"No Way to Treat a Lady" (1968)

The director of this little movie showed a lot of promise. He looked as though he was going somewhere; but he didn't.

Years since I've seen this on television but I do recall thinking Remick was way too hot to settle for Segal's character. Only part I specifically recall was a cute scene of his character getting her giggling by flashing his gun as she delivers some serious lecture.

I remember ABC showing this as their Sunday Night Movie when i was a kid in the 70s. Rod Steiger played the role of the serial killer so well. The scene where he pretends to be a flamboyant wig specialist to get access to a víctim is terrifying. I always assumed this movie was loosely based on the Boston Strangler murders.

R3 they also bear similarity to the murders committed by Earle Nelson, though it could be merely coincidental.

I saw it in the theater as a kid. I think I just found it creepy.

[quote] I always assumed this movie was loosely based on the Boston Strangler murders.

This movie came out soon after the Steiger version.

(I didn't see it)

They made a musical out of it some years ago with the same title. I heard it was good, and done with a small cast, though I don't think it progressed beyond off-Broadway and some regionals.

The director and the star of this little movie went on in the following year to make this weird little movie—

Jack Smight will always have a special place in my heart for directing "Airport '75".

That ain't no way to treat a lady No way to treat your baby Your woman Your FRAND That ain't no way to treat a lady No way But maybe it's a way for us to end

from the musical

Based on a really good William Goldman book.

It's very camp! I couldn't remember the name for years until someone at DL reminded me on one of those "forgotten films" threads. I love Lee and yes way too hot for Segal.

[quote] It's very camp!

His next movie had nude men in it.

Trailer

Link to watch it free on-line.

his first victim is Sybil's mother.

screenplay by John Gay.

And features DL fave Eileen Heckart as the Jewish mama!

^miscast.

Eileen Heckart only belongs in comedies.

Ain’t no way to eat my asshole ain’t no way to lick my shitbox

r22 sounds like he is about 12

Because she's such a laugh riot in Bad Seed, r21?

Doris Roberts hair is awful.

As a young gayling, seeing this back in 1968, I thought it was very schlocky. Can only imagine as an eldergay today I'd find even schlockier.

George Segal was quite handsome in this.

Watching it now—the wiglet-peddling scene was funny.

What is his Cleopatra line to Doris Roberts?

Doesn't a trans get killed in this or was it a really rough looking broad?

Great film!

Wasn't around for theatre release but have seen NWTTAL many times on television.

Lee Remick was gorgeous, even with all that extra hair. Well falls and other pieces were in for the time period so guess will give her a pass.

Bonus points for outdoor location scenes of UES/Yorkville and UWS. Bus ride seen in linked clip is going north on Third avenue past Manhattan House apartments (East 66th), and ends up at East 89th in front of Yorkville Van & Storage Co (which only recently closed).

Kicker is when Lee and George get off bus and begin crossing street they are back down at 72nd and Third and begin walking west. Lee's apartment was (or is since building is still there) between Third and Lexington or a bit further

Location filming included the Police Headquarters building at 240 Centre Street at Broome Street, East 72nd Street (between Park and Lexington avenues, as Morris Brummel walked Kate Palmer to her apartment at 126 East 72nd Street at Park Avenue), Joe Allen restaurant at 326 West 46th Street at 8th Avenue, Sardi's restaurant at 234 West 44th Street at 7th Avenue, and Lincoln Center, Columbus Avenue (between W. 63rd and 64th streets)

I enjoyed it when Brummel and Kate rode the tugboat past the old ocean liner terminals, including Cunard with the [italic]Queen Mary[/italic] just before it left service.

[quote]Doesn't a trans get killed in this or was it a really rough looking broad?

Victim #5 was played by a drag entertainer named Kim August, who worked at clubs such as Club 82 in the East Village and Finnochio's in San Francisco. The movie doesn't explicitly address whether the character was supposed to be a drag queen or trans, except to also have Rod Steiger dress in drag to kill her.

* ^ Finocchio's

Kim August was a "female impersonator"!

