Friday the thirteenth is macabrely appropriate for this presentation by Talking Pictures. The accountants at Columbia took a huge bath humouring Bill Murray in his long cherished ambition to make this adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel which he insisted on making as a condition of agreeing to make 'Ghostbusters'.
The results aren't as grotesque as you might have feared but but Murray throughout always looks and sounds like a comedian (laconically asking a fallen comrade "You all right?" in the war scenes) trudging the world and pausing to pray in a Tibetan monastery in a succession of silly hats in what plays like a very expensive episode of 'The Kentucky Fried Movie'.
A couple of moments that draw a wry smile include the heroine's question "Did you read all those books?" and Murray's preposterous claim that he financed his search for truth with money he made working as a miner.
The results aren't as grotesque as you might have feared but but Murray throughout always looks and sounds like a comedian (laconically asking a fallen comrade "You all right?" in the war scenes) trudging the world and pausing to pray in a Tibetan monastery in a succession of silly hats in what plays like a very expensive episode of 'The Kentucky Fried Movie'.
A couple of moments that draw a wry smile include the heroine's question "Did you read all those books?" and Murray's preposterous claim that he financed his search for truth with money he made working as a miner.