CUL-DE-SAC is the second English language movie from director Roman Polanski, following on from KNIFE IN THE WATER. It's an oddball effort for sure, sometimes a thriller, sometimes a surreal comedy, very '60s in tone and feel, and acted interestingly enough to keep you watching. Like his first movie, CUL-DE-SAC is a small-scale, single location movie in which various characters interact in intriguing ways. Here, it's a couple of criminals who end up at the home of a British eccentric and his wife. The performances of Donald Pleasence as the cross-dressing husband and Lionel Stander as the criminal are very good but the plotting is merely so-so and I found KNIFE the more gripping picture.

Gruff Richard (Lionel Stander) drives his heavily wounded companion Albie to the English seaside. He finds George (Donald Pleasence) and his flirtatious French wife Teresa (Françoise Dorléac) vacationing at their island castle and takes them hostage. As Richard waits for his gangster leader, George's annoying friends surprise them with a visit.

This is black and white, and Roman Polanski's second English film. Jackie Bisset has an early minor role. This is an art house film with an eccentric blend of surreal comedy and thriller horrors. Everybody is a little off-center but not quirky enough to be funny. There is tension but it never really rises. Lionel Stander is terrific with his powerful presence. It does need George and Teresa to cower in order accentuate the terror but they are odd characters. They don't act right but it's not surreal enough to be intriguing. This is an eccentric indie.

The wounded criminal Richard "Dicky" (Lionel Stander) and his dying partner Albie (Jack MacGowran) seek for shelter in an old seaside castle full of chickens and owned by the eccentric and coward American George (Donald Pleasence) and his slut French wife Teresa (Françoise Dorléac). While waiting for the rescue of his boss, Albie dies and Dicky develops a strange relationship with the odd couple.

The cult and awarded black comedy "Cul-de-sac" is a weird and bizarre movie. I do not know whether this sort of non-sense humor is dated or works for European, but in my concept most of the jokes are not funny. Nevertheless it is worthwhile watching this film, first because it is one of the first works of the great director Roman Polanski, and also because it is one of the last works of Catherine Deneuve's sister Francoise Dorleac, who prematurely died in 1967 when her sports car crashed and burned in Nice, France. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Armadilha do Destino" ("Trap from the Destiny")