Alicia
I love this movie so much
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
filmklassik
Possibly the most abysmally plotted melodrama I have ever seen. It plays like three separate movies all stitched together. In the first movie, an SF-based structural engineer and JFK-aficionado (David Janssen), married to cold fish Stephanie Powers, embarks on a 12 year plan to win half a million dollars using his foolproof blackjack system, fake his own death, and start a new life overseas. Or something. Along the way, Janssen's wife hires a loser PI to keep tabs on Jannsen. Janssen and the loser PI become fast friends (don't ask), and Jannsen uses his cardsharp skills to help the loser PI get out of debt to the mob. That's movie #2.In movie #3, Jannsen successfully fakes his own death and disappears, after which his "widow" Powers goes on to marry her longtime boyfriend (yep, all this time, Powers was cheating on Jannsen) and in the final 15 minutes, Jannsen and his new love, Linda Evans, board a plane to Israel THAT IS IMMEDIATELY OVERTAKEN BY HIJACKERS.You read that right.So, insane, disjointed plotting. Good actors spouting okay lines under the guidance of a skilled director. But the story lets everyone down. Including the viewer.
veggiecook
I am so glad to actually own a copy of this great movie, starring the late great David Janssen. Allen Garfield and Stephanie Powers are also superb in this believable (perhaps based on truth?) adaptation of Charles Einstein's novel, The Blackjack Hijack. The movie is much better than the book,much better ending in the film version. Usually I enjoy the book better than the movie, not the case this time.I loved everything about this movie. I was always a big fan of David Janssen, this is probably my favorite movie that he starred in, shortly before his very untimely and tragic death.They don't make movies of this quality any more it seems, good from start to finish!Do take the time to view this one, should it show up on your late night TV lineup.
lrcdmnhd72
David Janssen seems about the best choice for playing Harry Adams, a lonely, but brilliant structural engineer in a loveless marriage. It might be possible to accumulate $500,000 in high-stakes black jack playing, being able to do it in 15 years or less. In fact, a BJ card counting team went into Resorts International Casino, around 1978, in Atlantic City and won $145,000 in a period of ~8-9 days and was barred.The only thing is, I don't think any BJ player would be allowed to bring a notepad to a BJ table. This might be construed as a form of card-counting, yet was necessary for the plot.When Herbie, the Private Investigator, needed $10,000 to pay off his gambling debts, why didn't Harry (Janssen) simply remove the $10,000 from the nearly $500,000 in BJ winnings that he had already amassed, instead of getting involved in a rather dangerous, high-stakes, back room poker game? Much simpler. To me, $490,000 would be close enough.
MartinHafer
This was a television movie from late in Janssen's career. His character, Harry, is an unhappy man stuck in a loveless marriage. His wife is cheating on him and he is rather indifferent towards her. He does not hate her--he just wants out but she doesn't want to let him go too easily. So, Harry slowly creates a complicated plan by which he will fake his death and go to Vegas for a big score (as he's created a nearly foolproof technique that should pay off big).Along the way, he meets and falls for Stephanie Powers and befriends the hapless Herbie Stoltz (played by Alan Garfield)--Herbie BEFORE he arranged his fake death and Stephanie AFTER. In fact, Herbie is broken up by Harry's apparent death and is sure Harry's wife did it--until he accidentally stumbles on Harry in his new life! What happens next and the tense build up until the "big score" make this an unexpectedly good film.
