A Fine Madness (1966)

Director: Irvin Kershner

Writer: Elliott Baker

Composer: John Addison

Starring: Sean Connery, Joanne Woodward, Jean Seberg, Patrick O'Neal, Colleen Dewhust, Clive Revill, Werner Peters, John Fiedler, Kay Medford, Jackie Coogan, Zohra Lampert, Sorrell Booke, Sue Ane Langdon

More info: IMDb

Tagline: We should all be so crazy.

Plot: Samson Shillitoe, mad genius of a poet irresistible to women but plagued by writer's block, agrees to see a psychiatrist... and his beautiful wife.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Don't you hate it when a comedy isn't funny?  It's got the trappings of one, it wants to be one, people do outrageous things and they smile a lot and the music is telling me to laugh but it's not funny.  I didn't laugh once and I was primed and ready for it.  Connery's the man.  He's good enough of an actor that I don't look at him and see Bond, necessarily.  I can buy him as a struggling poet.  I'm just not buyin' what the film makers were selllin'.  It's bland despite everyone's efforts.  It's odd but it really does feel like they're going for a wild 60s comedy with the out there doctor who wants to perform a type of lobotomy on Samson (Connery) and the deciding vote to do it or not lies with Dr. West (O'Neal) who just saw his wife making it with Samson.  The last act is weak and the final couple of minutes don't make any sense.  It feels like they just gave up and said, "Screw it, let's just end this fucker."  For Connery completists only. The Warner Bros. DVD delivers a fine widescreen print with a nifty 6-minute vintage making of short, Mondo Connery, which takes full advantage of Connery's badass Bond image, playing up the sex and violence.  It's really hilarious after you watch the film and know how different the picture is from how they're selling it.  The best part is seeing the behind the scenes stuff.  I'm sure it's on YouTube.  It's ten times funnier than the movie.  There's also a fullscreen trailer which seems dumb since I'm sure Warner Bros. had the original aspect ration trailer lying around somewhere.  But hey, I shouldn't complain.  At least made an effort, right?