This pretty unwatchable unnecessary rewarming of the original 50s hit movie lacks any redeemable feature as it stars the vaguely attractive Lindsay Wagner in the famous Susan Hayward part and the totally unnattractive Pamela Reed taking on Simon Oakland's trailblazing press reporter role and turning him into a loathsome feminist hag. Her presence is permanently grating as Reed has only got one facial expression: SOUR.
They obviously DIDN'T want any close comparison to the original here, well they succeeded in THAT! Really, the only aspect they matched well was the questionable acting of the lead female. The job of portraying Barbara Graham was a dream role for any actress, a rare title role, and a truly meaty part in a true-life thriller. Susan Hayward overdid the acting and because timescale was lost after the murder trial, she seemed limited to overdoing the Bi-Polar flip-flop between "Hey, life's a ball, turn up the radio, I wanna hear that jazz!" and "Peg, I'm going to go to the gas chamber! I wish the waiting were over, I wanna die!" Thus it wasn't Susan's best film performance, merely the best part she ever had. Her job was to oversell the maker's objection to the death penalty and I suppose that coloured every aspect of the movie. As Wagner couldn't act, it's hard to tell if this was her best effort.
The original film had some serious acting talent, in the re-hash, Martin Balsam was pretty much on his lonesome. I suppose budgets count, but even the great Mr Balsam couldn't save this rotten movie, not even unwitting comedy could save this clunker, but fast-forward to the gas chamber scene and Wagner's facial expressions, it's acting right up there with the Pink Panther discovering the only food in the house, a carton of eggs, have gone rotten.
A solid 0/10.
They obviously DIDN'T want any close comparison to the original here, well they succeeded in THAT! Really, the only aspect they matched well was the questionable acting of the lead female. The job of portraying Barbara Graham was a dream role for any actress, a rare title role, and a truly meaty part in a true-life thriller. Susan Hayward overdid the acting and because timescale was lost after the murder trial, she seemed limited to overdoing the Bi-Polar flip-flop between "Hey, life's a ball, turn up the radio, I wanna hear that jazz!" and "Peg, I'm going to go to the gas chamber! I wish the waiting were over, I wanna die!" Thus it wasn't Susan's best film performance, merely the best part she ever had. Her job was to oversell the maker's objection to the death penalty and I suppose that coloured every aspect of the movie. As Wagner couldn't act, it's hard to tell if this was her best effort.
The original film had some serious acting talent, in the re-hash, Martin Balsam was pretty much on his lonesome. I suppose budgets count, but even the great Mr Balsam couldn't save this rotten movie, not even unwitting comedy could save this clunker, but fast-forward to the gas chamber scene and Wagner's facial expressions, it's acting right up there with the Pink Panther discovering the only food in the house, a carton of eggs, have gone rotten.
A solid 0/10.