When this film first screened at Warner's 7Arts in Syd, several thought it so cheap and ugly as simply not worth releasing. This was in the days when Australia still had a policy of returning works considered morally (and/or financially) bankrupt - back to their country of origin.
The Australian Censor of the day wisely did that for them, so it was packed up with a note:- not wanted in Australia - this decision proved to be of little loss. The film typified a new low grade in movie making that rapidly became the norm in the 60's and 70's, brimming with poorly written, deliberately ugly characters. Ryan O'Neill simply continued his bland character from TV's Peyton Place and was quoted as having said; 'TV is Hamburger, Cinema is Steak' - well, this shoddy offering doesn't even rate as thinly sliced bacon (burn't at that). He's featured staring with his then wife Leigh Taylor-Young, they may have been a hot couple in the social columns but proved Luke warm on screen. Young performed Playboy type nude scenes and indulged in an endless variety of super nasty actions - playing a social vandal come thief/murderess. Her character at one stage is seen kicking the body of the person she had earlier shot multiple times. Nice stuff!
Produced, directed and written by a trio of veteran TV makers, who like many others trying to graduate from the small screen seemed to think: if you make a movie in CinemaScope and Technicolor, then add heaps of heavy violence and sexual promiscuity, audiences will begin to take you seriously. How wrong they were... but sadly this trend continued to it's present state. It's not that Cinema 'grew up' (as some try to 'sell' us) it just became more sensationalistic. This movie also features one of the final performances for the great Van Hefflin (he must have needed cash badly) and wastes the talents of the capable Lee Grant in a sad and demeaning role. The best performance, and scene, involved child star Cindy Elibacher (not her sister Lisa, as one reviewer wrongly wrote) playing Grant's daughter.
It all serves to prove how difficult it was/is to successfully transfer the writings of Elmore Leonard to the screen ~ some of the better ones were: 3.10 to Yuma in '57 ~ the off-beat 'Valdez is Coming' '71 and to a lesser degree, also in '57 the interesting Randolph Scott film: 'The Tall T'. This film also features one of the most miss-matched music scores ever. Interesting composer/producer Mike Curb gave this a 'beach' movie type sound track with songs better suited to a TV travel commercial. His main-title song "When Somebody Cares for you" is played over a violent opening shot - it's actually a 'nice' song that seemed to have been written for a good Disney family film and is totally wasted in this show.
So from being banned in several countries, to now running on TCM with an 'M' rating and no proper warnings of the heavily 'suss' content, this ends up as a barometer - demonstrating how far we've slipped as a non-discerning society. Junk fans may last the distance - others may run for cover....
The Australian Censor of the day wisely did that for them, so it was packed up with a note:- not wanted in Australia - this decision proved to be of little loss. The film typified a new low grade in movie making that rapidly became the norm in the 60's and 70's, brimming with poorly written, deliberately ugly characters. Ryan O'Neill simply continued his bland character from TV's Peyton Place and was quoted as having said; 'TV is Hamburger, Cinema is Steak' - well, this shoddy offering doesn't even rate as thinly sliced bacon (burn't at that). He's featured staring with his then wife Leigh Taylor-Young, they may have been a hot couple in the social columns but proved Luke warm on screen. Young performed Playboy type nude scenes and indulged in an endless variety of super nasty actions - playing a social vandal come thief/murderess. Her character at one stage is seen kicking the body of the person she had earlier shot multiple times. Nice stuff!
Produced, directed and written by a trio of veteran TV makers, who like many others trying to graduate from the small screen seemed to think: if you make a movie in CinemaScope and Technicolor, then add heaps of heavy violence and sexual promiscuity, audiences will begin to take you seriously. How wrong they were... but sadly this trend continued to it's present state. It's not that Cinema 'grew up' (as some try to 'sell' us) it just became more sensationalistic. This movie also features one of the final performances for the great Van Hefflin (he must have needed cash badly) and wastes the talents of the capable Lee Grant in a sad and demeaning role. The best performance, and scene, involved child star Cindy Elibacher (not her sister Lisa, as one reviewer wrongly wrote) playing Grant's daughter.
It all serves to prove how difficult it was/is to successfully transfer the writings of Elmore Leonard to the screen ~ some of the better ones were: 3.10 to Yuma in '57 ~ the off-beat 'Valdez is Coming' '71 and to a lesser degree, also in '57 the interesting Randolph Scott film: 'The Tall T'. This film also features one of the most miss-matched music scores ever. Interesting composer/producer Mike Curb gave this a 'beach' movie type sound track with songs better suited to a TV travel commercial. His main-title song "When Somebody Cares for you" is played over a violent opening shot - it's actually a 'nice' song that seemed to have been written for a good Disney family film and is totally wasted in this show.
So from being banned in several countries, to now running on TCM with an 'M' rating and no proper warnings of the heavily 'suss' content, this ends up as a barometer - demonstrating how far we've slipped as a non-discerning society. Junk fans may last the distance - others may run for cover....