The Arrangement (1969)

An advertising executive (Kirk Douglas) would seem to have everything on the surface. A successful career, a beautiful home and a loving wife (Deborah Kerr). But he's unsatisfied with his life until one morning, he attempts suicide by driving his sports car in the path of an 18 wheeler truck on the freeway. Based on the novel by Elia Kazan and directed by Kazan. I honestly can't describe how awful this movie is, you'd actually have to sit through it. For over two hours, we're subjected to a series of Psychology 101 cliches with Douglas suffering for being a conformist when he really wants to be the free soul his modern muse and mistress (Faye Dunaway) assures him he can be. In the end, it's just another story about a middle aged man going through his middle aged crisis lusting after a hot chick. Douglas isn't remotely convincing as an uptight advertising executive and as much as I dislike him, this is a role Henry Fonda (or Jack Lemmon) would have been more convincing in. And the horror when Douglas clashes with Richard Boone as his father and two of cinema's hammy actors suck up the scenery like two vacuum cleaners trying to outdo each other. Even Deborah Kerr (usually the most delicate of actresses) succumbs and she's never been so shrill and unappealing. The movie just goes round in circles and when it's over, we're exhausted rather than enlightened. With Hume Cronyn, Barry Sullivan, Michael Murphy, Carol Rossen and Charles Drake.