Starts well with some very trendy opening credits for 1959, then it quickly establishes itself in cardboard Hollywoodland with lots of dialogue to tell the story. (It seems like Warner Brothers were trying to make a movie star out of James Garner, who was the lead in their TV western series 'Maverick', but they've confined him to a low budget and lashings of TV-type dialogue.) He's suitably smarmy as a dodgy businessman, but not particularly convincing, neither are the sets. Much attention from wardrobe and make-up departments is lavished on Natalie Wood (his love interest) and she looks gorgeous. Her father Dean Jagger is supposed to be a successful businessman who has built up a plastics business from nothing, but he plays it (as written) like a sweet old uncle. Henry Jones is nicely ironic, and Nina Foch, as always, is delightful. There's a flashback encounter between Natalie and James: they meet at a dance in Maine; later she suddenly appears in Maine cabin, soaked from the torrential rain outside, he goes into the bathroom to get her a robe, and she takes off all her clothes - knowing that he's coming back. He sees her, likes what he sees; she's humiliated, puts on the robe, and dashes back into the rain, later claiming that he made her feel 'cheap'. Very silly. The rest of the film is not silly, just dull: well-paced business dealings, some romance,some pithy lines and tons of talk, in a completely artificial world.
Review of Cash McCall
