Un détective à la dynamite

"A Lovely Way to Die" is a lot like Frank Sinatra's "Tony Rome" combined with "Dirty Harry" and it kind of works....sometimes. For the most part, it is a disappointment and could have been a lot better.

When the story begins, you see that Jameson Schuyler (Kirk Douglas) has two things he loves...womanizing and beating the crap out of criminals. After his latest violent arrest, he knows he's going to be disciplined...so he quits the police force. Soon after this, a hot-shot attorney (Eli Wallach) approaches Schuyler and offers him a job. He's to keep an eye on a flakey rich lady who is being indicted for murder...and do odd jobs as needed.

Schuyler is a bit of a pig, though what makes the film harder to like is that the accused woman is simply annoying. She is flaky and very inconsistently written. Considering she's on trial for murder, you'd think she'd take this seriously...which she clearly doesn't. And, because she doesn't care, the audience is inclined to feel much the same. An okay film up until the very stupid ending, and it could have easily been better.