 A Real Downer, Yet It Has McQueen & Remick
This movie is a little slow by today's standards, and not really much of story. It's also a sad, haunting kind of movie. What I liked was the cast, which featured two of my all-time favorite actors: Steve McQueen and Lee Remick.
Remick plays an old-fashioned sweet woman that is rare to see on screen these days. It was not a glamorous role, but I don't believe she's ever looked prettier. Her unspoiled daughter in this film was a nice kid, too.
If this film just wasn't so darn depressing at times, I would have kept it. I sold it, but now kind of wish I had it back. Maybe three viewings were enough. Then again, it does have McQueen (who sings!) and Remick, and those two keep drawing me back. Maybe I just keep hoping it will be better than it is; whatever, be prepared: the story is a downer.
 mcqueen needed to make a great escape from this tripe
steve mcqueen was many things, but a country & western troubador was not one of them. this is just a messy and silly movie that, while considered hot & sexy 40 years back,is now little more than a laughable blip in its stars career.
Not up to par
Steve McQueen is a rockabilly singer out on parole after serving time for knifing someone. He goes home to his wife (Lee Remick) and tries to go straight, but things go wrong and he becomes violent again. Written by Horton Foote, so you can expect good things, but it's fairly heavy going in a second-rate Tennessee Williams down-on-the-chicken-shack-low-life sort of way. Both Foote and McQueen did much better things than this.
 Mr. Cee Reviews Mr. Cool
I saw this movie forty-one years ago. I was ninteen at the time.
I liked it then and I still like it today. Time has past, but The KING OF COOL can still add an extra star to any of his movies.
 Hidden gem
This is my favorite Steve McQueen film (Sand Pebbles is a close 2nd). I don't understand why it isn't as well known among cinephiles as The Great Escape, etc.
Right up there with Marlon Brando's The Fugitive Kind. Both were films based on gritty stage plays. Both show the star at his best (my favorite Brando film is The Fugitive Kind, too). They share something else: both actors are portraying blues/rockabilly singers on the run. I've been on the run ever since I started playing music, too.
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