Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

(*Movie quote that set the tone of this film's story*) - "Let white man take care of white man's troubles!"Out of The Chase's total running time of 135 minutes - I'd say that its dreary, small-town, soap opera story only rose above that mediocrity for about 10 of those many minutes. It's true.Marlon Brando's irksome, phone-in performance aside - Am I the only one who got so sick to death of hearing the name "Bubber" being spoken by just about everyone (and their dog) in the horrid, little town of Tarl, Texas? Eh? Am I!?And, speaking about "Bubber" - IMO - Only a babbling idiot (which I guess "Bubber" was) would head straight back to his hometown after breaking out of prison. Like - DUH!!??All-in-all - 1966's The Chase was total brain-dead idiocy from start to finish.

John Barry's music and Maurice Binder's credits sequence belong in a far better film than this overripe and putrid melodrama. The less said about anyone else's contribution - which all must have been embarrassed to acknowledge was the lowest point in their respective careers - the better. "All those people are crazy" as the Sheriff says (the only meaningful line of dialogue in the entire farrago). And, really, who wants to spend over two hours in the lunatic asylum of this cheap and pointless Hollywood degradation? Nowhere in this sprawling mess is there the slightest whiff of real human pain - except probably burned into the memory of the original audience, who had to sit squirming in endless torment beneath this over-the-top torrent of technicolor naffness. This is no morality - this is a ludicrous caricature of humanity. Cheap and offensive sensationalism. Reductive voyeurism, posturing as cinematic exposure. And worst of all NO PERCEPTIBLE DRAMATIC TENSION OR MORAL CATHARSIS WHATSOEVER. If only there had been any actual alcohol vapours to light up the screen at the fiery end, in an auto-da-fé of the wild unreality of that shambling mass of bad actors who even lacked the taste to avoid being stone cold sober while making themselves ridiculous, as their hopelessly pretend drunks spewed out across the Panavision expanse - - -Then, this rubbish could at last have ended in the blaze of recognition that normally consigns such an awful screenplay to the consuming fire of embarrassed self-knowledge BEFORE wasting time and money in unwisely perpetrating the abomination on the exhibitionist scale of a Panavision epic!A lurid pavement-oyster of a film. Definitely a night-out NOT to remember.(I saw this on Netflix UK - increasingly the purveyors of the most boring catalogue of films and TV programmes available anywhere. Its the sort of cheap date they are picking up too often these days.)

"The Chase" is one of the better films during this rather lean period in the career of Marlon Brando. He is given dialogue which is above average, he has a character to play and he gives the best performance. Brando is well supported by Angie Dickinson, Miriam Hopkins, E.G Marshall and Richard Bradford (just a short time away from making his name in his show of "Man in a Suitcase). The narrative is all over the place though. There are far too many irrelevant characters who have little to do. James Fox, Jane Fonda and Robert Redford are rather wasted. Redford in particular as he is meant to be a main factor in the story. He plays a convict who has escaped from prison and is heading toward his home town. However, he is absent from the film for long periods of time. He doesn't reach his home town until near the end! Jane Fonda having an affair with James Fox is completely pointless and irksome. How she gets billed second is anyone's guess. At the said town, Brando as the local sheriff has a lot to deal with - racial prejudice and feelings of anger about Redford being amongst his problems. Brando hates where he is stationed and dislikes most of the locals with their bigoted ways. He is trying not to cave in under pressure from the local bigwigs in how to deal with the escaped convict but he receives little support. Only his wife (Dickinson) stands by him. Robert Duvall is cast against type here. Usually, he played unsympathetic people but in "The Chase," he is actually more intelligent and peaceful. His performance is good. Richard Bradford takes the honours as a racist thug who likes to take the law into his own hands. The film does work itself up to a good and gritty climax. Arthur Penn's direction is good but his best work was yet to come. The scene where Brando gets savagely beaten is graphic by 1966 standards and I can imagine that both the American and British Film Censors weren't too happy about the violence. Altogether, a rather depressing film that wallows in its own world of despair and hopelessness.

