Lillian Hellman may be the most overrated playwright of her era. For every interesting or provocative thought, there's a ton of symbolic cabbage and sticky milieu to wade through. This too-handsome filming of her play stars Geraldine Page and Wendy Hiller as unmarried sisters living in New Orleans welcoming home their ne'er-do-well brother, who arrives bearing gifts and ill-gotten cash. It's an overheated piece of would be-Gothic melodrama, given a luxurious sheen and a swooning, romantic score (both incongruous to the material at hand). Well-cast Hiller and Page are excellent, trading niceties which quickly turn to hurtful revelations and stinging truths, but Dean Martin seems out of place as their beloved sibling. Working very hard in a part which might have been perfect for George Hamilton, Martin brings with him too much charismatic star-baggage to the already-phony surroundings. George Roy Hill directs poorly, indifferently, and the opening scenes are so confusing that patience and interest are both enormously tried even before Hill gets to the second act. ** from ****
Review of Toys in the Attic
