Gezinktes Spiel

Italian directors and producers generally make great light romance films, Spaghetti Westerns, farces, and good neo-realistic films. They are lousy at science-fiction, horror (with the exception of Suspira), and, in particular, spy films. Unfortunately, The Endless Game, which had it been made by Shepperton, Rank or any other reputable English film company, might had been a success. But with Italian production values, a clueless director and cinematographer, even talent like Ennio Morricone, Albert Finney, and the miscast George Segal (whose career went pretty much downhill after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and King Rat, cannot succeed in saving this turkey. Morricone, by the way does not do horror music very well; his imitation of Bernard Herrmann of Psycho fame was watered down, at best. The editing of this film is God-awful. Why Italian filmmakers are so bad at making spy films, I have no idea. They should stick to Tornatore films. The story had potential, but it was convoluted and overly-long. The Russian sequences were unconvincing, and the performances of Finney and Segal were wasted. Not recommended for other than a curious look at Segal.