My review was written in August 1984 after watching the film on Vestron video cassette.
"The Act" is an unappealing B-picture, reeking of cynicism concerning contemporary U. S. society's mores, filmed in 1982 under the title "Bless 'em All". Pic was briefly released earlier this year and is now a curiosity for home video fans.
Film is currently the subject of a legal battle surrounding its distribution.
Presented in an awkward time-hopping structure (pic starts out mid-execution of a crime caper, violating the genre requirement of showing recruitment and planning first), "The Act" concerns a hot-shot labor union lawyer turned presidential assistant Don Tucker (Robert Ginty) who engineers a deal to obtain a presidential pardon that will spring corrupt ex-labor boss Harry Kruger (Eddie Albert) from stir, to avoid a Gandhi-style hunger strike threatened by Kruger. In return for the pardon, the prez (John Cullum in a weird turn) demands and gets a $2,000,000 under-the-table campaign "contribution" from current union boss Frank Boda (Pat Hingle). Afraid of losing face when the word gets out that he was bamboozled, Boda orders his organizing chieftain Mickey (James Andronica) to recover the cash, and Mickey hires an ex-con (Nick Surovy) who improbably brings along his instantly corruptible acting troupe to pull the heist. They take over NY's Savoy Hotel, robbing the payoff money while Tucker is upstairs dallying with a good-time girl (Jill St. John).
Potentially interesting opus becomes silly due to the exaggerated venality of all the characters. Filmmaker Sig Shore, best-known for producing the hit "Superfly" (and its sequel), showed a sharper touch and far more credibility with a similarly cynical expose of the recording industry, "That's the Way of the World", starring Harvey Keitel and written by "The Act"'s scripter Robert Lipsyte. Actin is earnest but unexceptional and tech credits are on the cheap.
