Outlaw on the run ends up working as a stunt man for a crazy director.

This is another of those scary experiments in the Caddyshack zone, where I get a movie that I loved 20 years before and get Mr. Otter to watch it with me, extolling it to him, and he reminds me how appalled I was at seeing Caddyshack 20 years later (which, when I first saw it as a young otter, was undoubtedly THE FUNNIEST MOVIE I had ever seen...sigh.)

But I digress. I remembered this as being good, and Peter O'Toole was great in it...and it's shot at the Hotel Del Coronado, affectionately known to us old Southern Californians as the Hotel Del. Gorgeous overblown Victorian resort, you have to see it to believe it...

Anyway. So for 20+ years I have remembered this as a good movie...and for once, the Caddyshack phenomenon was not in effect...it really was well worth watching again.

Steve Railsback stars as the guy on the run who ends up learning stunt work during a week of shooting, making a huge overblown antiwar epic that takes place during WWI...and with Railsback's character still in trauma from his two years in the jungles of Vietnam, there is a really excellent anti-war message being given on several different levels. I always found him to be slightly creepy-looking, and when I looked him up on IMDB while writing this, I found out why...he played Manson in the TV version of Helter-Skelter, and reviews say he looked more like Manson than Manson...it's the eyes, mostly, but man! spooky.

Peter O'Toole (serious honey) is wonderful in this, as a driven and possible psychotic director who is determined to fulfill his vision, no matter what the cost to cast and crew...Barbara Hershey is the sweet young thing, the starring actress, who turns out to be maybe not so sweet.

This is biting, acerbic, and funny, with many good performances. Not a great movie, but a good one, definitely worth watching.