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Southern Gothic set in New Orleans about two maiden sisters, their chronically cash-strapped brother (Dean Martin), and his suspicious young bride (Yvette Mimieux). Kicks off with Martin returning to the family home, mysteriously flush with money somehow linked to a dark-haired woman Mimieux saw him with in Chicago. Then it gets complicated. How did Martin get the money? Was he, Mimieux wonders, paid by her mother to marry her? Why is only one of Martin's sisters (Geraldine Page) all a-flutter to see her brother again, while the other (Wendy Hiller) is much more cautious about his visit? And who is that dark-haired woman? Based on a play by Lillian Hellman, but "opened up" nicely for film by director Hill. All the actors are good, the dialogue is smart enough (and funny at times), but the whole overwrought movie is held back by the very thing that holds it together: the mystery, which just gets more sordid as it goes along. By keeping their cards so close to their vests, Hill and screenwriter James Poe aren't able to penetrate very deeply in any direction, which makes for a fairly weak drama but a compelling mystery. Features a horrific scene of violence toward the end, one that leads into the scene depicted on the (remarkably misleading) poster.
Southern Gothic set in New Orleans about two maiden sisters, their chronically cash-strapped brother (Dean Martin), and his suspicious young bride (Yvette Mimieux). Kicks off with Martin returning to the family home, mysteriously flush with money somehow linked to a dark-haired woman Mimieux saw him with in Chicago. Then it gets complicated. How did Martin get the money? Was he, Mimieux wonders, paid by her mother to marry her? Why is only one of Martin's sisters (Geraldine Page) all a-flutter to see her brother again, while the other (Wendy Hiller) is much more cautious about his visit? And who is that dark-haired woman? Based on a play by Lillian Hellman, but "opened up" nicely for film by director Hill. All the actors are good, the dialogue is smart enough (and funny at times), but the whole overwrought movie is held back by the very thing that holds it together: the mystery, which just gets more sordid as it goes along. By keeping their cards so close to their vests, Hill and screenwriter James Poe aren't able to penetrate very deeply in any direction, which makes for a fairly weak drama but a compelling mystery. Features a horrific scene of violence toward the end, one that leads into the scene depicted on the (remarkably misleading) poster.
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