Madame Bijoux

Though there were times when I enjoyed Donald Sutherland's cheeky, rebellious, style of characterisation, for the most part I never really understood why he was such a success. Versatile he isn't, and here though easily stealing the limelight, he does very little with a weak plot, a thinly spread story and a co-star who smiles a lot! He is insurance investigator "Andy" who robs a gangster of a necklace which he then uses to try to lure "Paula" (Jennifer O'Neill) into disclosing her secrets as a highly effective jewel fencer. Of course, she isn't that dumb - even if she is the crook in question, and so for the next ninety minutes we plays a sort of cat and mouse game between the two that errs all too often on the side of predictable romance. It's all rather flat and by-the-numbers with an underwhelming Robert Duvall and an out of sorts Patrick Magee both failing to add much lustre to this not very shiny drama. It's got made for television written all over it, and I was frankly rather bored by it all. Maybe fans of Sutherland might enjoy it to complete a list, but it has little else to recommend it, sorry.

Jennifer O'Neill is a top-end jewelry fence in Florida. When a pricey set of hot rocks goes through her hands, insurance investigator Donald Sutherland is on the case. Sparks fly between the two.

The production of this film was clearly inspired by THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. This movie, however, lacks all the heat and style of that earlier movie. There's little chemistry between the two performers, the music is 1970s chick-a-boom, the camerawork by Lucien Ballard is workmanlike but unimaginative, and director Tom Gries largely wastes a good cast that includes Robert Duvall Patrick Magee and Dana Elcar. All the performances are minimalistic, with insurance executives empty suits saying banal lines as if they are of great import. Sutherland has a few flares of humor, Miss O'Neill is exceedingly lovely, but it's an uninspiring movie.

A made-for-TV `Thomas Crown Affair (1968)' tries hard to duplicate the Steve McQueen-Faye Dunaway chemistry, using Donald Sutherland and Jennifer O'Neill in this watery version.

Role reversal sets O'Neill as the wealthy jewel thief, hunted seductively by insurance investigator Sutherland..who works most of the film in shirts open to the navel…Ahh, the 70's!!!

O'Neill is beautiful and stylish, drives fast cars, swims unclothed and stays away from complex sentences, while Sutherland smokes those little thin cigars and from time to time falls back on his ‘Hawkeye' grin. There is a nice turn by Jon Cypher as the heavy. Soap opera vet Eric Braeden gets some on-screen time as does, of all people Robert Duvall as the straight-arrow cop.

Fun for a lark. Connoisseurs of the genre only please .

As stated by other reviews, this is strictly a watch for Jennifer O'Neill fans.

This feels like someone wanted to do a modern detective noir along the lines of Elliot Gould's The Long Goodbye, Gene Hackman's Night Moves etc, with intrigue, ambiguous characters, sexual tension, suspense and the usual twist, turns, red herrings and chicanery that a good 70s crime film needs.

However someone forgot to tell the writer that most people don't have a clue about the goings on in high stakes insurance investigations, and that other than being very convoluted it's also incredibly dull.

Coupled with the film feeling like an episode of Columbo, with Donald Sutherland as your cocky overly sure of himself investigator (Though he is enjoyable to watch), the film misses the mark by a long long way.

Robert Duvall takes a small turn, and makes you wish he filmed a few more action thrillers and reminds you to rewatch the Outfit, Killer Elite, and The Eagle Has Landed.

Jennifer O'Neill is stunning and probably the main reason you'll watch the movie, possibly the reason it got made. If they put out a directors cut with 30 mins extra of her driving the Ferrari or Maserati then I'd definitely queue up to buy it.

Very light entertainment, something to stare at.

Is this a great movie? Well, no, it's not. But what's really amazing here is that we are able to see it at all. Thanks, Prime! As a kid in the 70s and 80s, and continuing on as a young adult into the 90s, I was pretty sure I had watched just about every action/adventure/cops&robbers flick that came out between 1960 and 1995. At least the ones that had any kind of a star. I had never even heard of this one until I saw it available included with Prime. It's the kind of movie I would have loved as a kid. At this point, I'm sophisticated enough in my judgement of a film to realize that this one is a mess. And while many of the plot points don't seem to make a lot of sense, the film moves along steadily towards what you imagine will be some kind of an interesting conclusion. The ending, along with many other parts of the film is a bit strange, but somehow satisfying. Not much of this movie goes as expected. It's uneven, but it does keep you more interested that a standard formulaic offering. I really enjoyed the performances of the three main stars. Donald Sutherland is sure fun to watch, even if the character did something no real person would ever do about every ten minutes. Jennifer O'Neill has a great energy in every movie I've seen her in. Robert Duvall! He was super solid in a movie where everything else was kind of all over the place. To really enjoy a movie like this, a big part of it has to come from just wanting to see what was going on in the business in 1973. What did the world look like? How was everyone dressing? What were they driving? What were these actors doing in between making really good movies? If you've got an inquiring mind, and really want to know, check this movie out. If not, try something from the 90s.