9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An underrated, highly atmospheric Preminger thriller., June 15, 2003
By A Customer
Preminger, who is my favorite American director, was not spared the brunt of bad reviews and publicity towards the end of his career. At times, the critics were quite savage in their analysis of his latter films. In my opinion, this was a time where he shined the most, and was in top form. He tackled new ground and continued to break taboo without audiences knowing. From TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME JUNIE MOON to SUCH GOOD FRIENDS to ROSEBUD and finally to THE HUMAN FACTOR, this was another renaissance for Preminger. Agreed, ROSEBUD was not a masterpiece. Elements such as Cliff Gorman's atrocious acting, loose ends and implausibility hold it back from reaching its ultimate goal, but it was not the turkey that Leonard Maltin (et al.) made it out to be. On the contrary, it is a highly atmospheric thriller, at select times noble of the work of Antonioni, that really hits home on a topic which still plagues the world. Preminger, who was always willing to take his horizons to new oceans, tackles the subject of terrorism. With technical charisma and an expert's eye, he presents the film like a master, even if it is by no means his best work.
At times, I would imagine Robert Mitchum in the O'Toole role after I discovered that Otto fired Mitchum during one of his heated tantrums. Subsequently, Mitchum claimed that he quit and Preminger insisted that he fired him. In any case, O'Toole's performance is acceptable, if a trifle too cavalier. John V. Lindsay, former New York City mayor, probably deserved the comments he received about his acting in this film, along with the usually satisfactory Cliff Gorman. Gorman, in particular, was not suited to his role at all. I detested his last scene, the verbal three-way face-off between O'Toole, Attenborough and Gorman. Admittedly, as soon as I heard Attenborough was to play an Englishman-cum-Muslim, I thought I would be roaring in unintentional laughter but, under the tutelage of Preminger, he pulls it off in fine colors. My concern was justified because when a director hires Attenborough, he is assured a polite performance.
The story follows CIA agent Larry Martin (Peter O'Toole) who goes under the guise of a Newsweek reporter to rescue four young girls from the hands of Palestinian terrorists who vow the end of Israel. The girls, taken captive from a private luxury liner called "Rosebud" ("The name of it comes from some old film"), have very powerful fathers who must watch their daughters stuggle with the many hardships. The film deals with four primary aspects: the suffering of the girls, the plight of their fathers, their attempted finding and international terrorism in retrospect.
And once again, Saul Bass' title work was extraordinary, as his the rest of his work. Personally, my favorite of his title treatments is the one for SUCH GOOD FRIENDS. The music, at times avant garde in its use of synthesizers, added to the hypnotic quality of the film. The script sometimes had minor lapses in credibility and was a tad too verbose, but was overall agreeable. Erik Lee Preminger, Otto's son, was after all a novice screenwriter who was proud to find a new project for papa.
Also, I appreciated Otto's little homage to Harry Nilsson, the composer of his film SKIDOO, when one of the hostages starts singing "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City."
I will restate this point: this is, by no means whatsoever, a perfect film, but it is worth the cost of ticket or rental. A few of its visuals and scenes are mesmerizing, and it is an undeniably "cool" detective thriller that is a gem in Preminger's filmography.
It is a downright shame that so many of Otto's films have been unreleased to video. I am awaiting a box set of the lost Preminger films that have been kept from receiving its deserved accolades. The late films are what make me love Otto Preminger, no matter how tempestuous he was.
NOTE: See my imdb.com review of SUCH GOOD FRIENDS. That film is #2 on my Top 10 list, beat only by a foreign director.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
THE GREAT PREMINGER RATES ZERO STAR!, March 23, 2009
This review is from: Rosebud [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)
Why did you do it, Otto? A bad screenplay by his son (with GYPSY ROSE
LEE, a brilliant woman) about terminally bad Palestinian terorists (even FOX TELEVISION wouldn't dare use characters so ridiculous). It was shot in 1975, starring PETER O'TOOLE and RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH. The dreaded
SKIDOO looks like a masterpiece compared to that piece of sheer amateurism.
If you think, like I do, that PREMINGER was the greatest director of all times, it's a hard thing to swallow and say.
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