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No Way to Treat a Lady

No Way to Treat a Lady

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A lady killer and new love.
Review: No Way To Treat a Lady is fun film to watch. Rod Stieger plays an actor who also happens to be a serial killer.(Which is very funny to me since I live in Los Angeles where almost everyone is an "actor".) His character has some sort of Edipus complex that drives him to off middle aged women. He creates a character for each of his victims. He is believable as them all, which is very scary and makes you never want to trust anyone who comes to your door again. George Segal is great as Dectective Mo Brummel. The killer enjoys calling Mo and reveling in his latest crime. Mo is dealing with a nagging mother, falling in love (with the very beautiful Lee Remick) and a city struck with fear of the lady killer as well as the ego of an self centered homicidal actor. Mo makes us laugh dealing with all of it.There is a lot of comic elements to this thriller, plus the bonus of a fun love story too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Seriously overlooked
Review: Nowadays, when it seems that a successful film has to be either a big holiday or summer special-effects blockbuster, or a cheap independent circuit success, it makes one long for the days when good films with good stories were made for modest budgets and provided a decent piece of entertainment without overloading the senses. This dying breed of the movies is still around, however, and although often under appreciated, should be sought out. One case in point is No Way to Treat a Lady, a black comedy that combines a crime drama with the often humorous relationships men have with their mothers.

In spite of the film being a thriller, we know from the beginning who the bad guy is. It's Rod Steiger, who gets to really stretch and ham it up as a theater manager/serial killer who murders each of his victims in some outlandish disguise to win their trust. George Segal is the cop who must crack the case and, at the same time, fend off his wonderfully annoying mother, Eileen Heckart (whose running gag line, "Who ever heard of a Jewish cop?" gets repeated over and over again throughout). Steiger's character is one of those vain killers who checks the newspaper for reports of his exploits and who takes to calling Segal when the facts are reported wrong or when he wants to taunt the authorities. Segal is rather bland, although it's not really his fault since the role doesn't give him much to do other than to react to the other characters, particularly his mother, Steiger, and Lee Remick, as his love interest and would-be victim of the murderer. Steiger goes way, way over the top, but it works because the film has set him up to be not only flamboyant, but overreactive to mother issues of his own. His various disguises get odder and odder as the film moves along, and when it shifts from comedy into resolution of the crime mode, his character becomes that much more menacing, not because he's funny but because we learn, as Segal puts the pieces together, that he is honestly and truly deranged.

Remick serves as the breath of fresh air, only because her character is the only one who isn't dealing with some sort of emotional crisis. The scene where she meets and charms Heckart is an overlooked comedic gem.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Black Comedy with Dynamic Performances
Review: Rod Steiger followed his Oscar-winning turn in "The Heat of the Night" with this great, little dark gem. Steiger is over-the-top as a serial killer with a penchant for multiple guises. Giving him able support in the acting category are George Segal and the always-lovely Lee Remick. Eileen Heckert is wonderful as the ultimate "Jewish mother," a role that she has almost single-handedly perfected on the stage and in film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "DISREMEMBERING MAMA.......!
Review: Rod Steiger followed his Oscar-winning turn in "The Heat of the Night" with this great, little dark gem. Steiger is over-the-top as a serial killer with a penchant for multiple guises. Giving him able support in the acting category are George Segal and the always-lovely Lee Remick. Eileen Heckert is wonderful as the ultimate "Jewish mother," a role that she has almost single-handedly perfected on the stage and in film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Black Comedy with Dynamic Performances
Review: Rod Steiger followed his Oscar-winning turn in "The Heat of the Night" with this great, little dark gem. Steiger is over-the-top as a serial killer with a penchant for multiple guises. Giving him able support in the acting category are George Segal and the always-lovely Lee Remick. Eileen Heckert is wonderful as the ultimate "Jewish mother," a role that she has almost single-handedly perfected on the stage and in film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: One twist
Review: Tasteless dreck from writer William Goldman, wildly overacted by Steiger, but with one single saving grace -- a neat little twist in the story, not at the end, but about halfway through -- it begins in a bar. I've never forgotten it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rod Steiger Tour de Force
Review: This movie has everything. George Segal for comedy along with Eileen Heckart as his overbearing but loving mother. Lee Remick at her most beautiful as the lady in distress that Segal falls for. But the movie to me belongs to Rod Steiger. Playing different but equally compelling characters he brings to the role a a whole kit and kiboodle of emotions. The whole movie was a pleasure, but see it just to enjoy Steiger in one of his most complex and frightening roles. l


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