VividSimon Simply Perfect

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

mark.waltz Don't let the length of this epic film version of one of the most popular trashy novels scare you away from it. This grabs at the viewer's hormones and sinful desires of lust, power and greed and doesn't let go. Cinema never looked so pornographic as it did with the screen adaption of Harold Robbins' best seller, even dirtier than the same year's "Where Love Has Gone", also by Robbins. I've seen this listed on compilations of "worst" for years; worst film of 1964, worst actress (Carroll Baker) among them. Baker was so panned by critics after a few successes that in 1965, she was listed for at least three films. While not as wretched as all that, she does have the habit of braying most of her lines, making both Natalie Wood and Elizabeth Taylor seem subtle in comparison.The focus of the story is George Peppard's Jonas Cord, a carefree and rebellious young man whose tirade against his father leads the old man to his grave. That leaves the sultry baker a wealthy widow and free to try to get Peppard into her bed. As Nevada Smith, Alan Ladd has pretty much been a father figure to Peppard, equally a rebel, if now a tired one. Ladd goes onto silent western stardom, ironically marrying the much younger Baker who goes onto becoming a Jean Harlow type star, tying this in both with Baker's next film (where she did play Harlow) and a prequel, "Nevada Smith", with Steve McQueen as the younger Ladd. With all his new wealth and power, Peppard sets off to become the most powerful man in the country (if not the world), leading to the revelation of a truly miserable life before, and certainly much more miserable going forward. The obviousness of who Jonas Cord is becomes fairly obvious early on, with various references to the real life people utilized as well. This covers big business, the movie business, and in keeping true to the title, the obvious analogy that everything that Cord gets involved in is through infiltration, just like the northerners did in the south decades before. This is at its best when it deals with decadence and showing off the fun of sinful lives which usually brings on great unhappiness years later. It definitely makes great use out of its epic feel, never shirking on the overabundance of too much living and too little sense to really be able to handle it all. You'll enjoy the lengthy cast list that appears in the sky writing credits with Baker getting special billing. Such veteran actors as Lew Ayres and Robert Cummings also have major roles, with the young Elizabeth Ashley standing out as the flirtatious daughter of a business associate of Peppard's who ends up in a miserable marriage to him. Martin Balsam is excellent as a movie producer who pushes Peppard into the movie business, further complicating his life. Martha Hyer is the actress whom Jonas fires, infuriating Balsam. Why does this not all come together? It's just really a bit too much, in retrospect an analogy of the characters and perhaps why this was panned. Peppard is completely unsympathetic, and often, the other characters are "types", not real people. If Robbins is trying to expose the hypocrisy of Hollywood, he succeeds somewhat, but "Sunset Blvd." this isn't. Written and filmed long before the creation of the TV mini-series, something tells me that this would have been better that way rather than a huge novel edited down to a still long movie that never the less feels choppy.

Luis Guillermo Cardona Film within film. A success story written by a man who was orphaned as a child, spent a long time between streets and orphanages... until he became a millionaire selling sugar. After losing his fortune, he went to Hollywood where, challenging a director of Universal, decided to write a novel: "Not as a Stranger", which describes her experiences in the orphanage, and soon became a hit record sales. In this follow two dozen works, most successful and made into films, excelling "The Carpetbaggers" by his strong narrative and the construction of characters that give a precise account of this strange, fascinating, complex and yet deplorable world power. Harold Robbins is his name. In this glittering film version, made by Edward Dmytryk with all the required solvency a project of this type: Luxury rooms, precise alignment of 30' years, splendid music, full color photography and a cast of renowned, the race to the dazzling economic power of a man who reminds us, inaccurate but intentionally, extremely well-known Howard Hughes, is captured with a vigor is maintained from beginning to end, and a handful of characters that imposes an effective framework for a class marked by careerism, opportunism, the compulsive desire for money and their ability to trample on anyone to get away with such with it.The most significant in this environment is that Dmytryk, insurance and Robbins, reveal a fair appreciation of their characters and give them the best arguments to explain their actions, to understand their false starts and we get to see them as what they really are: extremely fragile beings, working to do and get hurt, and capable of doing everything, absolutely everything... except happiness. George Peppard, recreates with great destination for a man with a personality, in principle, enviable: defined, direct, with clear objectives, always ready to take the reins firmly and take the consequences of their actions. But that also bears its inevitable and heavy shadow: passes over anyone, without ambassy gets rid of one who serves or fails to serve, is male chauvinist and promiscuous, and has a lust for power that knows no bounds: "get master of the world "should be among its purposes. And it endorses the deal: Baker, Ladd, Ashley, Cummings.. unobjectionable.This is a brilliant film that overwhelms us and impacts.

patnclaire The previous reviewers who noticed a resemblance between Jonas and Howard are correct. In fact when the novel came out, Hughes tried to buy the rights so as to bury them. When the movie was being filmed, Hughes had the daily Rushes screened so as to either veto them or accept them. Those which he vetoed were re-shot. He wanted Jonas different from himself. Hughes was an only child. Hughes was, from all accounts, a tea-totaler. He never smoked. He married Ella Rice (Rice University, Texas) and divorced her. He married Jean Peters and divorced her. He married Terrie Moore and died. He never went back to any of his old flames, unlike the movie. Whether or not the old actors like William S Hart were like Nevada Smith is up to you. He would have met the real Wyatt Earp during movie making although it is never reported. He did pal around with Cary Grant, and never did get over Katherine Hepburn. Some where among all the young starlets, he is rumored to have contracted Syphilis but to my knowledge, it was never confirmed officially in the autopsy. Hughes is to be admired for his genius and achievements and to be pitied for his self-imposed asylum confinement in hotel suites. His money did make Los Vegas casinos respectable. His money did fund Hughes Medical Institute which still does medical research. He saw the coming of cable TV, although his underlings torpedoed his investment in that. Personally, I think that he did meet Melvin Dumar on a dark road in Nevada. Associates must have "done him wrong" early on because he never seems to trust anyone but himself. Had he trusted any of his wives, and he may have been salvaged instead of savaged. The movie is sheer entertainment.

JasparLamarCrabb Why anyone would bother to tell the Howard Hughes story and change all the names is anyone's guess, but here it is. THE CARPETBAGGERS is way over the top entertainment that somehow manages to skirt campiness despite casting George Peppard in the lead role. Never the most imaginative actor, Peppard is in virtually every scene and your tolerance for him will dictate how much fun you have watching this potboiler. The A-list supporting cast includes Lew Ayres, Alan Ladd, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, and Martin Balsam. Carroll Baker appears briefly as Peppard's insanely too young stepmother and Bob Cummings is great as a shifty PR man. B-movie legend Audrey Totter has a great bit as a hooker who sets Peppard on the right road after a booze soaked binge. THE CARPETBAGGERS is directed by the hack Edward Dmytryk from the novel by Harold Robbins --- a match made in schlock heaven if ever there was one!