Reviews

I recommend this movie because of the mature, intricate, screenplay and the excellent acting. On the other hand, from a technical filmmakers standpoint, there isn't really much more to recommend "Let Me Die Quietly." If there was a budget on this film I doubt it would add up to more than a decent dinner bill and although the movie is credited with two directors, which may have something to do with its patchiness, it really seems to have had no direction. The pacing is uneven and there are many missed opportunities for building dread and suspense.

When you have no budget to work with, for the most part all that you have to make a movie a success is the dialogue and acting and that is where "Let Me Die Quietly" succeeds. I love film noir--and the screenplay here strives hard to modernize the style. That means voice overs, shadowy locations, some handsome men, a gorgeous, mysterious woman, melodrama, occasional over the top dialogue, and a murderous plot. This movie has all of these things although sometimes it seems a bit all over the place. Reigned in and sharpened and this movie could be a classic.

As it is, "Let Me Die Quietly," actually belongs to the actors. Charles Casillo as the drugged and drunken, "Mario," rasps, broods, suffers, lusts, regrets, and eventually sheds everything in a complex and fascinating performance as a tortured psychic who "sees" things. No, he doesn't see dead people but his psychic ability does force him to live through the last moments of a victims moments before death. It is Casillo's shoulders that the first half of the film rests on--and his encounters with a priest, a stranger, his doctor, a detective, and most of all, a beautiful new friend, "Gabrielle." Casillo reacts differently to each character and I particularly enjoyed his interactions with the "seen it all" detective "Devlin." Paul Coughlan as "Devlin" is wonderful. At first he comes across as the all cliché, world-weary, homophobic, "seen it all" cop. But Mario also spills out all of his own cliché defense mechanisms to deal with the detective. In their first meeting Mario releases his vulnerability, flirts, gets angry, and then wearily sarcastic. Devlin is impervious to Mario's bag of "faggot" tricks. And as they match each other layer for layer, line for line, you can see a mutual respect growing and they begin develop into two men, from different worlds, with an unlikely fondness for each other. This is acting chemistry at its best, and Coughlan and Casillo's scenes demonstrate great interaction between two actors.

It would have been easy for lovely Dana Perry to fall into playing "Gabrielle,"--the other psychic Mario meets by chance--as a sultry, sexy, vixen. Instead Perry displays a touching sensitivity in the role and you understand why Mario, basically a homosexual, falls for her. He is desperate for more than sexual excitement and longs for an emotional connection, which Gabrielle provides. Perry, with her multi-dimensional acting makes that attraction and connection believable.

Mario also reveals his problems to his psychiatrist, Dr. Avery. From the start, Ian Tomaschik as the doctor gives off an oily charm. He is tough with Mario, but it seems like he is trying to break through his dream-like, drugged haze--his macabre fantasies--and force him to deal with reality. He doesn't believe in Mario's visions and hopes to get him to begin living in the real world. All of these encounters are the set up for the second half of the movie where the machinations going on surrounding Mario's life are revealed. It is in the last forty-five minutes that the movie shifts from being an art house character study into a more conventional Hollywood-type thriller.

I enjoyed "Let Me Die Quietly" for the good writing, clever twists, and most of all the fine performances all around. Although I would say it is certainly not for conventional movie audiences who have grown to expect a slicker execution.

"Kiss Me Stupid" was a big flop in its day, one of Billy Wilder's few dogs...and lately people have been writing that it was way ahead of its time and is really an forgotten treasure. I'm a Wilder fan, but I have to say, this movie flopped for a reason. It's not ahead of it's time. It's unfunny and dull. It takes a REALLY long time for the story to get started and once it's started it never really starts. The jokes are pure second-rate burlesque with little setup and no payoff. The only two stars that modern audiences would recognize are Dean Martin and Kim Novak...both usually very likable performers. But Dean's character here has no charm just a leering, annoying, sordid personality. And lovely Kim Novak has absolutely no comic flair. She is perfectly great when playing mysterious, passive female leads such as her brilliant performance in "Vertigo." But she is just not funny (she also drags down "The Notorious Landlady." Her very fake "low class" accent here comes across as amateurish and is also distracting. And I agree with what a reviewer wrote, her giant bouffant hairdo is also VERY distracting and unflattering.

You know, the plot of such a movie--in this case some sort of political intrigue in Martinique--doesn't really matter. It's the very witty dialog and the combustible energy between Bogey and Bacall that makes this movie so much fun to watch and a genuine classic. The story is really just a wrack for them to hang their one line zingers, double entendres and playful banter. And, oh, how it works! It's great to watch these two screen legends interact, insult, joke, flirt and fall in love. Just like in real life. The supporting cast is carefully chosen and really SUPPORTS the stars, there is a fun chemistry all over the place, making everything in this decades old film just as enjoyable today as it must have been back in 1944

I had heard about this movie for years and finally got a chance to watch it this afternoon. Excellent in every sense of the word. Many movies made this many years ago have an out of date feel to them. This movie is fast paced and tension filled from the get go. It has an excellent structure using the flashback technique to maximum effect. It keeps you guessing as each flashback, told from the point of view of a different character, gives you another piece to the jigsaw puzzle. I heard that this was the first adaptation of a Hemingway story for the movies that he was pleased with. The first 20 minutes are very faithful to the Hemingway story and the rest was written specifically for the screen. But the screenwriters did an excellent job keep the tone and mystery of the original short story. Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner are at top form. The director uses them wisely. Building up their entrances, having them smolder in front of the camera for a scene or two, and then keeping them out of the action for long stretches so that your always waiting for them to appear again, stepping into their key light and delivering a few pungent lines.