A daddy longlegs of a film, sprawling all over its story of life at the wrong end of Hollywood in the late Thirties, and finally finding its 'raison d'etre' in a long and bloody riot scene at the end.

William Atherton, then a fresh-faced newcomer, has the role on which all the action turns, as the young sketch artist who moves in with an old vaudevillian turned drunken salesman (Burgess Meredith and his silly, virginal daughter (Karen Black).

Director John Schlesinger lovingly recreates the period (as he was to do with 'Yanks'), much of it in soft focus, intending to lend a glow of nostalgia to this adaptation of the best seller by Nathanael West, but neglecting the most important element of all: discipline...