Bobby Deerfield ** (1977, Al Pacino, Marthe Keller, Anny Duperey, Walter McGinn, Romolo Valli, Jaime Sanchez) – Classic Movie Review 5043

Producer-director Sydney Pollack’s least interesting and least good films were his plush romances that kept insisting on making.

Witness his old-fashioned 1977 movie with Al Pacino as American Grand Prix racing driver Bobby Deerfield, who romances jet-setting Italian noblewoman Lillian Morelli (Marthe Keller), who is terminally ill, dying apparently of the same pain-free disease that afflicted Ali MacGraw’s character in Love Story.

Pollack works hard, conscientiously and meticulously to make an upmarket entertainment, as always. But this time the result is not at all memorable and the quality he achieves has a fake look to it like tarnished silver plate or mother-of-pearl.

Naturally, it is worth a look for the young Pacino’s acting, which is as intense and committed as always, and for Henri Decaë’s pretty cinematography.

But this is far from one of Pacino’s best films, nor one that will please his fans too much. German actress Keller seems uncomfortable with her none too well written role. Alvin Sargent’s screenplay is based on the novel Heaven Has No Favourites by Erich Maria Remarque, the author of All Quiet on the Western Front.

It runs 124 minutes but Pollack’s sensibly compact US TV version runs 99 minutes.

Also in the cast are Anny Duperey, Walter McGinn, Romolo Valli, Jaime Sanchez, Stephan Meldegg, Norm Nielsen, Mickey Knox, Dorothy James, Guido Alberti and Aurora Maris.

Pollack’s other plush romances include The Way We Were, Out of Africa Havana, Sabrina, and Random Hearts.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5043

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