Good concept, poorly executed.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely Fantastic

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Seeing this heist film made me yearn for the no-nonsense efficiency of Kubrick's classic The Killing (1956). I can't recall any other heist film that generated absolutely no tension or suspense the way this one does. Instead the screenplay is cluttered with parts that fit together about as well as a bombed-out house. Writer Girard treats connecting threads as a needless distraction, which I guess we're supposed to take as the mark of European sophistication, 1960's style. Instead, we're treated to the wolfish Coburn's irresistible way with women, something about a Soviet premier on a visit, nameless guys who sort of appear and reappear leaving few tracks, and something about getting money from a bank after it's closed. The idea is to toss them all into the air and see how they come down.Now, it might be argued that the movie is not really a heist film at all. That it's really not a genre film despite superficial appearances. Rather, the robbery and its planning are merely events leading up to some kind ironic point in the end about Eli outsmarting himself. Or some such more general point than merely a heist film. Okay. But the same general problem remains—the movie's just too slow and disjointed to hold interest regardless how it's defined.Despite all, there are several redeeming features. There's ditzy Nina Wayne (Frieda) looking and sounding like her sexy sister Carol doing one of her hilarious bits on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Then there's the LA airport looking like a giant spider that's decide to squat on the city. And for old movie fans, it's an easy gig for Aldo Ray who gets marquee billing and about three lines of dialog. And finally, there's the neat twist ending—too bad this flash of inspiration is so slow in coming. In my book, it's one of the disappointing crime films of its time.

This film is all in the how. Dead Heat On A Merry Go Round casts James Coburn as one ruthless and amoral ex-convict who has no plans to go straight by any means. In fact he's got a score lined up on the outside that some like James Westerfield thinks he's absolutely nuts to even try. Coburn's so anxious to get out he successfully uses and seduces his prison psychiatrist Marian McCargo to get an early release.In earlier times the lead in a film like Dead Heat On A Merry Go Round would have been played by a charming rogue type like Tyrone Power, Robert Montgomery, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., even Errol Flynn whose real life persona as a seducer would have worked in the lead. One of the elements I found interesting was that James Coburn who has played some really deadly killers on the big and small screen only broke hearts in this film. But he's just as deadly with them as with heads.Coburn's scheme is to rob the bank at Los Angeles International Airport while the Russian premier was arriving for a state visit. I believe the premier would have been Alexei Kosygin at the time of Dead Heat On A Merry Go Round. Of course that's going to bring law enforcement on all levels out in force at the airport. But that's the whole idea, Coburn's going to make all the extra security precautions work for him.The whole last half of the film is the caper itself and it's one intricately plotted affair. Here's one big hint as far as the film goes. Remember some of James Coburn's early roles. As part of the plan he has to adopt the accent of a foreigner, a nationality he had played successfully on the screen before. He pulls it off beautifully.I would also note the performance of Carmilla Sparv, the beautiful woman he actually marries and who he uses unwittingly to help case the airport before robbing it and of Robert Webber the very nervous State Department official who is truly relieved that its only a robbery taking place and not some incident involving a visiting head of a foreign government.If you like intricately plotted caper films you will absolutely adore Dead Heat On A Merry Go Round.

To call this would-be 'with it' caper comedy muddled is a gross understatement – indeed, Bernard Girard the director should have fired Bernard Girard the writer because an admittedly ingenious premise has only resulted in a relentlessly dull movie! Hero James Coburn, with a permanent grin on his face, is involved in so many schemes on his way to rob Los Angeles' LAX airport (which brought back memories of my stay in the city three years ago, extending to the similarity of hotel interiors): in fact, he dupes a variety of people during the course of the narrative – including lovely leading lady Camilla Sparv (already ex-Mrs. Robert Evans by the time the film was released and who won a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer, over Candice Bergen and Lynn Redgrave[!], even if her career seemed to wither soon after); consequently, it's all needlessly (indeed painfully) stretched to 107 minutes! To add to the confusion (not to say dejection), we get a dreary subplot revolving around the visit of a Russian official to the United States and the elaborate (though not always successful) security measures American agencies – led by Robert Webber and assisted by an impossibly youthful Todd Armstrong (from the Ray Harryhausen opus JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS [1963]!) – have to undertake for this purpose. As with many films of its ilk from this 'anything goes' era, the title is a reference to nothing in particular – to be sure, it surfaces in the plot as the name of a book ostensibly written by Coburn (under one of the innumerable aliases he hides behind); again, typically, the criminals (also including Aldo Ray in an underwritten part) are allowed to get away with it…though there's a nice ironic final twist when the author – who has unaccountably gone 'missing' but, apparently, truly existed – is found to have left his vast fortune to bewildered 'bride' Sparv!This was my third effort from its little-known director in a relatively brief period of time – the first was intriguing but invincibly low-key, THE MIND SNATCHERS (1972), the second a Godawful (and barely-released) Western spoof called GONE WITH THE WEST (1975); the "Leonard Maltin Film Guide", then, awards DEAD HEAT ON A MERRY-GO-ROUND a very respectable *** – hence, it ranks as yet another disappointment! Incidentally, the star made innumerable films in this vein during the 1960s and 1970s – where his narcissistic and arrogant personality comes off as overbearing and, therefore, alienating: up next, in fact, is DUFFY (1968) which, despite rating an even lower *1/2, it's one I'd long been curious about in view of its rather interesting credentials

"Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round" is probably mostly of interest to us nowadays due to Harrison Ford's bit part as a bellhop. Apparently, after the movie bombed, a producer told Ford: "Kid, you ain't got it." Of course, Ford went on to star in the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" trilogies, so he clearly had lots of "it".Anyway, the movie casts James Coburn as ex-con Eli Kotch, plotting a heist in LAX while the Russian prime minister is visiting. Coburn seems to be mirroring his Derek Flint character, right down to being surrounded by hot babes (specifically Camilla Sparv and Nina Wayne). The good ol' Cold War, when the US and USSR could play all sorts of tricks on each other, and there were plenty of beauties to go around.Overall, "DHOAMGR" isn't a great movie, but it's worth seeing. You may notice that playing Mrs. Kirby is Rose Marie, better known as Sally on "The Dick Van Dyke Show".Nina Wayne. Hubba hubba...