cult film freak: BURT REYNOLDS AND DAVID NIVEN IN DON SIEGEL'S 'ROUGH CUT'

Asa Maynor in MAN BEAST Year: 1956 Rating: **1/2

For poor David Niven, ROUGH CUT turned out to be the second heist comedy centering on diamond thieves where he gets lost in the mix: First of course was THE PINK PANTHER as the charming, sophisticated criminal with lawman Peter Sellers historically stealing the show, and here Niven himself is the dogged constable yet the entire picture belongs to Burt Reynolds and Lesley-Anne Down playing the suave burglars...

And although mostly directed by American edgy auteur Don Siegel and starring the American box office champ Reynolds, this British-set CUT has the witty pace and polished style of that country's crime-comedy genre including polite expository banter, lavish interior sets and plenty of champagne...

Lesley Anne-Down in ROUGH CUT

As the best scenes occur during the first half when Reynolds (initially seducing Susan Littler, adorable and sadly underused) and Down are both figuring a way out of Niven's built-in blackmail, threatening to expose her prior classy-crookedness if she doesn't secretly help bust Burt's Jack Rhodes, the one villain who'd always gotten away...

After which the 11th hour diamond heist/con is overly complicated for both the girl caught in-between, and the audience who, in expecting another Reynolds popcorn-action flick, gets a semi-entertaining old fashion 1940's-in-the-1970's caper — that needed much more of an edge (from both the director and its star) to give this proverbial clever riddle a more fulfilling punchline.