No Way to Treat a Lady (1968)

I had seen this movie some time ago and was then impressed with the various "roles" Rod Steiger donned as an unhappy, mother-smothered stage producer/director/actor wanabee. He is phenomenal as the Irish priest, the German plumber,the effete Dorian Smith, and a few other roles(failing somewhat in the female role in a whole scene that is rather weird in and of itself). Seeing the film again reminded me just how good this movie is, how great an actor Steiger was, and how overlooked this film has been in the last forty years. It was overlooked upon release. It amazes me Steiger doesn't even get so much as an Oscar nomination. He is that good. The rest of the cast is also very good. George Segal is very competent as Morris Brummel - the detective Steiger "befriends" and as the love interest of gorgeous Lee Remick. God, she was lovely. Those beautiful eyes and that lithe figure all dressed up in that golden hair. She was a very competent actress too. Her scenes with Segal are funny and take a bit of the edge off of some of the more, how shall we say, unpleasant happenings in the film. Eileen Heckart, always a joy to see, steals and chews up every scene she is in as Segal's very Jewish mother. I loved her lines and laughed out loud at almost every one of her scenes. But, that being said - that this film does have a generous dose of comedy both light and dark - it has many chilling, scary, uncomfortable scenes as Steiger impersonates people we tend to trust in society to work his way in the apartments of middle-aged, lonely women so he can strangle them, leave lipstick on their lips and line them up against the bathroom wall. He plays a killer who kills for the art of killing - and wants admiration and respect for what he does. The "chase" between Segal and Steiger is the central backbone of this film and works nicely mostly because of the tight direction of journeyman director Jack Smight. No Way to Treat a Lady is a very good film in many respects and really is a somewhat forgotten gem. I am still whistling that creepy tune the next day. Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah...da, da, da, da, da, da, dah...

I've seen lots of films dealing with psychos and serial killers, some excellent and others good, average or really bad. In my opinion, "No Way to Treat a Lady" is among the good ones and deserves more attention in the genre than that given to it.A "plus" of the film is that you know right from the start, or almost, who the insane murderer is and yet it keeps interest and tension all the way to the end. Rod Steiger has much to do with it in a character rich in ingredients and different focuses in which he is excellent. The "obsession with dead dominating mom" is there too and has to do with the "signature" the killer leaves behind after each death and puts him in trouble at the end.Pretty and talented Lee Remick is the main menaced damsel and George Segal plays the detective in charge of the case (yes, they get romantically involved in spite of the man's Jewish mother, a perfect -as usual- Eileen Heckart).If you enjoy thrillers this is an unpretentious one to see. Not a classic or even a great one, but a good one in the genre.

ROD STEIGER has an actor's field day assuming many different disguises when he decides to play a cat-and-mouse game with detective GEORGE SEGAL who is hot on his trail to capture a serial killer. That about sums up the plot contrivances of NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY, which has Steiger donning various make-up disguises so that he can gain entry into unsuspecting female's apartments and promptly strangle them.The dark humor is always on the surface of this comic showcase for actor Steiger, who dons each disguise with relish and gives a performance you're not likely to forget.EILEEN HECKART is his overbearing (ultra so) Jewish mother who has unwittingly driven her son to the brink of madness. She's so good at "overbearing" that she almost drives the audience mad too, but LEE REMICK is rather wasted in a colorless role as a dame who's been around the block a few times and likes to spout smart talk. It's not a well developed role and Remick can do little with it but look good in plenty of make-up and mascara.For pure titillation and subject matter, this is way ahead of its time, a comic thriller that is largely forgotten and deserves some attention, if only for Rod Steiger's tour de force role, all played in tongue-in-cheek manner.

This has got Rod Stieger playing a psycho mom obsessed killer in the big city and George Segal plays the young cop who is taken off the case and then put back on by request of the killer. He thinks Segal understands him. In one good part the killer rings an apartment dressed as a cop and you only hear his voice because he has his back to the camera but the voice is George Segal's not Rod Stieger's. When the camera comes around to him it's Rod Stieger. It would have been more interesting if the killer could actually mimic Segal's voice and have him do it while he's talking to Segal. But it was only thrown in to add to the suspense. The movie is pretty good, well written, well acted, but dated. Which to me is not a bad thing I would give it a 7.5 only because the ending was too quick and neatly packaged.