Review of The Gypsy Moths

This film's director, John Frankenheimer, blamed its failure at the box office on studio head Jim Aubrey but it's really his own, and to a lesser extent his scenarist, William Hanley's, damn fault for not doing what James Drought in the novel upon which the movie is based was able to accomplish, namely the seamless stitching together of an exciting flying stunt story with a sensitive examination of a self destructive sky diver and an unhappily married woman. The result is a film that satisfies no one. There's not enough aerial excitement to turn on the action junkies and the scenes between Lancaster and Kerr, designed for the drama lovers in the audience, are nowhere near as compelling as those in "Eternity". Still, I'm gonna give it a generous B minus if for no other reasons than the excellence of Gene Hackman as a barnstorming everyman and that I'm a sucker for small town movies, especially when they come with great Kansas location shooting courtesy of cinematographer Phil Lathrop and lovely Elmer Bernstein music.