Imagine if you had the following line up in a film: Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, E.G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson and Robert Duvall. This film did indeed have that cast. In addition to that the film was written by Lillian Helmond based on the book and play by Horton Foote and directed by Arthur Penn who would direct BONNIE AND CLYDE the following year. With all that talent combined why isn't this film more well-known or discussed? A lot of that could be due to the story itself. The base of the story does seem interesting but the way it's handled here, major talent involved in its writing or not, it plays more like a soap opera than an action film which was how it was marketed. A great trailer can make a movie but if you don't deliver what you promise an audience will remember.The story revolves around a small Texas town that is run by and basically owned by the Rogers family. Convict Charlie "Bubber" Reeves (Redford) has escaped with another con and is heading for Mexico. His partner kills a man, steals his car and leaves Bubber to fend for himself.Back in town Val Rogers (Marshall) is about to celebrate his 60th birthday. The employees at the bank toast him while the wife of milquetoast and bank VP Edwin Stewart (Duvall) watches as his flirtatious wife Emily (Janice Rule) confronts Val about why she and her husband are never invited to his parties. Emily is the catalyst for much that happens in the film, a woman intent of stirring the pot, having an affair with Edwin's married co-worker Damon (Richard Bradford) and spending as much time with a bottle as a person can without passing out.Val's son has his own situation to deal with. Unhappily married for the sake of his father, Jake (James Fox) has been having an affair with Anna (Fonda), the wife of Bubber. The entire town, with the exception of his father, is well aware of the affair but no one speaks up.In the middle of all of this is the local Sheriff Calder (Brando). Living in his office above the jail with his wife Ruby (Dickinson) Calder is intent on doing his job. The job was given to him by Val and for that reason many who are considered a class beneath Val look unfavorably on Calder, seeing him as a hired hand rather than a lawman. What they don't realize is that Calder is indeed a man of integrity, a man whose soul will be eaten by both classes before the end of the film.More time is spent with the whole set up of the town, a dissection of the characters who make up this city and its various classes. There is the upper crust, donating millions to the building of a college Val has high hopes for. There is the middle class, the hard partying drinking revelers on a Saturday night who resent the Rogers family while working for them none the less. There are the blacks in the town who, being in the mid-sixties still, now have rights but rarely have anyone to defend those rights for them. And finally there are the teens, bound and determined to follow in the footsteps of their parents, hard partying and drinking all the way.The ins and outs of these groups, who is sleeping with whom, develop more tension than the chase for Bubber. In thinking back we get a better glimpse of these people, their lives and their interactions than we do Bubber. Eventually Bubber is given a chance to speak about the injustices of this town and the people in it, but that's more of a speech than character development.As various members of the town get drunker as the night goes on, as their resentments begin to surface thanks to the alcohol, tension builds and confrontations begin. Calder is assaulted by a group of Rogers's employees, not because they want to help their boss but because they resent him. Beaten and bloody he still attempts to find and save Bubber before this group can get their hands on him.In watching the movie it was entertaining enough but felt too long to reach the end. Brando gives a decent performance, Redford does what he can with the part, Fonda isn't on screen nearly as much as you would expect and no one really stands out. Reading about the film later I discovered that the story had failed as a book and play and the movie didn't fare much better when it was released. Producer Sam Spiegel wanted a message movie, director Penn wanted a more straight forward approach and in the end Spiegel took over and cut the film the way he wanted. Penn eventually disowned the film. Hellman, who was friends with Penn, blamed him for the way it turned out and the two parted on bad terms.Fans of the actors involved or of Penn will want to check the film out just to see how they do here. If you like movies like PEYTON PLACE then you'll find plenty to enjoy. But for most it will not be a fan favorite. The movie is being released by Twilight Time so the usual applies here, limited number of copies and few extras but a glorious looking print involved.