After reading the other users' comments, I was eager to watch this one. A copy was recently uploaded on YouTube. I think David Janssen's a fascinating actor, and I hadn't seen anything from the end of his career. But if these were the kinds of scripts he was getting at the end, I shudder to think what he would have been saddled with in the next decade, had he lived and continued acting.
This TV movie has an interesting premise. I didn't have a problem with the basic scenario, about a man wanting to get away from an unappreciative wife. But the way the scenario was handled was quite dumb and drawn out. At some points, it's like the writer couldn't decide if it should be a domestic drama about the wife (Stefanie Powers) and her parents, and the wife's affair. Or if it should be about Janssen becoming an expert blackjack player. We were not told till later that his skill at the game is what helped him afford his new life, but that seemed fairly obvious.
The scenes with Janssen and the detective playing cards and beating the other players had amusing moments, but took up way too much screen time. More time should instead have been devoted to how Janssen staged his death. A lot of that was done off-camera with him explaining it later to the detective. Why? It should have been presented on screen.
The stuff with his continual references to Kennedy and the day JFK was shot seemed overdone. It was an interesting gimmick that was repeated too many times to retain effectiveness. Eventually we had the wife complaining about her husband's obsession over a dead president. It was like she was speaking for viewers who were thinking 'enough already, now let's get on with the story.'
Overall this was a TV movie that had interesting ideas, but much of it was just that-- ideas without a real coherent story. The scenes with Linda Evans, who played Janssens' new lady love in the last half hour, just seemed like filler. We had an interminable sequence where they were on a hijacked plane. All of that felt like it belonged in another movie altogether.
As for Janssen himself, he's the main reason to watch this TV movie. His acting is always good, even when he's underserved by the material. I also thought Stefanie Powers did well, playing against type as a shrew. But in some scenes, it felt like Powers and Evans were too young to play opposite Janssen. It was clear that Janssen had really aged near the end of his life. He doesn't look like he's 46, he looks 66.
This TV movie has an interesting premise. I didn't have a problem with the basic scenario, about a man wanting to get away from an unappreciative wife. But the way the scenario was handled was quite dumb and drawn out. At some points, it's like the writer couldn't decide if it should be a domestic drama about the wife (Stefanie Powers) and her parents, and the wife's affair. Or if it should be about Janssen becoming an expert blackjack player. We were not told till later that his skill at the game is what helped him afford his new life, but that seemed fairly obvious.
The scenes with Janssen and the detective playing cards and beating the other players had amusing moments, but took up way too much screen time. More time should instead have been devoted to how Janssen staged his death. A lot of that was done off-camera with him explaining it later to the detective. Why? It should have been presented on screen.
The stuff with his continual references to Kennedy and the day JFK was shot seemed overdone. It was an interesting gimmick that was repeated too many times to retain effectiveness. Eventually we had the wife complaining about her husband's obsession over a dead president. It was like she was speaking for viewers who were thinking 'enough already, now let's get on with the story.'
Overall this was a TV movie that had interesting ideas, but much of it was just that-- ideas without a real coherent story. The scenes with Linda Evans, who played Janssens' new lady love in the last half hour, just seemed like filler. We had an interminable sequence where they were on a hijacked plane. All of that felt like it belonged in another movie altogether.
As for Janssen himself, he's the main reason to watch this TV movie. His acting is always good, even when he's underserved by the material. I also thought Stefanie Powers did well, playing against type as a shrew. But in some scenes, it felt like Powers and Evans were too young to play opposite Janssen. It was clear that Janssen had really aged near the end of his life. He doesn't look like he's 46, he looks 66.