Games (1967)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Simone Signoret does a great job. that is the first verdict and for a fan of French cinema , it is not a surprise. the film has a rare virtue for horrors - it is fascinating. more than scary or spectacular. using not an original idea, it is example of beautiful precision for each detail. and the play with old themes has the entire story great. a film about a visit and an eccentric family. about fears and trust and games. nothing special. but the balance between pieces, the acting, the music, the use of ambiguity as basic tool are pillars for an American movie who respects traditional European recipes. a film who could be interesting for many viewers. because not the story itself is the axis but the art of each actor. and, sure, the nuances who builds the role of Simone Signoret.

****SPOILERS*** Well to do yuppie, before that word became part of the English language, couple Paul & Jennifer Montgomery,James Caan & Katharine Ross, enjoy playing games on their friends and neighbors in their upper East Side Manhattan townhouse that has given the pair a reputation as neighborhood jesters. It's when Lisa Schindler, Simone Signoret, shows up at the townhouse unexpectedly selling cosmetics that the games that both Paul and Jenny have been playing go to a much higher level.Lisa somehow gets Paul & Jenny to let her stay at their place until she, in being evicted from her apartment for being behind on her rent, finds a place to stay. Having dabbled in the occult in the past Lisa soon shows the pair what games of faith and chance really are. It's non other then the neighborhood deliver boy Norman Fields, Don Strod, who gets involved in Paul and Jenny's game of misdirection, That's when Norman is set up by the two as the "other man" in Jenny's life and ends up getting his brains blown out by an outraged Paul who caught the two in the act!Thinking that his gun was loaded with blanks Paul in just trying to show the terrified Norman, after he got two harmless shots off at him, that it's all a joke lets go with the third shot that turned out to be the real deal! A .38 slug that bores into his brain through his right eye killing him instantly! Now with a murder or at the least homicide staring them in the face both Paul& Jenny are desperate to hide Norman's body and keep the police from finding it. While all this is happening Lisa who's totally in the dark to what happened to Norman starts to get suspicious of the couple in the very strange actions they do in preventing her from going in the house in her by chance finding evidence of Norman's death!***SPOILERS*** It's later when everything seemed to be cleared up in what happened to Norman that he somehow comes back to life terrorizing Jenny while she's awake and Paul in his sleep. It's Jenny who really starts to get spooked in Norman's return from the dead that leads her to suffer from a number of paranoid episodes. They get more and more severe as Norman finally comes out of the shadows and is about to strangle Jenny. By then the poor and confused young woman loses it and in the process ends up losing her mind as well!A lot like Simone Signoret's 1955 horror flick "Diabolique" the movie "Games" has the audience guessing if what their seeing is real or imagined just like both Paul & Jenny in the movie. The shocking ending is nowhere as good as that in "Diabolique" but still packs quite a punch in how we in the audience were manipulated into not seeing it coming a lot earlier in the film.

You can't go home again. I remember seeing Games 35 years ago on the late-afternoon movie show, heavily cut. I treasured the memory of a suave, clever, scary film. I've been looking for this film for years; I wanted to share the fun with my friends. Unfortunately, I found it on DVD. While I understand why I loved it as a kid, it is one of those treasures that shouldn't be revisited. The direction is terrible, the script is worse, the cinematography and lighting are inept, same with the editing, and S Signoret appeared to be in her cups for most of the film(though she gave a good last scene). I'll give the other actors the benefit of the doubt...

Peculiar thriller begins quite promisingly, but takes a curious, dispiriting turn somewhere along the way and never recoups its glory. Upscale New York couple James Caan and Katharine Ross--who enjoy warped versions of penny-arcade games and mischievous pranks--invite fragile saleswoman Simone Signoret to stay with them, which culminates in a crime. Director Curtis Harrington, who was also involved with the script, sets up an initially delicious puzzle involving the decadent rich, but allows the intricacies of the character-development to unravel in the second act. Caan and Ross appear to be very much in love--and Ross herself seems to be a pretty smart cookie--rendering a plot-twist late in the proceedings unconvincing. William Fraker's cinematography is stylish, though the action rarely ventures outdoors and one becomes acutely aware of the low-budget underpinnings (the film also has a mysteriously European feel, causing the alleged New York location to seem irrelevant--and a mismatch with the material). Good acting only takes it so far. **1/2 from ****