A really bad movie even by bad movie standards. It almost transcends junk and become offensive by roping in really talented people like Robert Ryan, David Hemmings and Dyan Cannon. John Phillip Law, looking very uneasy, stars as a newscaster promoted to head of a TV network only to find himself in trouble with myriad women (ranging from a one-named model to his boss's swinging wife). Director Jack Haley Jr. skips character development in favor of a lousy song, played during the opening credits, informing us that Law's character is a self centered satyr. Based on the novel by Jacqueline Susann, it's difficult to believe that any of this was sourced from anything at all. Ryan looks craggy and beat, Hemmings is an embarrassment as a swishy photographer and Cannon, though top billed, is only in a few scenes. With Jackie Cooper, Alexandra Hay (as Tina St. Clair)and Sugar Ray Robinson(!). And WHY is Shecky Greene in here? He's wildly unfunny despite wearing outrageous leisure suits. The film has no ending; it just stops. Woebegone.
Review of The Love Machine
