A LOVELY WAY TO DIE

US, 1968, 103 minutes, Colour.
Kirk Douglas, Sylva Koscina, Eli Wallach, Kenneth Haigh, Martyn Green, Sharon Farrell, Ruth White, Philip Bosco.
Directed by David Lowell Rich.

A Kirk Douglas vehicle. The ironic tone of the title indicates that it is a murder thriller. It is also an ironic comedy and black farce in various sections. There is also courtroom drama. It is the usual Hollywood concoction late sixties, style.

1. Tone of the title? Impact? Entertaining thriller, mystery? The appeal of murder mysteries?

2. The blending of the murder mystery with the police genre? The conventions of the mystery, characters, wealth, intrigue? Clues? The police drama and the emphasis on Schuyler, toughness, brutality, answering to his clients, to the law?

3. Panavision, colour photography, American locations, spacious homes, landscapes? Music?

4. How credible was the plot within the world of the police and of gambling? For the purposes of the mystery?

5. How credible a character was Schuyler? Kirk Douglas type: at the races and gambling, womanizing, his brutal attitudes and his justification of them, for the police force? His handing in his badge after criticism? Involvement with Rena, infatuation, following up the clues? His ability as a policeman? Involvement in the detail of the crime and the background?

6. How attractive a heroine was Rena? The initial sequences with her husband, taunting him, his death? Her way of acting and controlling Schuyler and Fredericks? The gradual infatuation with Schuyler? Her telling of the truth? her being under suspicion?

7. The contribution of the minor characters: Fredericks the man from the South and his attitude towards his client, conduct of the trial? The police and their attitude towards Schuyler and his brutality? Fleming and his involvement with Rena, Finchley and his associates and their involvement and brutality? The missing witness and his involvement? Credible characters - conventional types for this kind of film?

8. The pace and style of the murder mystery, aerial shots, fights, romantic sequences, comic touches and ironic dialogue?

9. The value of films like this for standards of good and evil, right and wrong, human relationships, human nature, weaknesses? Law and justice?