moonspinner55

James Caan as a gambling addict and literature professor in New York City--teaching Dostoevsky and William Carlos Williams, no less!--who's on a losing streak when he's informed by his underworld bookie that he currently owes $44K "and some change". Existential portrait of Man propelled by obsession, undone by misfortune. It's full of oddballs and crazy-dangerous situations, plus a touch of "Godfather" madness. Screenwriter James Toback and director Karel Reisz give Caan a showcase opportunity to strut his macho stuff. The star doesn't disappoint, though it's a hard movie to love. **1/2 from ****

In 1840s Mexico, the peasants find themselves at the mercy of their dastardly new governor; land owner Don Diego learns of his deceased father's double-life as justice-seeker Zorro, dons a black hat-cape-and-mask and becomes a hero for the people on horseback. Producer-star George Hamilton and director, Peter Medak, show surprising reverence towards Douglas Fairbanks' Zorro, but what happened to the jokes? The sincerity seems heartfelt but is DOA. Following Hamilton's bloody-good Dracula spoof "Love at First Bite", one expects more laughs than just Ron Liebman and Brenda Vaccaro overacting as the villains. The sword-fighting action and some mild camp (turns out Diego has a flamboyant twin brother, Lt. Bunny Wigglesworth) can't make up for the overall malaise. * from ****

Action star Charles Bronson in the surprisingly benign role of Raymond St. Ives, an ex-crime reporter-turned-struggling author living in a cheap Los Angeles hotel. St. Ives isn't eager to take on extra work--though he gambles freely with what money he has--and so is talked into a go-between job by his lawyer (Michael Lerner, who has a great pre-credits scene with Bronson and then vanishes completely). The case involves a movie-loving old coot (John Houseman) in the ritzy Holmby Hills area who was robbed of his journals and is willing to pay $100K to the thieves to have them returned; his (apparently non-sexual) mistress (Jacqueline Bisset) immediately puts the moves on St. Ives but he's not interested--not yet, anyway. Adaptation of Oliver Bleeck's novel "The Procane Chronicle" is a whirlpool of murder, dirty cops, greed and betrayal, and it's almost too complicated to follow in detail...and yet, the picture doesn't offer much headway from the Kojaks or Barettas of the day. Bronson is appealing in his derivative role, Bisset is a sly, half-smiling seductress, but Maximilian Schell (as Houseman's best friend/psychiatrist) is the product of writer's folly: he's dropped into the scenario rather clumsily, and his exit is just as baffling. Lucien Ballard's cinematography is, for Ballard, disappointing, but J. Lee Thompson's direction is brisk and there are many entertaining things to look out for, including Robert Englund and Jeff Goldblum (previously a mugger in "Death Wish") as two thugs who push Bronson down an empty elevator shaft. TV stuff, yes, but with the polish added by this cast it's watchable and engaging. **1/2 from ****