Master Of The Game (1984)

At her 90th birthday party, a woman (Dyan Cannon) reflects back on her family history which began in 1883 in South Africa with her father's (Ian Charleson, CHARIOTS OF FIRE) quest for diamonds and revenge and eventually built into a dynasty by her as she manipulates those around her, both family and business associates. Spanning a 100 years and crammed with enough plots and subplots to fill a dozen novels, this ridiculously lurid potboiler based on the best selling Sidney Sheldon (THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT) defines page turner trash. The first two hours are slow and meticulous, turtle slow. Once Cannon shows up (as a 16 year old!), the next two hours accelerate so fast that it seems you're watching a preview of coming attractions or clips of highlights. It slows down again for the last two hours which is a hilarious identical evil twin-good twin (both Liane Langland) that turns into a parody in spite of itself. It's a real "chocolate bon-bon" wallow if you're into that kind of thing. Alas, for every decent actor in the piece like Cannon and Charleson, you get mediocrities like David Birney, Cliff De Young, Harry Hamlin and in the film's worst performance, Fernando Allende as a sadistic Greek lounge lizard. Kevin Connor and Harvey Hart share the directing duties. With Leslie Caron, Donald Pleasence, David Suchet, Jean Marsh, Cherie Lunghi, Jay Thomas, Johnny Sekka and Maryam D'Abo (THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS).