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Games

1967, Movie, NR, 100 mins

Games: Review

Caan and Ross are a pair of hedonistic Manhattan socialites. Signoret is an immigrant who has been reduced to selling cosmetics door-to-door. She is welcomed into their residence and asked to join in their playtime. As an amateur medium, Signoret is called upon to help conceive some pleasures for the bored duo. One of the ploys is Ross' seduction of Stroud, a slack-jawed post-pubescent delivery boy. Caan comes in, feigns surprise, and shoots the boy dead. Stroud is dipped in plaster and set up in the apartment as an art object. Caan and Signoret go off on a "business trip," and Ross, a neurotic, is left alone with the sculpture. Suddenly, the "dead" Stroud reappears and begins to terrorize Ross. She responds by shooting him again, this time for real. Caan returns, sees what has happened and tells Ross that the first "murder" was nothing more than another game. Ross falls apart, and Caan has her sent to a mental hospital. Caan and Signoret sell the expensive artwork and plan to go away together. In the last sequence, Signoret and Caan toast the success of their plan. But Caan's drink is poisoned, and he falls dead at Signoret's feet. So the last game, set, and match go to Signoret. Harrington is one of the best directors of this kind of film, but GAMES misses in many ways. The atmosphere is all there, but much of the needed suspense is not. Some good second lead work by Smith as the family lawyer and Winwood as the dotty neighbor. In an homage to other films of this genre, Harrington casts Florence Marly (QUEEN OF BLOOD) and Luana Anders (NIGHT TIDE) as well as using a clip from Universal's own DRACULA (starring Bela Lugosi). Caan, as usual, postures in his part. leave a comment