No Way to Treat a Lady (film)
| No Way to Treat a Lady | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Jack Smight |
| Written by | John Gay William Goldman |
| Produced by | Sol C. Siegel |
| Starring | Rod Steiger Lee Remick George Segal Eileen Heckart |
| Cinematography | Jack Priestley |
| Edited by | Archie Marshek |
| Music by | Andrew Belling Stanley Myers |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date | March 20, 1968 |
Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) is a darkly comic thriller directed by Jack Smight, with a screenplay by John Gay adapted from William Goldman's novel of the same name. The film starred Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal and Eileen Heckart. Segal was nominated for a BAFTA for his role as Detective Moe Brummel.[1]
Plot
Rod Steiger stars as Christopher Gill, a serial killer who is fixated on his late mother, who had been an actress. Gill preys on older women who remind him of her. A Broadway theater director and costumer, he adopts various disguises, e.g. priest, policeman, plumber, hairdresser, etc., to put his victims at ease (and also avoid being identified) before strangling them and painting a pair of lips on their foreheads with garish red lipstick.
Gill strikes up an adversarial relationship, via telephone, with Detective Morris Brummel (George Segal), who is investigating the murders. As Brummel realizes that the killer has access to costumes, he seeks out local costume outlets, and tracks down Gill. Once he sees a portrait of Gill's mother with bright red lipstick in the theater, he knows he has his man.
A B-plot concerns Brummel's own mother (Eileen Heckart), who wants her son to be more like his brother (and settle down). Brummel's love interest in the film, Kate Palmer (Lee Remick), manages to win over Brummel's mother, but is later targeted herself by Gill--for reasons other than his mother fixation as Palmer does not fit the profile of his previous victims.
Original Novel
Goldman says, "The novel was based on this notion: What if there were two Boston Stranglers, and what if one of them got jealous of the other? Guess what? In the movie, there's only one strangler. And I hated that they had done that." [2] Goldman wrote the original novel while he was blocked writing Boys and Girls Together. It led to him being hired by Cliff Robertson to adapt Flowers for Algernon which launched his screenwriting career.[3]
Adaptations
In 1987, Douglas J. Cohen adapted the film into a musical comedy,[4] which was revived Off-Broadway by the York Theatre Company in 1996.[5] That production was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Revival.[6]
References
- ^ "Film Nominations 1968". Past Winners and Nominees. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
- ^ Goldman, William, Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade, Pantheon Books, 2000, p. 117]
- ^ "Butch Cassidy' Was: My Western, 'Magic' Is My Hitchcock' 'Magic' Is My Hitchcock", By RALPH TYLER. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 12 Nov 1978: D23.
- ^ Holden, Steven (1987-06-12). "No Way to Treat a Lady". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
- ^ Marks, Peter (1996-12-23). "A Lovelorn Detective Tracks a Singing Strangler". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Awards Archive - Previous Award Years: 1996-1997". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
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Sources
- "No Way to Treat a Lady". Time. 1968-03-29. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
