'WOMAN OF STRAW'.....EVIL BOND MEETS GINA LOLLAPALOOZA

Woman Of Straw (1964)   In between his Bond gigs, Sean Connery always tried to squeeze in a non-Bond film........to avoid being forever type cast as Agent 007......

               Yeh...good luck with that......

               The problem is.......in this film, as well as "Marnie", he still looks, sounds, walks and talks like Bond.......only with much murkier motives......

                "Woman Of Straw" comes off like a British technicolored noir, populated with two scheming, money-hungry plotters........played by Connery and international bombshell Gina Lollobrigida.....

                 And you can bet, just like the Rolling Stones song tell us.....,somebody's not gonna get what they want.....

                  Connery and Lollo lust for the vast fortune of Connery's cantankerous, obnoxious invalid uncle (Ralph Richardson). Old Ralphie's a repulsive tycoon who enjoys making his black servants hopscotch over each other in order to teach a new trick to his dogs........(honest)

                   This doesn't sit well with uncle's fresh-off-the-boat nurse, (the Lollo), but hey, the girl works hard for her money........and Connery concocts a plan for her end up as Ralphie's bride and inheritor of his estate......with a million dollar payout as Connery's fee for helping her.

                  So you know right away that Nasty Old Fart Ralphie is the equivalent of Mr. Boddy in the "Clue" board game.......and nephew Sean and nurse Lollo put their plan into motion.......

                 .......until things go horribly awry and multiple twists erupt right on schedule.......

                The only reason to make a movie like this or spend time watching it hinges solely on its cleverness and execution. In that regard, this is no "Sleuth".......the dialogue is functional and there's not drop of wit or humor in it........

                   .........unless you count the unintentional laughs generated by Lollo's peculiar plight in the last third of the film..........(which we won't discuss since the movie's final twists are really the only thing it has going for it......

                  Then again if you'd get a kick out of seeing Connery playing an immoral dick as he teams up with the Va-Va-Voom Lollo-palooza, the film's not a bad way to kill a rainy afternoon////

                   The only other item worth mentioning here is the eye-catching interior of Uncle Ralphie's palatial mansion, courtesy of master production designer Ken Adam.......(who gets the job of cleaning those 50 foot high windows? Just wonderin')

                     2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)......and that's primarily for the two stars......whom we wish had starred in something a little better.....and a little more worthy of their stardom.