MARLON BRANDO, ROBERT REDFORD & ROBERT DUVALL 'THE CHASE'

Marlon Brando in THE CHASE Year: 1966 Rating: **

Whether deliberate or coincidental, director Arthur Penn attempts what Richard Fleischer pulled off a decade earlier for VIOLENT SATURDAY, combining subtle yet eventually vicious bank robbers within a comparably predictably-conservative small town bustling with the kind of soapy Douglas Sirk-style soap-operatic characters, ironically displaying behavior as flawed as the antagonists...

But it doesn't work here because the Robert Redford character... the town's former bad boy/escaped convict on the run in that titular CHASE that never really happens... isn't shown enough to counter within the gossiping town anticipating his return, where mumbling sheriff Marlon Brando seems to passively watch the fancy rich folk as if he were part of the movie's audience... 

James Fox and Marlon Brando in THE CHASE

Ranging from his future GODFATHER son Robert Duvall as a banker in a bad marriage with cheating wife Janic Rule; rich kid James Fox doing a great Southern drawl despite being an otherwise extremely sophisticated British actor... involved with Jane Fonda as the loose wife of the neglected Redford, who's not bad here but with far too perfectly combed hair for a fugitive...

So while there are plenty of good actors attempting decent performances, the script never allows any of their individual story-lines to successfully blend in what attempts a dramatic ensemble (as everyone seems to be rehearsing for separate stage plays) without enough action or suspense for what could have been an otherwise decent crime thriller. 

Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall in THE CHASE

Marlon Brando in THE CHASE

Robert Redford in THE CHASE

Katherine Walsh in THE CHASE