Lady Ice

VCI's budget DVD starts out well enough for the obscure thriller Lady Ice, with nice letterboxed credits foreshadowing interesting widescreen photography to come. Unfortunately, as soon as the credits end, the aspect ratio changes to full screen and the rest of the film is presented in one of the worst pan and scan jobs I've ever seen on DVD. Pass on this one from VCI, and hopefully down the line there will be a new widescreen transfer so we can see how the film is supposed to look after the credits.

A made-for-TV "Thomas Crown Affair (1968)" tries hard to duplicate the Steve McQueen-Faye Dunaway chemistry, using Donald Sutherland and Jennifer O'Neill in this watery version.

Role reversal sets O'Neill as the wealthy jewel thief, hunted seductively by insurance investigator Sutherland..who works most of the film in shirts open to the navel...Ahh, the 70's!

O'Neill is beautiful and stylish, drives fast cars, swims unclothed and stays away from complex sentences, while Sutherland smokes those little thin cigars and from time to time falls back on his `Hawkeye' grin. There is a nice turn by Jon Cypher as the heavy. Soap opera vet Eric Braeden gets some on-screen time as does, of all people Robert Duvall as the straight-arrow cop.

Fun for a lark. Connoisseurs of the genre only please.