On P List of Movie Reviews

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P.J. (1967)

Rate: 1
Viewed: 3/26

PJ
3/26: I can't imagine people running for the theatre to see a George Peppard film back then.

He just wasn't much of a movie star. Sure, there's Breakfast at Tiffany's, but let's not kid ourselves: that was Audrey Hepburn's movie. George Peppard must have thought of striking gold once again by working with John Guillermin after their best film ever: The Blue Max. And the disastrous result is P.J., signaling a long, long decline of his career until it was resurrected by The A-Team.

For starters, rarely anything makes sense. I'm often reminded of another neo-noir picture called Harper. Even the private dicks played by Paul Newman and George Peppard are similar. Scenes don't follow through logically. Yeah, there's the subway part, but it isn't enough to make up for the rest of boredom I had to endure along with the corny moment of Gayle Hunnicutt throwing dollar bills up in the air.

Raymond Burr made his bones as the archvillain in a great deal of films noirs for RKO, but here, he's simply wasted. Sometimes, I can't believe he went from Perry Mason to this piece of crap. At the end, his character is shooting at P.J., which stands for Peter Joseph, but keeps missing, even at close range. How is it possible given that he hunts game all the time? Ditto for P.J. surviving the beating by over thirty men at a gay bar.

All in all, P.J. is among many neo-noir stinkers made in the 60's.