#412

A schizophrenic film which can't make up its mind whether or not it wants to be a third rate Peyton Place or Ocean's Eleven. Minnelli may have been a great musical director, but drama was not his forte. The only redeeming feature of this film is Shirley MacLaine's performance as the barroom floozy.

# 484

430

Excellent work from Sinatra and MacLaine especially. Part character and part study of small town 50's US, it balances the two nicely creating a very compelling narrative whose weight hinges on the emotional reactions of its characters.

414

Rather long and artless melodrama, watchable but uninspiring. Minnelli gets in some decent commentary about small-town, middle-class hypocrisy but doesn't do it with the grace of Sirk. Sinatra and Martin are dull, but the screen lights up whenever Shirley Maclaine shows up. The relationship between Sinatra and Hyer is incredibly forced, basically nothing about it works. The carnival climax is nicely shot, everything else is pretty flat. Also didn't care much for the in-your-face score.