Early in this film, New York's king of real-estate Harry Helmsley (Lloyd Bridges) unveils the model of an office block, and dedicates the new building to his charming, modest wife of 33 years. Later in the film, he unveils a model of the city's biggest hotel, and dedicates it to his second wife Leona (Suzanne Pleshette), not notably identified with either charm or modesty.
This is mainly a story of greed, so naked and unabashed that it's almost funny. We remember the famous one-liner that stuck to Leona through her jail sentence and on through the rest of her life: "Only the little people pay taxes." If truth be told, that sentiment is actually front-of-mind with most businessmen who can afford a good tax consultant, the same ones who will also discreetly furnish their homes with a few odd items that are strictly the property of the firm.
But most of them do not take it to the giddy limit that Leona does, while also making dangerous new enemies every day with her finger-snapping arrogance and her routine cry of "You're fired!" Her kleptomaniac ways are showcased early on, when she snaffles a valuable silver salt-shaker from a restaurant, refusing to hand it back when her husband begs her to, and then chiding him for paying the damage. "They'd never have been able to prove anything" she insists. Apparently the trouble can be traced back to girlhood when she felt outshone by her sister, played here by someone not especially glamorous or otherwise notable, leaving us none the wiser.
Later she displays the same unprincipled behaviour when she manages to snare Harry by leaving an engagement ring and a passionate love letter lying around the house for him to 'discover' and get jealous about. Both are fake, of course. By the end, she is defrauding the public purse on such a scale that nothing is going to save her from a jail sentence. (This was still pending when the film came out; 16 years reduced to 19 months in the end.)
Mostly we are seeing Manhattan at its most shallow and tinselly. But there is subtlety in Lloyd Bridges' performance as the ageing and vulnerable billionaire. And a certain refreshing charm in Joe Regalbuto's portrayal of her close confidant, the only man who is not pursuing her and not afraid of her.
Otherwise, a fairly unremarkable tale of hubris and nemesis, just worth a seven.
This is mainly a story of greed, so naked and unabashed that it's almost funny. We remember the famous one-liner that stuck to Leona through her jail sentence and on through the rest of her life: "Only the little people pay taxes." If truth be told, that sentiment is actually front-of-mind with most businessmen who can afford a good tax consultant, the same ones who will also discreetly furnish their homes with a few odd items that are strictly the property of the firm.
But most of them do not take it to the giddy limit that Leona does, while also making dangerous new enemies every day with her finger-snapping arrogance and her routine cry of "You're fired!" Her kleptomaniac ways are showcased early on, when she snaffles a valuable silver salt-shaker from a restaurant, refusing to hand it back when her husband begs her to, and then chiding him for paying the damage. "They'd never have been able to prove anything" she insists. Apparently the trouble can be traced back to girlhood when she felt outshone by her sister, played here by someone not especially glamorous or otherwise notable, leaving us none the wiser.
Later she displays the same unprincipled behaviour when she manages to snare Harry by leaving an engagement ring and a passionate love letter lying around the house for him to 'discover' and get jealous about. Both are fake, of course. By the end, she is defrauding the public purse on such a scale that nothing is going to save her from a jail sentence. (This was still pending when the film came out; 16 years reduced to 19 months in the end.)
Mostly we are seeing Manhattan at its most shallow and tinselly. But there is subtlety in Lloyd Bridges' performance as the ageing and vulnerable billionaire. And a certain refreshing charm in Joe Regalbuto's portrayal of her close confidant, the only man who is not pursuing her and not afraid of her.
Otherwise, a fairly unremarkable tale of hubris and nemesis, just worth a seven.