The seventies must have been wild. A parable about the Faust legend with white trash Beau Bridges busting Richard Burton out of the lunatic asylum, and they travel across the country with white trash waitress Elizabeth Burton.
I always thought the Faust story was about selling your soul but Bridges plays a moronic good old boy who seems to have no ambition so what is the point. And Taylor's character doesn't seem to care.
Everyone seems miscast - Bridges in one of those young southern stud parts pioneered by Tennessee Williams, Taylor as a Southern waitress, Burton as a charismatic nutter (he just seems tired). Peter Ustinov does some funny accent acting as a shrink. I think Ustinov was miscast as a director - it's got a late 60s American smart arse feel.
It's not funny, lacks life or verve or point. The basic story has point but the characters and their interactions are underwhelming.
Maybe it would have worked as a play or a novel. I get the feeling during filming everyone sat around and laughed at how off beat it was. But it's horrible. Bridges farts in Ustinov's face (I read an interview where he said this was Taylor, perhaps he mis-remembered), Taylor jaunts around by a pool in a bikini and has a very dark tan, Bridges winds up running a corporation and breaks his back water skiing, and there's a topless dancer at a bar and... ugh. Oh there's a good moment where Burton is going to kill Taylor - that's affecting.
George Raft pops up as a nightclub owner. It' nice to see him.
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