Games ***½ (1967, Simone Signoret, James Caan, Katharine Ross, Don Stroud, Kent Smith, Estelle Winwood) – Classic Movie Review 4821

Director Curtis Harrington’s teasing, satisfying 1967 thriller stars James Caan and Katharine Ross as a games-playing, good-time young Manhattan married couple, Paul and Jennifer Montgomery, who take in to their posh home a foreign door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman, Lisa Schindler (Simone Signoret).

This mysterious woman is a medium, in this fun suspense thriller, smoothly and atmospherically directed by Harrington. In one fatal game, Ross seduces rough-trade delivery boss Norman (Don Stroud).

The performances of a classy cast, screenwriter Gene Kearney’s clever, twisty plot, William A Fraker’s widescreen photography and Universal’s production are all very polished in an entertaining nothing is-as-it-seems A-class B-movie. The story is Curtis Harrington and George Edwards.

Signoret’s casting is because she starred in the similar-minded classic Diabolique, as the advertising reminds us: ‘Not Since ‘Diabolique’ Has Simone Signoret Played Such “Games”‘.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4821

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