First of all, it's the memoirs of Ben Hecht's 1963 book of the same name. His name is changed to Ben Harvey. It has a wonderful cast: Beau Bridges, Margot Kidder, Melodie Johnson, Melina Mercouri, Hume Cronyn, George Kennedy and others. Directed by Norman Jewison in the style of a Blake Edwards comedy. It starts out with great promise. Beau (as Ben Harvey) lusts after George Kennedy's beautiful young "niece" whom ends up being the mistress. Not knowing this, he runs off to Chicago to repent, becomes an "assistant" to cantankerous drunk newspaper reporter Brian Keith, ends up "rescued", by a madam and living at a bawdy house. He is so innocent that he first believes it to be a boarding house for women! He falls in love with the proverbial "prostitute with a heart of gold" (played by a very young Margot Kidder. While some of this actually happened, it is exaggerated, and ends up deteriorating into an unbelievable comical farce during the second half of the movie. It starts out as a very fine film with wonderful period sets, including a famous Chicago landmark, The Sullivan Theater. Sadly, it has little resemblance to the autobiographical book it is based upon. It borrows from every cliché, including Mark Twain, as Ben attends his own funeral, quite alive after being resurrected from a drowning by the then-new wonder-drug Adrenalin. Involves all the standard comic devices: The madcap chase for the climax of the movie, the multiple "switched" prop, (that looks like a small Bible) which in this case is a little black book involving commodity price-fixing and politicians. It ends very slapstick,it wraps up in about 5 minutes at the end and looks rushed; although the movie is 2 hours long. Of course Ben gets the girl, now reformed. Also, "The Madam Queen" Melina gets to belt out a very forgettable tune, in her "gravelly" voice. The uncut "R" version (very brief nudity) is 117 minutes long and can only be seen on TMC at this time. No Region 1 DVD is available.

The first 15 minutes or so are wonderful, a rose-colored reminiscence of small-town America at the turn of the last century that suggests "Ah, Wilderness!" Then the Ben Hecht prototype, played by Beau Bridges with such innocence as to border on retardation, lights out for Chicago, and the narrative loses traction. It's quite a gorgeous, expensive production, and Melina Mercouri helps out as the madam who takes him under her wing (this was right toward the end of the movie era when prostitutes and bordellos were considered automatically titillating and hilarious, hence neither Mercouri nor any of her girls are fleshed out as characters). The always-good Brian Keith is Ben's alcoholic newspaper mentor, and other good actors mill about (Hume Cronyn, George Kennedy), but it's all color and very little forward thrust. Chicago 1910 had to be more interesting than this, and there must be more compelling stories to tell about it.

It is a colorful movie, full of wonderful characters. This movie shows the life of a young boy, named Ben Harvey -maybe young Ben Hecht-who tries to succeed as a reporter in Chicago. It features in the cast the beautiful and mercurial Melina Mercouri, who as Madame Lily-owner of a brothel- 'adopts' Ben when he runs to Chicago to prove himself. Melina Mercouri provides the film with one stellar performance, but you can not stop the thought that she is restrained in some scenes, especially in the beginning with an unflattering piece of hair. She even sings a song of Henry Mancini that as far as I know has never been recorded. (Mercouri although never a professional singer, had a wonderful voice that helped here to record some classic songs like 'Never on Sunday'. Keith and Kennedy are good in their but easily forgotten. Bridges provides some somewhat stupid expressions, but his part is never developed, as N.Jewison never gave him directions.

Ben Hecht wrote a book detailing his experiences as a reporter in Chicago during the early part of the century. It is more entertaining than this mix mash of a movie that jumps all over the place. The film has its moments. However, there are too few of them to see. The colorful characters that Hecht crossed paths with are watered down in this movie.