Kim August and Rod Steiger

When I saw the title of the thread, I assumed it was the title of Lindsay Grahams biography

[quote]Location filming included the Police Headquarters building at 240 Centre Street at Broome Street, East 72nd Street (between Park and Lexington avenues, as Morris Brummel walked Kate Palmer to her apartment at 126 East 72nd Street at Park Avenue), Joe Allen restaurant at 326 West 46th Street at 8th Avenue, Sardi's restaurant at 234 West 44th Street at 7th Avenue, and Lincoln Center, Columbus Avenue (between W. 63rd and 64th streets)

Kate and Mrs. Mulloy (Victim #1/Sybil's mom) lived at the Cherokee Apartments.

R7 the musical was done in the 80s with Stephen Bogardus and Liz Callaway then had another go round at that house of hits, York Theatre Company, in the late 90s, where it was directed by Scott Schwartz and featured beltress Alix Korey.

Former NYC police headquarters at Centre street long was converted into luxury housing.

Maybe it was sign of the times (people being afraid to ride subway), but cannot imagine anyone taking a bus from that far downtown all way up to UES, especially a local.

Then again Lee Remick's character looked too posh to be riding a NYC subway, this even with a police escort as it were.

I came to this thread because it mentioned Rod Steiger, a perennial fave, but I'm glad i started to read about the location shots. I will watch this film for sure now. Thanks for the link r16

So many great movies were filmed entirely on the streets and real locations of NYC throughout the 1970s. The Hot Rock and Up the Down Staircase and any number of Sidney Lumet films are all faves of mine.

I remember watch it this on tv as a kid on The 4:30 Movie.

70s childhoods were the best!

[quote]I do recall thinking Remick was way too hot to settle for Segal's character.

I don't know what you're talking about!

^^ watching

Me Talk Pretty One Day

The Hot Rock??? Ewwww.

[quote] I do recall thinking Remick was way too hot

I recall being a young gay and asking why does this skinny Irishwoman get so many big roles in big movies?

I thought she had the personality and appeal of a dishrag.

Similar dishrag-types (such as Vivien Merchant, Flora Robson and Kay Walsh) may have had a similar lack of physical appeal but at least they had thespian intelligence to play real characters.

"I can't help that dear, we call it the Shirley Temple."

Why is that line never used as a DL retort?

Miss Martine Bartlett

Steiger makes some interesting choices which reveal Christopher is an actor, like private moments when he doesn't need to keep up the character during his attacks.

I love that Helen Reddy song

Irene Dailey who plays Steiger's secretary later played the pompous celebate in Five Easy Pieces.

Irene Daily was on All My Children for years.

Rewatching the wig scene with Rod and Doris Roberts:

Is that one of your wigs you're wearing? You don't look like Cleopatra, honey.

I'm curious--why was Rod Steiger drawn to these drag roles (this one and The Loved One's Mr. Joyboy)--weren't there one or two others????

[quote] why was Rod Steiger drawn to these drag roles

Because he was goaded into it by Claire (Blum) Bloom. Any Phillip Roth reader will tell us that she was an evil, vicious harpy who took pleasure in humiliation.

the drag queen reminds me of Anne Francis.

When Lee Remick is giving an external tour of an art museum she comments that construction of the Julliard school is going on behind her.

oh she just said the exterior of the tour is Lincoln Center.

[quote]why was Rod Steiger drawn to these drag roles

Rod Steiger was drawn to any role he could get hired for.

Not just drag, but rod Steiger played the repressedgay character in The Sergeant. I think he was one of the best actors America has seen on screen

I'm guessing that Steiger spent so many years playing brutish thugs in supporting roles, he looked upon a gay or softer male role as a fascinating challenge. He was probably in real life something in-between.

I had no idea who Rod Steiger was for the longest time and now it's like he's in at least 2 movies a week I catch on TCM.

Carroll O'Connor was the TV Rod Steiger.

Kisses!

Rod Steiger was born to play the Mayor of New York City

[quote] Rod Steiger was drawn to any role he could get hired for.

