The Big Tip Off

THE BIG TIP OFF is so confusing that it might have made a better board game than it did a movie. Conte is a small-time newspaperman who won't disclose the source of his underworld info, a series of anonymous telephone tips. Bennett is a phony who runs telethons, then takes the lion's share of the money. Lots of flashbacks only serve to confuse matters even further. Smith and Conte wind up together at the conclusion. Particularly muddling is the presence of Cathy Downs as a nun. There are several religious overtones here, though it's impossible to figure out why. Perhaps too much was edited out and we missed something.