Movie Review: Critic's Choice (1963)
Synopsis: The bored wife of a successful theater critic decides to write her own play. She is able to get it produced but a drunken, negative review written by her husband threatens both the show's success and their marriage.
Who's in it? The movie stars Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Maxwell, Jim Backus and Rip Torn.
My opinion of it was basically the same one I had the first time I watched it, it was OK but not as good as I had expected.
I'll start out by saying the film's premise was a good one, mostly because it created a no-win scenario for the critic, Parker Ballentine (Hope). It was clear he didn't want to review his wife, Angela's (Ball) play because, based on his read-through of the script, he didn't think it was going to be any good and didn't want to hurt her feelings. At the same time, however, he was a successful and established critic and choosing not to review the play or admitting he reviewed it without actually watching it, could cause irreparable damage to his career.
There was also the problem of the play's director, Dion Kapakos (Torn) who had his sights set on Angela and would use any advantage Parker gave him to make his move on her. Once their marriage became shaky, it was unclear if he'd be successful or not.
My biggest complaint about this film is while I think it was supposed to be a comedy and certainly had multiple comedy legends, it really didn't come off as one, at least in my opinion. Some of the scenes just came off as awkward as a result because the jokes didn't really work when there was a marriage on the line. In fact, I think the movie would have been considerably better, despite who was starring in it, had it been a straight-up drama.
Final Opinion: It's a movie with a premise that is both good and bad - good overall but because of the stakes, makes the comedy fall a bit flat.
My Grade: C
_____________________________________________________________________
Here are some reviews of other movies from 1963:
Comments
Post a Comment