Great Greek location footage doesn't mean a good movie, and this film version of the novel is very badly constructed, with a weird character played by Anthony Quinn playing games with Michael Caine that are rather aggravating to watch unfold on screen. Perhaps this is one of those books that was better as a novel and couldn't possibly be filmed to make any sense, and as Michael Caine it has stated, it's one of the worst movies he ever made. Quinn is allegedly throughout the film a magician, a clairvoyant, a psychiatrist, a survivor of World War II and one of the most despicable characters to ever appear on screen. He's certainly as far from Zorba the Greek as he could possibly be, and the way he plays Caine like a fiddle is annoying to watch.
The beautiful Candice Bergen is a lady of mystery, first seen in a flashback as the young wife of the younger Quinn (fortunately played by another actor in those flashbacks), then all of a sudden appearing as an alleged patient of Quinn's oh, that is until the game Quinn is playing is revealed. But by this time, you begin to wonder if this is the last game that will be played and if more confusion or manipulation will be thrown into the mix. As a result of Quinn's manipulation, Caine losses the woman he loves, Anna Karina, and a cruel twist towards the end makes this infuriating. Its efforts to resemble a classic Greek tragedy fails miserably, and had it not been for the locations, I would have rated this a bomb. It still is one of the worst films of the 60's, that issomething not to be proud of since the sixties had a lot of truly lousy movies that thought they were being artistic and hip.
The beautiful Candice Bergen is a lady of mystery, first seen in a flashback as the young wife of the younger Quinn (fortunately played by another actor in those flashbacks), then all of a sudden appearing as an alleged patient of Quinn's oh, that is until the game Quinn is playing is revealed. But by this time, you begin to wonder if this is the last game that will be played and if more confusion or manipulation will be thrown into the mix. As a result of Quinn's manipulation, Caine losses the woman he loves, Anna Karina, and a cruel twist towards the end makes this infuriating. Its efforts to resemble a classic Greek tragedy fails miserably, and had it not been for the locations, I would have rated this a bomb. It still is one of the worst films of the 60's, that issomething not to be proud of since the sixties had a lot of truly lousy movies that thought they were being artistic and hip.