The Arrogant

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the movie on The Playboy Channel.

An obscure disaster from Cannon, "The Arrogant"is a pretentious road movie shot in Nevada in 1986 that received only a test booking in Miami in March 1987 but recently surfaced on the Playboy Channel.

Alternately titled (pointlessly) "Sylvia Kristel's Desires", pic pairs the erstwhile "Emmanuelle" thesp with director Philippe Blot, who also directed her in the conventional European pic "Hot Blood" (a/k/a "Flamenco Blue"), a Cannon pickup.

Here Blot mounts an abstract non-story about title figure Giovanni (Gary Graham), on his motorcycle headed for nowhere after killing his father-in-law at film's outset. On his tail are his two brothers-in-law, doubly angry because they caught Giovanni dallying with their other sister.

Giovanni picks up sexy hitchhiker Julie (Kristel), supposedly a waitress en route to her job. She never arrives, but they stop off for encounters with bikers, pick up a couple for some impromptu swapping, etc. Giovanni, who thinks of himself as God in numerous stilted speeches, seems to be wiped out in a highway accident but pops up in priest's garb at the finale.

Blot's script is a shambles, throwing in pointless fantasy sequences and tons of unutterable dialog at will. Kristel and Graham do their best to avoid embarrassment, but it's an uphill battle.

Supporting cast makes little headway, though Teresa Gilmore has a sexy scene.