Rotten
As a study in kinky insanity, Cul-de-Sac creates a tingling atmosphere. This sags riskily at times when the director unturns the screws and does not keep control of his frequently introduced comedy.
Variety Staff, Variety
Cul-de-sac
Sometimes there’s nothing left to do but laugh!
1966 · 1h 52m · Not Rated
Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Directed by
Roman Polanski
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Cul-de-sac
Overview
On the run and in search of help, two wounded gangsters find refuge in the secluded castle of a feeble man and his wife; however, under the point of a gun, nothing is what it seems.
Director and cast
- Roman Polanski Director
- Lionel Stander as Richard
- Donald Pleasence as George
- Françoise Dorléac as Teresa
- Jack MacGowran as Albie
- Iain Quarrier as Christopher
- Geoffrey Sumner as Christopher's father
- Jacqueline Bisset as Jacqueline
- Renée Houston as Christopher's mother
- William Franklyn as Cecil
- Robert Dorning Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
83%
Tomatometer
Fresh
If the subject matter is bleak and bitterly serious, the tone throughout is darkly comic, while the precise imagery effortlessly conveys the tension, the claustrophobia, and the madness of the situation.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Rotten
After two clean hits -- Knife in the Water and Repulsion -- Roman Polanski is entitled to one wild swing.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh
This much sounds like a standard horror-film outline, especially since Stander looks amazingly like Frankenstein. But Polanski ignores the horror to concentrate instead on macabre humor.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
One of the best and purest of all his works.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
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