2h 3min | Drama, Music, Romance | 15 December 1967 | Color, ws
Director: Mark Robson
Stars: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Martin Milner, Lee Grant, Susan Hayward.
Robert Sidney ... choreographer
5 songs in the Soundtracks. PD and SH play B'way singing stars.
Previously rated 7, and I'm sticking with it.
This is pretty shocking stuff for a musical. The mood is cynical and negative: another warning shot about both coasts of show biz. But the big shocker is the tiny bit of nudity: ST plays in a film within the film, softcore stuff from what we see, but we get a bit of toplessness. Slyly, but it's there.
I've always admired ST for her performance here. It's all the more poignant given that she'd be dead less than 2 years later, murdered by the Manson followers while she was pregnant.
The next best performance is BP's as the young woman trying to decide who she is, the subject of the Dionne Warwick song played over the credits and throughout. She's very effective as well.
PD is very much over the top, but that's probably appropriate to her role. SH likewise.
Other than PB, the men are just extras. MM is only there for less than half the film, and is pushed around plenty by PD. PB is bf to BP, and by his actions unintentionally forces her to decide who she is. It's sort of refreshing to see men perform secondary roles like this; it harkens back to the 30's.
It's an interesting, if somewhat familiar, story well told.
distr. Fox, dir. Robson; 7
