Lady Ice

Slick undercover insurance investigator Donald Sutherland goes after a ring of jewel thieves / fences including Jennifer O'Neill who he starts to fall for. Considering the talent here, this is a dreadful mess, partly because of a leaden script with an uninvolving plot but mainly because all the characters are so dull and unconvincing, particularly O'Neill as the apparently ace jewel fence. The romantic scenes never really happen and the occasional action scenes are tired. You can't help feeling the cast aren't convinced or happy either and all in all this is a bitter disappointment. Don't forget to cringe at the closing scene on the beach.

An indifferent kind of crime thriller of the early 1970s, a bit like James Bond but with a more sombre and realistic style. Donald Sutherland stars but this is a far cry from the quality of his best films of the 1970s, which are among my favourites to this day. The plot is about the hunt for diamonds and focuses largely on romance and repartee between Sutherland and Jennifer O'Neill, which didn't really interest me all that much. Nice to see Robert Duvall and Patrick Magee in support.

Jennifer O'Neill is a top-end jewelry fence in Florida. When a pricey set of hot rocks goes through her hands, insurance investigator Donald Sutherland is on the case. Sparks fly between the two. The production of this film was clearly inspired by THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. This movie, however, lacks all the heat and style of that earlier movie. There's little chemistry between the two performers, the music is 1970s chick-a-boom, the camerawork by Lucien Ballard is workmanlike but unimaginative, and director Tom Gries largely wastes a good cast that includes Robert Duvall Patrick Magee and Dana Elcar. All the performances are minimalistic, with insurance executives empty suits saying banal lines as if they are of great import. Sutherland has a few flares of humor, Miss O'Neill is exceedingly lovely, but it's an uninspiring movie.

Never quite gets off the ground ... sutherland plays his usual wisecracking self and jennifer o'neill pretty much matches wits with him while jon cypher plays the heavy ... robert duvall didn't quite match up to the role of a real fbi investigator ... jewel thieves always have the problem of where to sell the stolen goods and usually the insurance company is the best bet for a good payoff... its too obvious

A made-for-TV `Thomas Crown Affair (1968)' tries hard to duplicate the Steve McQueen-Faye Dunaway chemistry, using Donald Sutherland and Jennifer O'Neill in this watery version. Role reversal sets O'Neill as the wealthy jewel thief, hunted seductively by insurance investigator Sutherland..who works most of the film in shirts open to the navel…Ahh, the 70's!!! O'Neill is beautiful and stylish, drives fast cars, swims unclothed and stays away from complex sentences, while Sutherland smokes those little thin cigars and from time to time falls back on his ‘Hawkeye' grin. There is a nice turn by Jon Cypher as the heavy. Soap opera vet Eric Braeden gets some on-screen time as does, of all people Robert Duvall as the straight-arrow cop. Fun for a lark. Connoisseurs of the genre only please .

Dr. Bombay is wrong about this film being made for TV. It was always intended to be a feature, produced by the General Electric subsidiary, Tomorrow Entertainment. It suffered along the way from problems with the script and was delayed several times. Alan Trustman, a lawyer and the author of the film, remained mostly in Boston during development, which hindered the process of fixing the script. While Tomorrow Entertainment did indeed produce many fine TV movies, Lady Ice was one of two features developed by the company. The other was Gravy Train, a bit of cult classic. After the limited success of these films the company concentrated on TV movies.