SUNBURN

US, 1979,99 minutes, Colour.
Farrah Fawcett, Charles Grodin, Art Carney, Eleanor Parker, Joan Collins, John Hillerman, William Daniels, Keenan Wynn.
Directed by Richard A. Sarafian.

Sunburn seems like a follow-on from Foul Play in writing and plot and it is acted by Farrah Fawcett and Charles Grodin in the Goldie Hawn-Chevy? Chase style (though with less assurance and polish). Sunburn is one of those ultra-glossy, affluent, fashionable Acapulco insurance investigations - with eccentric families, murders, car chases and derring-do finale. The supporting cast, led by the humorous Art Carney, is very good. Farrah Fawcett was not successful in building her career with Somebody Killed Her Husband and this film. Direction is by Richard C. Sarafian who has made such interesting films as Man In The Wilderness.

1. Popular entertainment: the blend of thriller, glamour, affluence, fashion, Mexican locations, romance? The perennial appeal of this kind of film?

2. The production values, the gloss, the score, the songs, special effects?

3. Audience interest in the basic set-up of the plot: Acapulco and its atmosphere, the initial phone call, suicide and subsequent investigation, the background of insurance payouts?

4. Jake as hero? His being demanded by the boss, his personality in himself, awkward and quiet? His skills? The encounter with Ellie on the plane? Ellie as attractive heroine? The humour of her luggage? The renting of the house? Scares in the house from lizards to burglars? Audiences identifying with them as a romantic couple and their solving of the mystery?

5. The details of the investigation: the family, the Ortegas, the yacht, the various documents? The continual dangers - the cupboard and Jake's spending the night there, dogs, surveillance and phone-bugging, the yacht and the pursuit? The various groups watching the hero and heroine?

6. The contribution of the car chase and its duration, special effects, especially the finale in the bullfighters' arena?

7. Art Carney's comic contribution as Al? His work, information, skill, encountering the dangers, the dance? His surviving? In comparison with the young?

8. The build-up to the final attack and the derring-do - swinging on ropes, fights etc.?

9. The basic secret of the family? Blackmail, the Mafia, the mother and her secret, Carl and his double deals and ultimate death in the church, Joanna and her seeking the truth?

10. Dobbs and his being present at the initial suicide, the background of his massage work, connections with the Mob?

11. Glimpses of Acapulco society, the estate agent and his snobbish description of the house, the Ortegas and the humorous satire on permissiveness, the insurance men and their not wanting to pay out the money?

12. The humour of the discovery of the final evidence and the payout?

13. The glamorous background to the thriller aspects of the film? The romance between Jake and Ellie? Their skills in their work? Themes of right and wrong? The seeking out of the truth? Popular entertainment with the light touch?