cult film freak: WARREN BEATTY & SUSANNAH YORK SHUFFLE 'KALEIDOSCOPE'

Year: 1967 Rating: ***1/2

The famous scene in THUNDERBALL, the first James Bond feature featuring supervillain Bloefeld, has his associates seated around a table, wondering which one of them will be found out as a traitor... for then to die in front of everyone...

And the same thing happens here with jovially sinister, talky antagonist Eric Porter as Dominion, more like Le Chiffre from CASINO ROYALE since American import cat burglar Warren Beatty is sent by British police to break the bank with a single night's poker match on the baddie's home turf, a castle with groovy interior befitting the rest of the cheerfully dated late-60's aesthetic...

Warren Beatty in KALEIDOSCOPE

Meanwhile the twist has already occurred, and is the main plot since Beatty's roving gentleman bandit Barney Lincoln had long broken into the KALEIDOSCOPE factory to mark each card...

So the best sequences occur before he's forced the reluctant spy-type mission... when he keeps winning hands at a plush casino, providing Beatty the kind of breezy role he's good at...

Susannah York in KALEIDOSCOPE

And with gorgeous blonde Susannah York... daughter of lawman Clive Revill... as a quirky ingenue, when the stakes are raised and cheating is no longer an option, there's a decent amount of plot-thickening suspense within the overall romantic-comedy aspect...

Making American director in England Jack Smight's KALEIDOSCOPE a nifty time-filler that never tries for greatness, or even very-goodness... and that's perfectly alright.