Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

mabry-bob I read that after Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther movies) turned this movie in some suit completely recut it. I can believe it. Sometimes it seems that the action sequences or suspenseful sequences are cut so as to reduce the excitement or suspense, that the set has just enough color so as not to be monochromatic, but is not lit so that the colorfulness of the set in some scenes (and the lack of it in other scenes) does not reinforce any emotion or theme in the movie. James Coburn puts on his super-cool persona, and that's fun to watch, but a super-cool pathologist is as common as a super-cool law librarian. Jennifer O'Neill is gorgeous and eminently watchable, but the way her romance is written, she must be very easy; no way. Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain writer, Westworld director) wrote the book on which the movie is based, and hid his name somewhere in the process like Edwards did. Quality writers John D.F. Black (Shaft) and the writing team of Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch (Norma Rae) worked on this, then hid their names. Many hospital drama tropes that are old hat now were fresh then, and that's fun. Should not be your first choice,except maybe to gaze at Jennifer O'Neill- better choices: Blake Edwards- Pink Panther, James Coburn- Magnificent Seven, Michael Crichton medical- Andromeda Strain, nonmedical Westworld.

moonspinner55 Curiously mediocre, middle-of-the-road film from director Blake Edwards, adapted from Michael Crichton's novel "A Case of Need," has James Coburn (cocky as ever, and enjoyably so) playing the new pathologist at a Boston hospital, sorting out the mystery of a young murder victim. Light drama keeps tongue-in-cheek yet has aspirations to be a whodunit and doesn't quite make the grade. Coburn's general panache is effortless, but he's just coasting through, and the role doesn't challenge him (or us) in any way. Jennifer O'Neill is attractive but (once again) underused as a romantic interest. Screenwriter Harriet Frank used the pseudonym James P. Bonner for the credits--just as original writer Crichton did (as Jeffrey Hudson) for his book! **1/2 from ****

msstrawn I can't recommend this movie if you want to see a serious, suspenseful medical crime drama, in the sombre and gut-wrenching mood that Blake Edwards was apparently trying to achieve. But if you want to get a kick out of some hilariously flawed filmmaking, then this might be worth your while. First of all, it's got Coburn, who always gives a sincere and stoic performance even when bad writing threatens to sabotage him. He's a good actor and screen presence, and it's fun to have him at the center of this madcap series of intensifying interrogations in which he bullies grown men, women and teenage girls in increasingly imaginitive ways. A few other good actors appear, and with decent production values and Blake Edwards directing skillfully in the technical sense, this movie almost appears to be the real deal... for awhile. But the serious aire increases way beyond the plausibility of the plot twists, a factor which turns out to be disastrous to the suspense and drama, but a boon for its campy, accidentally-comic effect. I'll never forgot this movie now, mainly, for how much inappropriate laughter it incurred.This is the kind of flick that the Mystery Science Theater guys could sink their teeth into. Another movie that I just saw that reminded me of "The Carey Treatment" in the first place was "Don't Look Now", which was filmed in Venice and featured Donald Sutherland, an actor who is tall and lean and serious like Coburn. It's another good example of how melodrama-thrillers can be riotously funny when they miss the mark. Both films have a good seed of a story, and both directors expertly maintain their chosen feel and mood, but strange plot twists and overwrought, overwritten, and/or overlong scenes come into stark contrast with that mood. The clashing is so acute and wince-worthy that you can't help giggling while Coburn drives a schoolgirl into the ocean in a big station wagon to scare her into telling him the truth. It's a good film school lesson in both 'what to do' and 'what not to do', and a good laugh at the same time. I recommend it if you are ready to resist taking it too seriously, or if you are a Coburn fan. And if you are a Blake Edwards fan, well, this comedy is not quite the same as Inspector Clouseau-funny, but you probably won't mind the distinction as long as you're laughing.

gridoon James Coburn makes an (initially) likable hero, Jennifer O'Neill is radiantly pretty and Blake Edwards proves to be surprisingly adept at handling the "serious" material, quite a change-of-pace for him after all the "Pink Panther" entries. But the film becomes bloody and unpleasant in the last 20 minutes, and near the climax it features a particularly distasteful, almost repulsive torture scene. (**1/2)