An American Dream

StuartWhitman and Janet Leigh are eye candy in this film beautifully photographed of the two of them, Eleanor Parker looks a little old for the role and I couldn't understand half of what she was saying, but the film kept me in suspense till the very end I would recommend it!

Norman Mailer disowned this film. Understanding Norman, I understand why. An American Dream is often listed among the worst cinema efforts.In truth this film is a snap shot of Los Angeles in the 1960's. The look of mid century LA is disappearing daily. The actors are "TV" actors of the era.Looked at that way, An American Dream is the mid 1960's at its best and deserving of re-evaluation.

Not only is this movie poorly made (even for its time), but it doesn't follow the book by Norman Mailer at all -- completely different ending. I definitely regret wasting 103 minutes on this movie.

Trash, but trash with a certain pedigree. Ordinarily Stuart Whitman should not be compared with the can't take your eyes off them greats and there's nothing here to make you think otherwise, but in spite of it all it does possess a certain something...Janet Leigh? Maybe.

Eleanor Parker deserved an oscar for this performance.However I do question some of the costume choices that were made for Janet Leigh's character.

[AN AMERICAN DREAM - (1966) - Widescreen presentation - Directed by Robert Gist] First comes the engagement ring, next the wedding ring, then the suffering, followed by the slandering, finally the murdering. These are the five rings of matrimony, as delivered to us by Norman Mailer's novel via this schlocky, campy, sleazy celluloid sewage. It's absolutely marvelous in a John Waters meets Jacqueline Suzanne by way of Otto Preminger kitschy kind of way. Those of you enjoying such delightful dumpster diving know who you are, the rest of you need not apply.Stuart Whitman is near-awful as a star here; he's no kind of leading man, more of a second-rate second banana and comes off as the guy you just can't wait to witness being destroyed. It almost happens immediately, but then we'd have little to snicker over, so Eleanor Parker bites it instead. She's magnificent as the vindictive rich bitch of a wife who just has to go down - literally, from the penthouse terrace. She's missed as soon as she's written off, unfortunately, as I had hoped there would be flashbacks with much more of her hormonal hysterics and malicious mouth-offs. Too bad. Barry Sullivan is subtly efficient as the police detective who wants to lock him up but isn't 100% certain he killed his carnivorous wife; however, his assistant is completely convinced and tears after him like Nancy Grace after Casey Anthony. Just when I had doubts about this purchase, in strolls Janet Leigh, looking absolutely scrumptious as the jilted lover from Whitman's past, pretty much insuring he has no future. She's a nightclub singer who dates a mobster, so the moment Whitman cries on her sexy, exposed shoulder we know events will ultimately become as cheery as Father's day at an orphanage. It's wonderful to watch people passionately screw their lives up royally from the security of our sofas, isn't it? For me, it was Janet Leigh's presence that kept my finger off the fast-forward remote; besides, by this point I couldn't wait to see Whitman self-destruct, in spite of the fact that there was literally a two-bit hit taken out on him after he ticked-off a table of racketeers at a poker game earlier on. Not so much a murder mystery as it is a probable-outcome parable in the path of a pathetic prime-time talking head who never knew when to shut up until someone did it for him, and we're grateful someone did while we could watch. It's 'An American Dream', baby...

great movie...Janet Leigh is just so beautiful in this film

I liked it a lot.