Merl Edelman

Merl Edelman
Merl Edelman's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s): Los Angeles Free Press
Publications: Los Angeles Free Press

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
93% Fail-Safe (1964) It's a well done television play that somehow got on a large screen where its literate but talky script and excellent acting can't make up for the lack of action or monotony of pace that so bog it down. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2020
90% Topkapi (1964) It's strictly entertainment, but Peter Ustinov and Robert Morley are worth it for fun even without the ingenious jewel robbery around which this colorful spoof focuses. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2020
95% Popiól i diament (Ashes and Diamonds) (1958) This honest film shows a greater degree of artistic and political freedom in Poland (at least in 1959) than we are led to expect. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2020
No Score Yet The Kitchen (1961) Arnold Wesker's off-beat and interesting view of a restaurant kitchen as a microcosmic world tells some truths about us all. A good film, often hard to find. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2020
76% Becket (1964) Worth a look... for a single performance:... Peter O'Toole as Becket's king, Henry II. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2020
62% Cleopatra (1963) Worth a look.... for a single performance: Rex Harrison as Caesar. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2020
33% Joy House (Les Félins) (1964) Though Joy House, with its pyramid of tricks, chases, surprises, secret panels - the lot - never quite thinks to poke the finger of fun at itself, viewers make no such mistake. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2020
80% Zorba the Greek (1964) [Director Michael] Cacoyannis' skills as a craftsman are considerable. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2020
80% 36 Hours (1965) Even when it becomes just another spy thriller, it's as well done as the best of the genre. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2020
93% The Americanization of Emily (1964) Despite a title which smacks of war-bride sop, [the film] is in some ways the most impressive film since Strangelove. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2020
No Score Yet Image of Love (1964) When the Intellectual brings the pretense of Art and Sophistication to the screen, it is fair to demand from him something of value: cinematic art preferably; but at least a snatch of content. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 28, 2020
No Score Yet Free, White and 21 (1962) This is an insidious piece of propaganda, the more dangerous for its clever stab at realism. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
76% Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) I found the film dull because its theatrical conception robbed me of involvement with the characters. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet Arturo's Island (Isola di Arturo, L') (1962) [Director Damiano] Damiani handles the explosive, though not new, father-wife-son triangle with deific delicacy. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet Family Portrait (Cronaca familiare) (1963) There's an audience for this. We were not it, and found it impossible to stay to the end. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
100% I Vitelloni (1953) Probably no one since Chaplin has so well revealed the moments of simultaneous humor and tragedy which underscore human life. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
98% Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) (1946) If acting and directing awards were given but once in a century, Carne, Barrault and Brasseur would still be nominees. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
99% Goldfinger (1964) The third, and by far the best, of the Bond jobs. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet La Donna Scimmia (The Ape Woman) (1964) Annie Girardot and Ugo Tognazzi give beautiful performances, which together with Ferreri's delicate taste and fine eye for detail make this far-out story unbelievably believable. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet Friends for Life (Amici per la pelle) (1959) Director Rossi tells this story with a disarming simplicity, sticking as he should to the wealth of small details which are the real events in a boy's life. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet The Troublemaker (1964) Much of the humor works and some of the satire is brilliant. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet Night Must Fall (1964) If you're thinking of Psycho, this is much, much better. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
67% The Pumpkin Eater (1964) Miss Bancroft's performance is in a class few besides Garbo and Ingrid Bergman have ever achieved on the screen. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
98% Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette) (The Bicycle Thief) (1949) So immediate is the reality of its experience that the audience seldom notices the excellence of its directorial craftsmanship. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet The Bus (1965) The superb documentary photography and brilliant editing have resulted... in a succession of images which accumulate meaning right to the end. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
100% One Potato, Two Potato (1964) It is a film which should be seen. Perhaps cheered. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020
No Score Yet Black like Me (1964) Such unnecessary devices as flashbacks after the opening (so that the film could open with pizazz and fill in background later) reduce a unique and fascinating story to mere low-budget cliche. - Los Angeles Free Press EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2020