Games (film)
Encyclopedia
Games is a 1967
1967 in film
The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....

 psychological thriller
Psychological thriller
Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...

, directed by Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television.-Biography:...

 and starring James Caan, Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross
Katharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, which won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and her role...

, and Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top...

.

Plot

Paul (James Caan) and Jennifer (Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross
Katharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, which won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and her role...

) are a pair of wealthy but blasé Upper East Side New York socialites with an attitude sometimes acompanying the overprivileged; a propensity to amuse themselves in a bizarre, chic, and upscale fashion, in this case playing socialite games for their peers, and occasionally revealing what appears to be a playfully sadistic streak.

Lisa (Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top...

), an older woman from France, arrives at their door one day selling cosmetics; the couple invite her in, and when the conversation reveals that Lisa is believed to have psychic abilities, Paul and Jennifer ask her to arrange some "games" for their amusement. Lisa proceeds to set up several situations of simulated domestic discord that the couple can react to.

The plot turns deadly when an acquaintance is accidentally killed during a so-called "game." Paul has to go to enormous lengths to conceal any evidence. He fears being blackmailed by Lisa, whose psychic activities continue and intensify during her stay. Ultimately, at the request of Paul, Lisa leaves, for the welfare of an ever more anxious Jennifer.

In the end, after a tense confrontation between Jennifer and the supposedly murdered man, Jennifer actually kills him, at which point Paul walks in and calmly calls the police to report that his wife has committed murder. It is revealed that the events of the film were orchestrated by Paul and Lisa in order to trick Jennifer into killing someone, so that Paul could get her fortune. The murdered man had been in on the "game," but was double-crossed. Paul and Lisa share a celebratory drink as Paul pays Lisa her ten-percent cut and they prepare to go their separate ways. But it turns out that Lisa has poisoned Paul's drink. After Paul collapses and dies, Lisa takes the briefcase containing all of the money, leaves the house, and walks down the street, ending the film.

Release

The film was released theatrically in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...

 in September 1967.

The film was given a belated VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 release by Gaiam, Inc. in 1995 and Universal Home Video in 2000. Both versions are currently out of print
Out of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....

.

The film was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in the Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

. This release presents the film widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....

. As of 2011, the film has still not been officially released on DVD in the United States.

Trivia

Director Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television.-Biography:...

wrote the role of Lisa with Marlene Dietrich in mind to play the part.
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