances where I had nothing better to do in the afternoon after the journey in mention and just happened to catch this on TV while slumming around our on-campus apartment. I would usually look for certain things when selecting entertainment under such circumstances, and the production year of 1968 stuck out, suggesting that there might be subtle suggestions of psychedelia, ala POINT BLANK which at the time was my alltime favorite film. I was correct.

Two moments in the film stuck with me: One during a scene were Mr. Douglas' car is forced off the road by gangster thugs who chase him into the woods, and he administrates a very effective beating onto one of the thugs, which each blow of the fist highlighted by an orchestrated crescendo. The other moment was right after Douglas' character is introduced to Koscina, who simply oozes sex appear and regards him with a sort of "come hither" look from a balcony window. Douglas' reaction is to bite heartily into an apple -- along with another orchestrated flourish -- with a gusto that was the source of a nice belly laugh.

The film has apparently never been released on home video or DVD but I remember it vividly and would love to have the chance to watch it again.

"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.

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.