Who’s Got the Action? * (1962, Dean Martin, Lana Turner, Eddie Albert, Walter Matthau, Paul Ford, John McGiver, Jack Albertson, Ned Glass) – Classic Movie Review 6718

Director Daniel Mann’s 1962 comedy stars Dean Martin as Steve Flood, a lawyer who is all too often to be found at the race track, and Lana Turner as his wife Melanie, resorting to devious means to get him away from the place and out of debt – she secretly becomes his bookie. But then he hits a winning streak and she has to sell off her stuff to pay for his winnings.

Mann’s rather thin and clumsy movie, based on the novel Four Horse Players Are Missing by Alexander Rose, tells an episodically plotted and largely unfunny tale.

It proves to be just another lame teaming of Martin and director Mann (the Dudley Moore and Blake Edwards of their day) that hardly gets out of the starting gate and fails to limp to the winning post.

A first-rate supporting cast (Eddie Albert as Clint Morgan, Walter Matthau as big-time bookie Tony Gagouts, Paul Ford as Judge Boatwright, John McGiver as Judge Fogel, Jack Albertson as Officer Hodges and Ned Glass as Baldy) struggles valiantly but, with a low-laugh screenplay like this one by Jack Rose, the odds are against them. Alexander Rose plays Mr Goody.

Also in the cast are Nita Talbot, Margo, Lewis Charles, Dan Tobin, Mack Gray, John Indrissano, Wilbur Mack, Eddie Quillan, Joseph Vitale, Alphonse Martell, Hillary Yates, Charles LaRocca, Betty Bronson, George Dee, Joe Gray, Len Hendry, Ralph Montgomery, House Peters Jr, Lee Sabinson and June Wilkinson.

Who’s Got the Action? runs 93 minutes, is released by Paramount, is written by Jack Rose, is shot in Technicolor and Panavision by Joseph Ruttenberg, is produced by Jack Rose and scored by George Duning.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6718

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