He was an A-Lister from 1954 to 1974. A B-Lister after that.

He used to be considered as Brando's brother (the uglier, shorter brother)

I can only take Steiger in small doses so that makes this film perfect for me since he keeps playing different characters.

AINT No Way To Treat A Lady

[quote] I can only take Steiger in small doses

I agree.

David Lean kept him on a tight leash.

Lee Remick was a marvelous actress. She was brilliant in "The Days of Wine and Roses." Her role in "No Way to Treat a Lady" was fun. She was the comic relief, which was needed. Eileen Heckart, as usual, practically stole the movie.

Heckie

R22 this movie is, by virtually every account, a black comedy—so your point doesn’t land.

^ obviously meant R21

R70 - I think it was mentioned in the last Doctor Zhivago thread that Rod did not get along with David Lean or rather David stopped speaking to him after Rod made a suggestion for his character.

You need to watch the Rock Hudson classic, Pretty Maids All In A Row, for a double feature matinee l.

[quote]He was an A-Lister from 1954 to 1974.

Where did you read that, R67? Total bullshit.

This film was recently released on Blu-ray, if I’m not mistaken. I’ve been tempted to order it, but have never seen the film. Sounds good, though. I’m trying to avoid spoilers about it.

It's not a spoiler to say that Steiger is the killer because we are shown that from the start. The plot is the police's attempt to catch him.

For R77

^ Poor Audrey's beginning to get haggard there.

When someone made a nasty comment about Steiger's character being gay, he replied "It doesn't mean I'm not a nice person."

When I saw the title, I imagined a film about Miss Lindsey Graham.

How clever of you

R82 - that's in response to Doris Roberts calling him a homo. The line That doesn't make me a bad person was repeated in that Nathan Lane Broadway play The Nance as part of his vaudeville act.

I just watched Harper (1966) last night. It was well-directed by Jack Smight. (Based on Ross MacDonald's first Lew Archer book, but Newman wanted a film with an "H" name, again, after Hud and The Hustler). But I thought it could have been better. Something that probably wasn't the director's fault was that in a club scene with a rock band (guitars, bass) the music on the soundtrack was brass and woodwinds.

[quote] a club scene

It's very hard to record movie dialogue in a setting where normal dialogue is inaudible.

I have watched 3/4 of it as review. Smight uses too many close-ups and too much hand-held camera. Pull it back and lock it down!

I hate hand-held cameras.

They used it in the downstairs scenes in 'Downton'. Very disconcerting.

When Rod is entering Sardi's you can see a marquee for The Merv Griffin Show.

R 90, I saw that too. That was when Merv was still doing his show in NY before moving it to LA.

Other bits of trivia I learned from reading the IMBD entry about the film-

The morning after the first murder, Steiger checks the newspapers for coverage. The back page of the New York Daily News reveals that the Philadelphia Phillies edged the New York Mets 6 to 5 and that the Kansas City Athletics shut out the New York Yankees 2 to 0. The edition of the paper Steiger is reading is therefore from Thursday, June 29, 1967.

In the initial scene, Rod Steiger is referred to as a Catholic priest but is dressed with an Episcopal collar.

Rod Steiger was initially approached to play the put-upon Jewish cop, not the fiendish serial killer - perhaps because he had recently had a great success playing a Jewish character in "The Pawnbroker", and because the cop was the hero. After he told the producer that whoever played the killer would steal the film, he was offered that part instead. It is worth noting that the part of the killer has been greatly expanded in the film from William Goldman's novel, where the cop is definitely the central character.

Finally, if you wanna see Rod Steiger as a repressed homosexual in The Sergeant (1968), you can see it on youtube for free (link below)-

The Pawnbroker is a very interesting film.

^ It was too harrowing and unappealing to watch.

This one was curious; set in Mexico but filmed in England.

[quote]r47 I recall being a young gay and asking why does this skinny Irishwoman get so many big roles in big movies?

She did play a fair share of sensual roles early on, though she got prissier as she aged.

R93 across the bridge was great. The dog, right? I didn't know it was shot in England.