The opening theme is snazzy and jazzy, and is a great riff with saxes, brass, piano, and electric guitar. Unfortunately, the film starts shortly thereafter.
So guys, here is the dilemma. You come home from a night on the town with your friends, your wife and daughter are away, and you find Ann-Margret sleeping in your kid's bed. What do you do?
If you are politician John Forsythe, you do everything wrong. He falls for her story that she is running away from an abusive relationship. So he buys her some clothes, hands her some dough, and lets her off at a bus stop so she can start over. Since there is still over an hour left in the movie, you know this is gonna go bad. He meets his pal (Richard Anderson) for a drink, and sees Ann's picture plastered all over the television. Seems she just escaped from a juvenile detention joint and stabbed a matron. By the time he gets home, she is there, watching cartoons (Sylvester the cat, if you are interested). She blackmails him into letting her stay, claiming she will scream rape if he calls the cops. She also scratches his chest for effect. There is a hilarious scene where Forsythe is on the phone with his wife, while Ann is pulling his cord. Then she plays hide and seek when Anderson and his nosy wife (Patricia Barry) stop over. Forsythe has his hands full with this nubile nymph, but just when you think it can't get any worse for him, Ann's friends show up (Peter Brown, Skip Ward, and Diane Sayer) and make themselves at home. Sayer plays an airhead, Ward plays a guy ready to explode, and Brown plays a philosopher named Ron who tries to keep a lid on everyone by spouting pearls of wisdom.
The arrival of this trio marks where the film turns into higher quality trash. One has to admire Brown (or feel sorry for him) for mouthing gems like "oh, we all need words to live by - Give us this day our daily dread." Later, when Ward slugs Forsythe, Brown chastises him with "Man, you can't stop hatred with violence, only with non-hatred. Now cool it, you creep, and co-exist!" Brown later gets his arm accidentally sliced by Ward (so much for co-existing), and this gives everyone an excuse to drive to Tijuana. After Forsythe drives through a barbed-wire fence, Ward gets out to clear the debris, but Ann hits the gas pedal. Then they dump Brown at a doctor's joint, and head off to a hotel. This is where Ann and Forsythe are set to part, except that Ann takes his car keys and locks herself in the hotel room. At this point, I think Forsythe could have gotten away with justifiable homicide.
Let's just fast-forward here because it's get too crazy even for me. Eventually Brown and Ward show up at the hotel, Ward sporting contusions and Brown sporting a sombrero. Ward gets conked with a bottle, there is a car chase, and most of the cast is offed. The ending is a copout. And I'm still waiting for the whip.
Forsythe is convincing as a poor sap who just wants to help someone out and gets sucked into a nightmare. Ann prances around a lot, but never really comes off as a sexpot. However, she does make a good psycho-beyotch. Brown has the distinction of probably being the only actor ever to wear a derby and a sombrero in the same film. The background music features one of Henry Mancini's themes from "Touch Of Evil."
The film could use some subtitles for the philosophically-impaired. For instance, Forsythe asks "You mean there's a pattern to that gibberish?" Brown replies "Gibberish? Oh, no ... those are the meanings of the meaningless, the exactitudes of the inexact ... man, don't you dig the desire not to communicate?" Yes. In fact, I would prefer you don't communicate any more.
Ward chimes in with "Listen to him man, Ron is a very high priest." Yes, he's very high. Give me some of that stuff.
So guys, here is the dilemma. You come home from a night on the town with your friends, your wife and daughter are away, and you find Ann-Margret sleeping in your kid's bed. What do you do?
If you are politician John Forsythe, you do everything wrong. He falls for her story that she is running away from an abusive relationship. So he buys her some clothes, hands her some dough, and lets her off at a bus stop so she can start over. Since there is still over an hour left in the movie, you know this is gonna go bad. He meets his pal (Richard Anderson) for a drink, and sees Ann's picture plastered all over the television. Seems she just escaped from a juvenile detention joint and stabbed a matron. By the time he gets home, she is there, watching cartoons (Sylvester the cat, if you are interested). She blackmails him into letting her stay, claiming she will scream rape if he calls the cops. She also scratches his chest for effect. There is a hilarious scene where Forsythe is on the phone with his wife, while Ann is pulling his cord. Then she plays hide and seek when Anderson and his nosy wife (Patricia Barry) stop over. Forsythe has his hands full with this nubile nymph, but just when you think it can't get any worse for him, Ann's friends show up (Peter Brown, Skip Ward, and Diane Sayer) and make themselves at home. Sayer plays an airhead, Ward plays a guy ready to explode, and Brown plays a philosopher named Ron who tries to keep a lid on everyone by spouting pearls of wisdom.
The arrival of this trio marks where the film turns into higher quality trash. One has to admire Brown (or feel sorry for him) for mouthing gems like "oh, we all need words to live by - Give us this day our daily dread." Later, when Ward slugs Forsythe, Brown chastises him with "Man, you can't stop hatred with violence, only with non-hatred. Now cool it, you creep, and co-exist!" Brown later gets his arm accidentally sliced by Ward (so much for co-existing), and this gives everyone an excuse to drive to Tijuana. After Forsythe drives through a barbed-wire fence, Ward gets out to clear the debris, but Ann hits the gas pedal. Then they dump Brown at a doctor's joint, and head off to a hotel. This is where Ann and Forsythe are set to part, except that Ann takes his car keys and locks herself in the hotel room. At this point, I think Forsythe could have gotten away with justifiable homicide.
Let's just fast-forward here because it's get too crazy even for me. Eventually Brown and Ward show up at the hotel, Ward sporting contusions and Brown sporting a sombrero. Ward gets conked with a bottle, there is a car chase, and most of the cast is offed. The ending is a copout. And I'm still waiting for the whip.
Forsythe is convincing as a poor sap who just wants to help someone out and gets sucked into a nightmare. Ann prances around a lot, but never really comes off as a sexpot. However, she does make a good psycho-beyotch. Brown has the distinction of probably being the only actor ever to wear a derby and a sombrero in the same film. The background music features one of Henry Mancini's themes from "Touch Of Evil."
The film could use some subtitles for the philosophically-impaired. For instance, Forsythe asks "You mean there's a pattern to that gibberish?" Brown replies "Gibberish? Oh, no ... those are the meanings of the meaningless, the exactitudes of the inexact ... man, don't you dig the desire not to communicate?" Yes. In fact, I would prefer you don't communicate any more.
Ward chimes in with "Listen to him man, Ron is a very high priest." Yes, he's very high. Give me some of that stuff.