For those who have complained that Paul Muni overacted in the 1946 original (a complaint with which I SERIOUSLY disagree), wait till you see Peter Strauss in this horribly misguided remake. Not only is his accent (a palooka lapsing occasionally into Runyonesque) ridiculous, but he overplays every thought, every line, every gesture until he is completely unbelievable as Eddie Kagle. The script is an insult to Harry Segal's original (there is ONE good line - the Devil tells Eddie to act genteel; Eddie replies, "I ain't Jewish!"). All sense of morality is dispatched and, in what I suspect is a cut in the final edit, Eddie's religious revelation is eliminated. Richard Kiley is fine as "Nick" but he is given nothing to play off of. Barbara Hershey is almost unappealing - how did they manage THAT?!? Finally, there is no true menace in the film; Eddie's adversaries are turned into near-buffoons. And poor Anne Seymour is degraded by Eddie's playfulness.
In the original film, the centerpiece of the drama was the picnic scene where Eddie realizes what a waste his life was. Muni gave us some of his finest moments ever in this scene. Strauss is pretty much ho-hum about how he screwed up. When Murray Matheson showed up at the finale I almost tossed my 16mm projector out the window (yes - I actually picked up a print of the film out of curiosity).
Finally, the music is less than perfunctory, especially compared to Dimitri Tiomkin's outstanding original.
I was so distressed after seeing this I actually ran the original to cleanse myself. Thank God for film! See it if you must, but be beware - you've been warned!
In the original film, the centerpiece of the drama was the picnic scene where Eddie realizes what a waste his life was. Muni gave us some of his finest moments ever in this scene. Strauss is pretty much ho-hum about how he screwed up. When Murray Matheson showed up at the finale I almost tossed my 16mm projector out the window (yes - I actually picked up a print of the film out of curiosity).
Finally, the music is less than perfunctory, especially compared to Dimitri Tiomkin's outstanding original.
I was so distressed after seeing this I actually ran the original to cleanse myself. Thank God for film! See it if you must, but be beware - you've been warned!