Word: ritt
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...Akira Kurosawa's 1952 Oscar winner, the producers have added a bumper crop of cactus, presumably hoping to repeat the success of The Magnificent Seven, a western based on Kurosawa's epic tale of the samurai. Assigned to this prickly task are Star Paul Newman, Director Martin Ritt and Photographer James Wong Howe, all covered with pay dirt from their triumphant collaboration in Hud. The result this time is a slick, shallow olio of rape, murder and violence...
Director Martin Ritt (The Long, Hot Summer) has obviously sought for artistic truth in this film, but the only general truth that Blues propounds is one that might have prevented this production: expatriates are a pretty dull bunch...
...hair off four other girls (Barbara Bel Geddes, Jeanne Moreau, Vera Miles, Carla Gravina) in the same town, because the sergeant evidently got around. And for the rest of this 100-minute movie, which was made in Italy and Austria by Director Martin (The Sound and the Fury) Ritt, the customers watch a quintet of crew-cut cuties who look about as exciting as a boy scout troop on an overnight hike...
...conventional destination, but the film makes some fascinating stops along the way. There are some barracking good family quarrels and a couple of memorably steamy scenes of decadence. The direction, by Martin (The Long, Hot Summer) Ritt, is sure and vigorous. The acting is excellent. Actor Brynner, once the mind stops boggling at his henna-rinsed toupee, tugs powerfully at the sympathies. Actress Woodward, despite her tendency to develop mannerisms instead of a style, gives a winning and intelligent impression of an ugly duckling at the moment when she becomes a swan...
...seems a sensible idea, and it might have been the theme of a sensible attempt at row-house realism, but Scriptwriter Joseph Stefano has loaded this piece of pizza with a mess of indigestible sentimentality, and Director Martin Ritt has turned it out half-baked. In the last half of the story, even Actor Quinn, usually a rock-solid performer, comes apart like a discouraged anchovy...