Out of bored habit more than passion, Caine erotically targets Susannah York, a vague country wife who may or may not be a widow. They begin an affair. Zee cottons on right away and does her utmost to play both ends against her full-figure-gal middle. Taylor's bitch-queen act lends a certain verve; she barges about the screen in a wardrobe of multicolored, tent-like horrors that suggest, oh, Genghis Khan in Arabia. It's a measure of the film's muddled sense of itself that Zee's early description of her rival--"a soulful slob [who's] always a little out of breath and sees beauty in everything"--is dead-on about the character and the normally lively Susannah York's performance.

Zee (like Virginia Woolf's Martha) is childless, and Edna O'Brien's script underscores how often the three principals call one another "baby." We won't tip the surprise-twist climax, but the ending is the nadir of '70s pseudo-sophistication, mindless technique mongering, and cluelessness masquerading as "adult" ambiguity. Not one freeze frame but a dozen... overlapped... with zooms in and out, yet. Turn on the lava lamps, get out the throw cushions, zap the microwave popcorn--this is a definitive trash wallow. --Richard T. Jameson

This movie is campy fun from beginning to end.

Michael and Liz are trapped in a sadisistic love-hate marriage until one day they set off for a typical party of the 'Swinging London Scene', where Michael sees and falls for the ever-so-sensitive Susannah York...pale,blonde,widowed single mother of twins. Liz will have none of it & with the help of her gay pal tries every trick in the book to win him back...suicide attempts,lesbian seduction...she'll stop at nothing.

Liz is at her absolute hysterical best,even the dreary Michael Caine can't put out her light.

Michael A. Turner Baltimore , MD