Cinema: DTs

LOOKIN’ TO GET OUT

Directed by Hal Ashby

Screenplay by Al Schwartz and Jon Voight

Alex (Jon Voight) wears a white suit with more creases in it than W.H. Auden’s face. He drives a Rolls-Royce that pants and sputters like a dray mare about to be shot. He vamps his way through calamities all of his own devising with a bad little boy’s giggle at just how cute he is. He is not cute, not charming, not nearly substantial enough for a comedy about high rollers in Vegas. Alex bravadoes himself into the Dr. Zhivago Suite at the MGM Grand Hotel with his friend Jerry (Burt Young), who plays Oscar to Alex’s Felix and is also a compulsive gambler: “I go to a party, I bet on the hors d’oeuvres.”

Any viewer could bet the farm that Lookin’ to Get Out will hold no surprises. Alex and Jerry will run a blackjack scam; they will win more than they hoped, lose more than they know. Ann-Margret, as Alex’s old flame, will keep moving provocatively, to sidestep the carnage. The film was shot 24 years ago, and Director Ashby has spent much of the time since then fine-tuning the editing. The effort shows, but not the effect: the picture is a sloppy mess that stumbles toward oblivion like a drunk on a losing streak. —R.C.