Stars:
Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal, Eileen Heckart, Murray Hamilton, and
Michael Dunn
Writer:
John Gay
Based
On The Novel By: William Goldman
Director:
Jack Smight
Feature
length: 108 minutes
Languages:
English and French Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 16
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1968/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
There
is no way I think anyone can deny that William Goldman is among the best
screenwriters and authors of the 20th century. The list of acclaimed
works and even not so acclaimed, but commercially successful films he has
contributed to could fill pages. Added to that the uncredited polishes and
drafts in addition to his novels in both fiction and nonfiction and the results
are quite staggering. Unless he wrote the screenplay under a pseudonym or did do
one of his many uncredited drafts, “No Way To Treat A Lady” was surprisingly
not adapted directly for the screen by Goldman as he has with other books he has
written and so I am not sure how to describe this film from a reviewer’s
perspective in the year 2002 except to note that at some points the film is
extremely chilling with Rod Steiger giving one of his best performances as a
strangler who is not only a master of disguise, but a master of adapting other
languages and even creating character transformations so vastly different, one
would think that there was more than one actor playing the killer in the film.
What does not work in some ways are the attempts at humor and what in some ways
seems to be very cliché characterizations, such as the humorous, but
manipulative Jewish Mother whom George Segal’s Detective character lives with.
Perhaps
in 1968 a film about a serial killer taunting a cop in New York City seemed new,
but over the last 33 years there is no denying that by modern standards “No
Way To Treat A Lady” has dated considerably and does not hold up as well as
earlier films that come to mind, in particular “Psycho.” Now I would agree
that most contemporary thrillers do not hold a candle to Hitchcock’s
“Psycho,” but it is hard not to think about it when essentially we are given
Rod Steiger and George Segal as doppelgangers, who both have or had strong
mother figures that have greatly manipulated their lives in one form or another.
Steiger
handpicks older woman who he visits under the guise of pretending to be a cop, a
priest, a wig salesman, and many more characterizations that allow Steiger as an
actor to explore both his whimsical and frightening personas. Segal is the cliché
“nice handsome Jewish man,” with a mother who henpecks him about not seeing
a woman at one point, henpecks him for seeing a woman who isn’t of the same
faith at another, and then will turn around and ask when can I meet her. The
character is quite vivid and one knows that Segal is basically the same man as
Steiger except he has turned his Freudian hang-ups toward being an honorable
police detective while Steiger is the opposite. What does not work is as shy and
handsome as some men can be, I am not sure I can believe that Segal, who I think
might have been a sex symbol at one point, would have any trouble meeting women,
much less being as repressed as he appears in the film. There is some comic
relief that just seems out of place in this film too, like when a midget
attempts to turn himself in as the killer.
Lee
Remick is a babe in this film and has good chemistry with Segal, but the star is
Steiger, who at times is truly disturbing to witness as he lures these poor old
women to their doom in their own homes. I have seen a lot of horror films and
thrillers, but with all the gore and toxic imagery that is out there, few are as
disturbing to witness as Steiger when he attacks his first victim in film’s
opening scene.
Paramount
Home Entertainment is releasing “No Way To Treat A Lady” to DVD with a very
nice anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) transfer that captures the Technicolor
quality of the film beautifully. A clear English Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack
along with a French Language Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack is included along
with English Captions and Closed Captions encoded on to the DVD as options.
There are no extra features included in this release at all. The menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate. “No Way To Treat A Lady” will debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.