*Get "An American Dream" on Amazon here*
*Get An American Dream by Norman Mailer on Amazon here*
Norman Mailer's bizarre early novel gets the Hollywood treatment from an entertainment industry that was in a mid-1960s flux of its own.
Stephen Rojack (Stuart Whitman) is a successful television host (on a terrible looking TV show that wouldn't have been broadcast even back in the 1960s) who has a drunk, hateful wife Deborah (Eleanor Parker) waiting for him at her penthouse home after returning from Europe. Their fighting escalates until she falls off the balcony to her death. Stephen is dragged into the police station for questioning, where he hooks up with former flame Cherry (Janet Leigh), who is now on the arm of a local mob boss. In the most eventful day ever experienced by a celebrity, Stephen is semi-on-the-run from the police and the mob, while trying to bring Cherry back into his life the day after his wife took the big dive, which also seems to have upset Deborah's rich father (Lloyd Nolan).
This film is even more bizarre than the book. Whitman is okay as Rojack, he has a great suave look about him, but then he tries to go into high-strung hysterics that are cringe and unintentionally funny to watch. Parker's performance gets a ton of praise, but I thought she was terrible. Gist directs the police station scenes like it was his first time behind a camera, and all the sets on the film feel stagebound and silly. The mod production design and set decoration are fun to look at, and the supporting cast of recognizable character actors are pretty good, if not similar looking (don't bother trying to remember who is who among Cherry's mafia friends).
I think the film wanted to bring more edge to its story, and it was hampered by the motion picture production code. The overacting and situations are ratcheted up to a nine, but then the blandness creeps in. Deborah's death is shocking but laughable in its violence, as is Stephen's reaction. Gist's camera dwells on the oddest things. The screenplay sounds like a spoof of those old 1940's film noir classics, and doesn't play right with the day-glo cinematography.
Much like the novel, "An American Dream" serves as a curiosity, and not much more. It sure isn't boring, however.
Not Rated- Physical violence, some gun violence, mild profanity, very brief nudity, some sexual references, adult situations, alcohol and tobacco use
