Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

MartinHafer Ruth Roman is stuck starring in a rather dopey movie. The acting is generally good and the atmosphere also quite good...but the plot is just stupid.The film begins with a man being re-tried in court for murdering his wife. A holdout of the jury results in a mistrial* and he is let free. In the next scene, a New Yorker, Shelly (Roman), travels to the desert on a vacation to a dude ranch. She arrives and is told the place is closed...but they'll let her stay. The lady in charge was apparently a friend of the accused murderer and was also on the jury at his trial*. She stays for a few days and soon meets the accused killer. Some other stuff happens and soon she's in love with this man for no apparent reason...and then they get married! None of this makes any sense--- nor does what follows. In fact, the ending and the perfect way everything worked out was utterly ridiculous. My problem is that no matter whether or not the acting and direction are any good or not, the story is so full of dumb holes that I found myself just wanting the film to end.*Someone who is a friend of an accused killer would NEVER be allowed on a jury...never. This made even less sense than the other woman almost instantly falling for Richard and marrying him.

blanche-2 If something is really good, I will forgive plot holes or situations that stretch the imagination. I won't do it here."Lightning Strikes Twice" stars Ruth Roman, Richard Todd, Mercedes McCambridge, and Zachary Scott. Roman plays an actress, Shelley Carnes, who has been sent out west for her health and is going to a dude ranch. The talk on the train is about Richard Trevelyan who was convicted of murdering his wife and received a death sentence. He was given a stay of execution pending a new trial and freed because the jury had one holdout who thought he was not guilty.When her car gets stuck in the mud, Shelley is helped by a man in a house nearby, who turns out to be Trevelyan. She leaves the next day. The dude ranch, it turns out, is closed. She is invited by the caretakers Liza and String (McCambridge and Darryl Hickman) to stay for a few days anyway. She has already met their neighbors, who were friends of Trevelyan. Everyone seems to be looking for him. She learns that Liza was the one holdout on the jury. Because he wasn't convicted, the people in town are nasty to her (reminds me of the Casey Anthony trial where the local restaurants wouldn't serve jurors). Liza believes in his innocence.Shelley meets Richard again, and the two of them fall in love. Shelley wants to prove him not guilty. But was he? This noirish film was a nice diversion thanks to the acting, but it had a few problems. The first is, what the heck was Liza doing on the jury if she knew this guy? Doesn't that suggest a certain prejudice? Second, things happen too fast. Roman and Todd are madly in love after one kiss and a couple of days. Third, why was Zachary Scott in this film? Talk about being superfluous, and he was hardly in it anyway.Richard Todd is miscast as Trevelyan. He and Roman make a beautiful couple, and Todd was a good actor, but he is out of place in the west, given his accent and bearing. As someone on the board suggested, Scott may have been a better choice for the role, or Jim Davis.The rest of the acting is very good, with a strong performance by Mercedes McCambridge and a solid one by Roman. In the end, though, this film is pretty routine, though atmospheric.

jjnxn-1 Fun overheated histrionics in the desert with two of the more under-appreciated actresses of the 50's. Ruth Roman is a big city actress looking for a bit of rest in the wilderness and finding little. Right from the get go things in this docile community seem a bit off even though the residents appear friendly. Next thing you know she's neck deep in contretemps with suspected murderers and intrigue! It's all pitched to the higher notes of melodrama but kept grounded by the competence of the cast and no nonsense direction. The movie is a routine Warners programmer but given some snap by the quality performances of Ruth Roman, subtle and dignified, and Mercedes McCambridge, controlled for most of the film but she gets her chance to do some florid emoting later in the picture. Professionally done this is enjoyable in an over the top way especially for fans of either actress.

hildacrane Definitely worth a look. Immediately following his "Beyond the Forest" and "The Fountainhead" (also Warners), this Vidor film is somewhat less feverish and over-the-top than those two, and accordingly does not pack the same punch, but still has a nice erotic frisson. It's a whodunit with romance--including a rainstorm when the two leads meet in an isolated house. Ruth Roman is lovingly photographed and underscored by luscious Steiner music in this threatened-bride tale. Mercedes McCambridge does some of the same kind of scenery chewing that Davis did in "Forest," while Zachary Scott reprises his charming scoundrel from many Warner's films.