Rabbit, Run (1970)

Set in a small town in Pennsylvania, an ex-high school basketball star (James Caan) has an alcoholic wife (Carrie Snodgress) who is pregnant. When he quits a job that he hates, he suddenly decides to abandon his pregnant wife and their son and moves in with a part time prostitute (Anjanette Comer). Based on the novel by John Updike and directed by Jack Smight (AIRPORT 1975). There are some bad films that are enjoyable in their awfulness, some that are so bad that it's almost impossible to sit through them. Then there are bad films that are so awful that like a train wreck, you can't take your eyes off them. RABBIT, RUN is one of the latter. It's awful in every respect: the writing, the acting, the directing, the music, the editing that it's impossible to find where to lie the blame. I've not read Updike's novel which was a critical success and spawned several sequels but I can only assume that this 1970s relic is not representative of Updike's novel. Its star (Caan) hated the film, its director (Smight) wanted his name taken off the film. Reputedly, Warners didn't even give the movie a theatrical release in New York. A chaotic senseless mess of a movie. With Jack Albertson, Arthur Hill, Henry Jones, Josephine Hutchinson, Virginia Vincent, Ken Kercheval and Carmen Mathews.