Thursday, 1 September 2011

Movies I love: No Way To Treat A Lady


After looking at LOVING (review below) from 1970, here is a favourite George Segal film from 1968, the big attraction for me being a lovely performance by Lee Remick. NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY - Jack Smight's black comedy was a treat back then and is still so now, as serial killer Rod Steiger dons different disguises to con his way into the homes of lonely middle aged women ... it of course boils down to his mother complex! Rod runs a theatre so has access to lots of disguises as we see him in turn as an Irish priest, a Polish plumber, in drag as a woman scared to go leave a bar, and hilariously as a gay hairdresser!

George Segal is Mo Brummell, the harrassed Jewish detective on the case - plagued by his very Jewish mother Eileen Heckart who is great fun here. Lee Remick is the girl who may provide a clue and she is charming here making something special of the standard girl role. Just one quibble: wouldn't the mother fixated killer go after Segal's mother rather than his girlfriend? It's got that nice late '60s vibe .... below, right: Steiger in drag with another victim...

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