Cul-de-Sac

Director: Roman Polanski
Year Released: 1966
Rating: 3.0

Following a terribly botched bank robbery, two gangsters (Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran) show up with a busted car at an isolated castle owned by a sniveling coward (Donald Pleasance) and wait for a buddy to come and help them out. Strange little pseudo-comedy, this one: it may end in gunfire and explosives, but the path to the violence is peculiar, and it's closer in feel to absurdist theater than anything else. There's understandable tension between Stander and Pleasance - the brute and the wimp - but they still end up eating eggs together, shaving together and sunbathing together: you'd figure they'd be vying for the affections of the oft-nude Françoise Dorléac, but she's just decoration. Somewhat significant gripe: Pleasance's performance is a little affected (in real life, the man was a Prisoner of War).