This is easily the poorest film Sidney Lumet ever directed. When it came out it was, as best I remember, savaged by the critics and got very little release. Now, seeing it all these years later, I can understand why MGM buried it.
Strike one was trying to turn Omar Sharif into a romantic leading man. He was mysterious in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, wooden in FUNNY GIRL, and here he just looks lost. I'm in a good mood, so I won't make any jokes about his moustache. But he seems totally disconnected from everything going on around him.
Strike two is a Jewish man from New York trying to be very European. Nobody understands New York city as well as Lumet. Woody Allen runs a good second, but Lumet has the edge here.
The wooden stake through the film's heart, though, is actors who are not native speakers of English trying to speak a language not their own. That creates so much distance that meaning and nuances of speech get lost.
And clothes from the 1960's look ridiculous today. Just watch the original THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR to see how styles have changed.
It would be interesting to see how Lumet feels about this film today. If I've seen a mention of it in the many articles about and tributes to Lumet, I don't recall it.
Strike one was trying to turn Omar Sharif into a romantic leading man. He was mysterious in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, wooden in FUNNY GIRL, and here he just looks lost. I'm in a good mood, so I won't make any jokes about his moustache. But he seems totally disconnected from everything going on around him.
Strike two is a Jewish man from New York trying to be very European. Nobody understands New York city as well as Lumet. Woody Allen runs a good second, but Lumet has the edge here.
The wooden stake through the film's heart, though, is actors who are not native speakers of English trying to speak a language not their own. That creates so much distance that meaning and nuances of speech get lost.
And clothes from the 1960's look ridiculous today. Just watch the original THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR to see how styles have changed.
It would be interesting to see how Lumet feels about this film today. If I've seen a mention of it in the many articles about and tributes to Lumet, I don't recall it.