Cop-Out

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source: Cop-Out

Stranger in the House

A very good actor, James Mason, in a unique role of alcoholic father, but very lucid in everything he does. A very young daughter of Chaplin, Geraldine, here Mason's daughter in the film, convincing, a unique presence. The other actors are not extraordinary, just as the story is not. Without James Mason, it would be a total boredom.

I bow to no one in my admiration for James Mason, surely rated in the International rather than merely the UK Top Ten actors but even he should have thought twice before stepping into the ring with Raimu, who plyed this for Continental back in 1942 from an adaptation of the Simenon novel by Henri-Georges Clouzot, then Head of Scripts at Continental and shortly before he became a hyphenate writer-director. If anyone was going to take on the burnt-out lawyer who dries out to defend his estranged daughter on a trumped-up murder rap and ends up putting the town on trial Mason is as good as anyone they could have found and is the only reason for watching this piece of cheese. By bringing it forward twenty years they have allowed the 'swinging sixties' aspect to dominate to the films' detriment and even Bobby Darin who was capable of a half-decent performance (see: Captain Newman MD) comes on like a grotesque freak.

He had a very distinguished career.It is sad that his last credit was this abysmal effort. It wastes the talent of James Mason.The whodunnit plot is tricked up with the worst excesses of sixties film making.Even worse the film ends with a whimper.