The 10 underrated James Caan films you should be watching right now
08.07.2022 - 03:01
/ nypost.com
who died Thursday at age 82, knows the Bronx-born legend as Axel Freed in “The Gambler” (1974), or the unlucky author in “Misery” (1990). But, you won’t find those widely-celebrated films on this list of underrated (and sometimes downright obscure or strange) Caan movies, starting all the way at the tail end of the black and white era.
Whether the film is really good or just plain odd, Caan is always a pleasure to watch. Nobody was ready for this twisted thriller pairing Caan (playing a brutish, Brando-esque jerk) with screen legend Olivia de Havilland.
Columnist Hedda Hopper called for the film to be burned. The sort of movie that most likely did well on 42nd Street, and almost nowhere else, it offers a punch-in-the-face look at a transitional moment in American culture.Howard Hawks’ sort-of-remake of “Rio Bravo” was the first time Caan, playing a young gun out for vengeance, really got noticed — it didn’t hurt to have John Wayne as a co-star.
Critics showed up for this one.This “what the hell did I just watch” film stars Caan and Katharine Ross as a bored, immature Manhattan couple that invite a German cosmetics salesperson (Simone Signoret) into their home, only to mess with her mind for sport. Roger Ebert’s review of the film referred to Caan as “one of the rare young male actors of ability in Hollywood today.”Caan first collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola on this lovable, forgotten road trip movie, giving it his all as a football player suffering from brain damage who links up with a bored New York hausfrau (Shirley Knight).
Critics didn’t totally get it, but they couldn’t ignore Caan’s acting chops. Playing the peaked-in-high-school Harry ‘Rabbit’ Engstrom in an ill-fated adaptation of John Updike’s novel, Caan
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