Review of An American Dream

An astonishingly melodramatic movie directed by Robert Gist and based on the book by Norman Mailer. Stuart Whitman is a muckraking TV commentator married to harridan Eleanor Parker (giving a performance that has to be seen to be believed) and running afoul of mobsters. It's ridiculous, claustrophobic (there is nary a scene outdoors) and horribly acted. Not only is Whitman awful but so are the usually dependable Lloyd Nolan, Barry Sullivan and JD Cannon. Janet Leigh plays a good time girl from Whitman's past and she gets to (lip sync) belt out a song, cry a lot and get roughed up by gangster Warren Stevens. Gist's direction has absolutely no style and the script by TV-writer Mann Rubin is full of some of the most inane dialog imaginable. People are supposed to be nasty to one another, but they just come across as very hammy actors. Parker's hysterical performance is the only highlight and she exits early from the film, which unfortunately has a good hour left to go.