The Appointment (1969)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Antonio Leonviola (story)
James Salter (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 May 1969 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The lawyer Federico Fendi has reasons to believe that his wife Carla in secret is Rome's highest paid prostitute. |

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Omar Sharif	...	Federico Fendi
Anouk Aimée	...	Carla
Didi Perego	...	Nanny
Fausto Tozzi	...	Renzo
Gigi Proietti	...	Fabre (as Luigi Proietti)
Paola Barbara	...	Mother
Inna Alexeievna	...	Old woman on train (as Inna Alexeieff)
Ennio Balbo	...	Ugo Perino
Daniela Calvino
Ermelinda De Felice	...	Fishmonger's Wife (as Linda De Felice)
Angelo Infanti	...	Antonio
Serena Michelotti	...	Lucia
Monica Pardo	...	Olghina
Rodolfo Valadier
Lotte Lenya	...	Emma Valadier

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:Btl | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bolsena, Viterbo, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Martin Poll Productions

Trivia:

Michel Legrand composed the first score for this film, but it was rejected in favor of a score by John Barry, aided by Don Walker. When it was first aired on U.S. television, the CBS network had Barry and Walker's score replaced with a completely new score by Stu Phillips. Only the music by Barry and Walker is heard on the film today.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lionpower from MGM (1967)

.....a huge DISappointment

Seeing Sidney Lumet listed as director, and thinking of his brilliant work in "Network," "Fail Safe," "12 Angry Men," and "The Verdict" (one of my all-time favorites), and seeing the interesting plot premise, I tuned in this movie on TMC with great anticipation. The result was more like cinematic constipation. As it turned out, the flick proved the truism that even brilliant artists turn out the occasional flop. This ranks right up there with Woody Allen's "September" in the category of Great Directors Directing Badly. It was one of the exceptionally few films that, after a certain point I have said "what is the point of watching any more?", and switched it off. The words turgid, glacial, boring, and pointless come to mind. None of the main characters is interesting, nor engages the viewer's interest in any way. The story line moves with the alacrity of molasses in December. Even a key plot development like the revelation of Fendi's lawyer friend that he suspects his fiance Carla of being a high priced prostitute, is revealed with all the dramatic tension of the quotation of the price of pork belly futures on the commodities market. What is evidently supposed to be Fendi's growing romantic fixation on Carla comes off more as the onset of a severe case of constipation, and intentionally or not, Omar Shariff conveys an overwhelming sense of pusilanimity in Fendi's character. Nothing moves, nothing advances, nothing happens. Nice atmospheric shots of Italian street life, though.

Avoid this like poison.