Faded Black

By R.S.

JINXED

Directed by Don Siegel Screenplay by Bert Blessing and David Newman

Question: Is it possible to make a merry little comic romp out of what is essentially a lugubrious James M. Cain triangle: a wife and lover teaming up to murder the tedious husband who spoils their fun?

Mercifully short answer: No.

Unmercifully long answer: A movie appropriately entitled Jinxed.

Second question: Define vehicular homicide.

That is a crime committed by seasoned character actors who find themselves cast in movies crafted to set off the talents of stars who may be big shots in some other medium, but don't know the tricks of the movie trade. In this instance, the victim is Bette Midler, getting by as usual on brass, bounce and breastworks. The perpetrator is Rip Torn, a snake-eyed sneak who has been lifting the hubcaps off other people's scenes for years, but here moves up to capital crime. He may be the last actor left who can get a laugh out of a belch, and the first to get one by throwing a cat at a wall.

His mean streak is as big as all outdoors, and his joy and canniness in exhibiting it reduce Midler, who is not exactly a recessive performer, to a quivering mass of ingratiation. If she and Ken Wahl, who plays her lover, had embraced Torn's wigged-out wickedness of spirit, they might have helped turn the film into the black comedy it sometimes seems to want to become. Still, the script keeps waffling off into farce, romance and just plain improbability; anything spineless to please. And the often estimable Don Siegel brings little conviction, comic or otherwise, to the picture.

Final question: Does Rip Torn save the show?

Answer: Yes. If you are a student of acting. Or abnormal psychology.

--R.S.

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