Hamlet6532

This trashy cheap comedy has only one reason to be preserved. That saving grace is Elke Sommers. Elke is the most beautiful actress in Hollywood. Her costumes were amazing. They showed so much but still concealed. She is constantly losing her clothes in delightful ways. The scene in the white satin dress is the stuff that dreams are made of. Her expressions, her voice, her accent, her hair, her eyes...I can watch that scene over & over again. That sounds adolescent, but I was an adolescent when I first watched this film. Elke had many other good scenes:her fight with agent outside the club was fun as were the high jump over the tower of bottles; dancing on the bed wearing a bedspread;the torn dress that belonged to Forman's wife (who is also quite comely in a different way). So why not give it a ten? Because the awful script & the clumsy antics of the East German agents rate a 0. I will give it +1 for Joey Forman's believability and +7 for Elke. In summary, not an ounce of appeal for women and only has appeal for men who still recall their adolescent dreams.

This is a dream cast. Never have so many A list actors appeared in one film. The sets, costumes & props show that no cost was spared. The directing is superb. A stellar performance by Albert Finney. His summation at the end of the film is an eight page monologue that is absolutely gripping. Of course it helps to have fourteen top-notch film actors and/or stage actors listening and reacting to his reconstruction of the crime. I never tire of seeing this one again and again. The DVD version has hours of behind the scenes material and almost every actor sharing their reminiscences. Richard Widmark said that he wanted to be in it just to meet all these people. Agatha Christie came to the premiere. She had never done so for any of her other hundred or so films.

Yes, Sheen's character should be court-martialed, but I did enjoy the straight-forward action without the usual worldwide calamity as incentive. The precision teamwork of Navy Seals is thrilling to observe. It is also believable. You may recognize the wonderful voice of Dennis Hasbert (Our President in TV's "24") as "Chief Billy Graham" and the wonderful Epatha Merkerson (TV's "Law & Order" District Attorney) as his only love, Jolene. Bill Paxton (not to confused with Bill Pullman...as he always is) again turns up as a leading man in a supporting role. As the hero the audience likes to identify with, his character is stronger than Sheen's. Overall, I'd say the writing is this flick's chief strength.