{"id":1305,"date":"2024-07-25T02:59:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T02:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1305"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:12:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:12:46","slug":"the-greek-tycoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/25\/the-greek-tycoon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greek Tycoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Greek Tycoon<\/strong>\u00a0(1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 112 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, brief violence, nudity, sex, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J. Lee Thompson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Mort Fine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Stanley Myers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Anthony Richmond\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anthony Quinn, Jacqueline Bisset, Raf Vallone, Edward Albert, James Franciscus, Camilla Sparv, Marilu Tolo, Charles Durning, Luciana Paluzzi, Robin Clarke, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Roland Culver.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $14.6 million (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The notorious stinker The Greek Tycoon<\/strong> has one of the greatest punchlines of all time. As we all know, movies (almost) always have a disclaimer in the end credits that reads: \u201cThe characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.\u201d I\u2019m not sure if it was entirely necessary in this case. The story concerns a Greek oil magnate who marries the widow of an assassinated American president. There\u2019s no way something like this could happen in real life, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let me give you the salient points of The Greek Tycoon<\/strong>. Anthony Quinn (Zorba the Greek) stars as \u201cTheo Tomasis\u201d, an insanely wealthy Greek tycoon who lives on a yacht. He has a strained relationship with his son \u201cNico\u201d (Albert, Galaxy of Terror) who later dies in a plane crash. He\u2019s involved in an extramarital affair with celebrity \u201cSophia Matalas\u201d (Tolo, Marriage Italian Style). He has legal problems relating to his violation of international shipping laws. Tomasis becomes smitten with \u201cLiz Cassidy\u201d (Bisset, Murder on the Orient Express), the wife of \u201cSenator Jack Cassidy\u201d (Franciscus, Beneath the Planet of the Apes), later elected President. It\u2019s vaguely implied the politician is a philanderer. One of his first official acts as President is appointing his brother (Clarke, Inseminoid) Attorney General. After her husband\u2019s murder, Liz enters into a marriage-for-money contract with the older Tomasis. Does any of this sound familiar? It should unless you\u2019ve been living in another universe for the past 60 years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The very idea that The Greek Tycoon<\/strong> is a work of fiction is absolutely laughable. A few details have been changed, but we know the real-life figures the \u201cfictional\u201d characters are supposed to be standing in for. This alone makes for great unintentional comedy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone), The Greek Tycoon<\/strong> is basically a glorified jet set soap opera featuring beautiful rich people in exotic locations doing whatever it is that wealthy people do to pass the time. Tomasis spends a lot of time partying on his yacht, hitting on every beautiful woman that crosses his path. When he\u2019s with Liz, they ride around in fancy cars and visit ancient ruins. They\u2019re always wearing sunglasses. Liz wears a series of expensive designer clothes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Greek Tycoon<\/strong> is considered one of the worst movies ever made. Truth be told, it\u2019s not all that bad if you look at it as trashy melodrama ripped from the headlines of sleazy tabloids. It\u2019s like one of those scandal stories where the writer fills in the gaps with speculation and suggestion. The one thing I know for sure is made up is the plot thread involving Tomasis\u2019 rocky relationship with his brother Spyros (Vallone, The Italian Job). The real-life figure didn\u2019t have a brother. He\u2019s been added to create more drama. He marries Tomasis\u2019 first wife, an act the tycoon considers betrayal. They duke it out for a bit before Tomasis wishes him well. There\u2019s a lot going on in The Greek Tycoon<\/strong>, but it lacks dramatic momentum. At times, it just drifts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If nothing else, The Greek Tycoon<\/strong> is a good-looking movie. The cinematography by Anthony Richmond is gorgeous, but is it even possible to make sunny Greece look like anything but paradise on earth? Quinn and Bisset make an attractive couple even with the considerable age difference between them (nearly 30 years). Their performances are another story. They\u2019re both talented actors, but they\u2019re not at their finest here. Quinn overacts in several scenes and regresses to Zorba mode in others. Bisset\u2019s performance appears to be limited to standing around looking beautiful. She has moments, like when she calls out Tomasis for embarrassing her in front of his friends, when she shows what she\u2019s capable of if given something to do. Both Albert and Vallone ham it up shamelessly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Writer Mort Fine (The Pawnbroker) crams a lot of material into the space of 112 minutes resulting in a few underdeveloped plot lines. Surely, Tomasis\u2019 legal problems deserve a little more attention as does his relationship with his only son. The dialogue tends to be absurd. The Greek Tycoon <\/strong>is a bit of a mess but it\u2019s an entertaining mess. It\u2019s like a filmed version of the trashy Sidney Sheldon novels women read at the beach or by the pool. And let\u2019s not forget the great punchline. It\u2019s what makes the whole affair worthwhile or worthless depending on your tolerance for soapy melodrama.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Greek Tycoon\u00a0(1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 112 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, brief violence, nudity, sex, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J. Lee Thompson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Mort Fine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Stanley Myers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Anthony Richmond\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anthony Quinn, Jacqueline Bisset, Raf Vallone, Edward Albert, James Franciscus, Camilla Sparv, Marilu Tolo, Charles Durning, Luciana Paluzzi, Robin Clarke, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Roland Culver.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/The-Greek-Tycoon-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1912,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions\/1912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}