The Grasshopper (1969)

A young but vacant and not very bright Canadian girl (Jacqueline Bisset) leaves her British Columbia small town to head for Los Angeles where she hopes to marry her childhood sweetheart (Tim O'Kelly). But she finds herself bored with a 9 to 5 job and the dull domestic situation. So she heads off to the bright lights of Las Vegas which begins her spiral down into drugs and prostitution. Based on the novel THE PASSING OF EVIL by Mark McShane, the screenplay by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson (who also produced) lacks subtlety or shading. A perfect example is the loutish character played by Ramon Bieri, who is so uncouth and crude, the camera has a close up of him shoveling food into his mouth and talking with his mouth full then he belches. That's only one example of the obviousness of the script. Everything is thought out for us and shown to us that there's nothing for the audience absorb. This wouldn't be such a pity if Jacqueline Bisset weren't giving a terrific performance but it's lost in a vacuum. Directed by Jerry Paris. With Jim Brown as the football player Bisset marries and ruins, Joseph Cotten as an aging sugar daddy, Ed Flanders, Corbett Monica and Christopher Stone (THE HOWLING)