Lip Balm

Bye Bye Love

  Roy Schieder died this week, aged 75. He had such a magnetic screen personality, I just loved the guy. Loved him in All That Jazz, a flawed but great movie. He’s fantastic in Marathon Man, as Dustin Hoffman’s worldly and sophisticated older brother. But the movie I just added to top of my Netflix list is 52 Pick Up. A satisfying thriller from the mid-80’s, based on the Elmore Leonard novel, it’s a blackmail story with a couple of really nasty blackmailers, played by John Glover and Clarence Williams III (Linc! from the Mod Squad). It also has a very strong role for the ever fabulous Ann-Margaret. In fact, up to seeing 52 Pick Up, I’d only seen Ann-Margaret as another sexy actress whose distinguishing feature was her red hair. This movie made me see what a marvelous actor she is when her material is worthy of her. I don’t want to go on and on about, just rent it. Oh, and if you need a little more incentive, it’s directed by John Frankenheimer.