The Big Bounce

Unsure of where to go after wounding a vengeful local in baseball match and told to flee town, a Vietnam War veteran takes up with the mysterious young mistress of a produce farm owner in this little seen drama starring Ryan O'Neal in his first screen role. It is not the greatest debut for the Oscar nominated actor, but in what was only her second screen performance, Leigh Taylor-Young is excellent as the tantalising mistress. A femme fatale of the post-Production Code era, she plays a seductress like few others before her, revealing lots of skin and boldly parading around in the buff. She is just as effective with her clothes on too as there is an ambiguity as to whether or not she genuinely likes O'Neal or is just using him for a scheme revealed in the film's final third. That said, the scheme comes too late to provide much vigour, and easy as Taylor-Young is on the eyes, there is little else propelling the first hour. Van Heflin has a nice, understated turn as a justice of the peace, and Cindy Eilbacher is adorable, playing a surrogate daughter to O'Neal, but it is not enough to carry the film. The opportunities for more are all too apparent. Why not explore O'Neal's criminal background in further depth or how serving in Vietnam has affected him? Why not establish his desire for a daughter further? By all accounts though, the film was promoted as a vehicle for its two stars (married in real life at the time) and therefore it is easy to see why the filmmakers took a less exciting route. The film is not worthless as some of its dissenters might say, but it sure could have been a lot more.

Well basically my description says it all... not a bad movie but terrible music, especially from a period of such GREAT music. The music really ruins the movie. It's about a worker who gets in a fight and hits another worker in the face with a bat and well i dont want to ruin the movie if you feel like seeing it, despite the music....

Most of the other comments on here are pretty accurate. This movie really showed the loosening up of Hollywood as far as female nudity went. We get to see the beautiful Leigh Taylor-Young in various stages of nudity and looking good dressed too. Ryan never looked better. Lee Grant perfected the role of a perpetually uptight woman in Valley of The Dolls and this seems to be a continuation. The only actress in this movie that really shined was Cindy Eilbacher who could act rings around any other child actor of this or later era. Her few scenes really stand out and almost seem to be from another movie. Loved the cars, the clothes, the great character actors and YES I did love the music but it was all wrong for this movie. I think this music was meant for Dean Martin's last Matt Helm movie with Sharon Tate that never got made. It was lush orchestrated loungy pop music but was all wrong for a crime-noir movie. It really threw me off but I enjoyed hearing it from another room when I wasn't watching the screen. This also has some really great campy lines mainly from Van Heflin calling Leigh a "Quiff" in one scene and various other vague vulgarities. I really enjoyed watching Van go near the edge of camp and then pull back a bit. James Daly was perfect as a high class sleazebag. Look for Ryan's brother Kevin as the passenger in the dune buggy scene.

Overall much better than the horrendous remake, especially if you like movies that are so bad they are good.

I watched this movie with curiosity rather than interest inasmuch as I'd seen some comments that it had "bombed" when initially released. The ratings in IMDB, where as many people rated it a four as rated it a ten, clearly showed that it elicits a wide range of individual reactions. Personally I thought that it was worth watching but has a number of weaknesses. Jack Ryan (Ryan O'Neal) is a drifter working as a farm field worker. Fired for getting into a fight he escapes trial due to the intervention of the local judge, Sam Mirakian (Van Heflin). Jack is told to leave town by the farm supervisor Bob Rodgers (Robert Webber). However he stays after meeting the farm owner, "pickle king" Ray Ritchie (James Daly) and his secretary/mistress Nancy Barker (Leigh Taylor-Young). Jack takes a job as handyman at a hotel owned by the judge where he also meets a divorced woman, Joanne (Lee Grant), and her daughter. Unfortunately Jack begins to romance Nancy who turns out to be a thrill seeker (nice 1960's exploitation movie term!). Thrills include vandalism, breaking and entering and more (no sense giving away the plot). The movie is not entirely successful. In large part this is because it was taken from a book by Elmore Leonard. His works have a significant element of black comedy but, when played straight as here, it comes off as absurd melodrama. This movie has none of the sense of fun (i.e. Get Shorty) that this nuanced material needs. Fortunately Elmore Leonard's plots are relatively complex and full of incident so the movie keeps going and doesn't sag. The actors, aside from the pleasure of seeing them all so young, are mixed. Ryan O'Neal is best at light comedy which is to say that his performance here is limited. Leigh Taylor-Young displays a far greater range although, from time to time, a little histrionic for my personal taste (but then again I'm not a big Bette Davis fan either). While I've always looked forward to seeing Robert Webber I have to admit that he has only one expression throughout this movie. James Daly is underutilized but does have one extremely nasty scene, in the delicious sense of the word, pimping Nancy ("How would I know, I'm in produce"). The revelation is Van Heflin who is far more avuncular than I've ever seen him. I swear he was "channeling" Brian Keith! Unfortunately he lived only another two years and we lost what could have been a very interesting career as an older "character" man. RIP. The technical credits are fine and the gorgeous California scenery, I suspect the Monterey peninsula, would convince me to move. Overall the movie is worth watching but shows why Elmore Leonard's novels have a reputation for being poorly adapted to the screen.

As I'm a product of the 60's, this is classic fare for the movies. Campy yes, but many were. Someone mentioned the soft nude scenes, etc. Well, that was the usual fare as well. We didn't get 'in your face' sex. I miss those days, to be honest.

Now, as far as the music is concerned, whether the music matches the movie is debatable. One should realize 'The Mike Curb Sound' was quite popular to the straight-laced of my era. I enjoyed it but I enjoyed Zappa and Reed too.. go figure.

As a record collector, The Big Bounce soundtrack is one that should be included in one's collection. In fact, the original pressing is collectible now. There are a few quite nice tracks on it. Curb almost got a little out there on couple tunes, but, he reeled himself back in.

I think I know music pretty well as I have collected since the 60's and I say, in and of itself, the album is pretty darn good.