Taunted by phone calls from a serial killer who dons a different disguise every time he kills, a New York detective struggles to get an upper hand in this odd 'Boston Strangler' variant with comedic touches. As the murderer in question, Rod Steiger delivers a terrific performance, preying on the insecurities of his female victims whilst remaining completing in character until he has won their trust and has the opportunity to strike. George Segal is also fine as the baffled detective and the film gets very riveting in the final quarter as Segal finds ways himself to play mind games with Steiger and prod him into inadvertently revealing personal details. While solid as a thriller, the movie is uneven as a comedy. Eileen Heckart is irritatingly shrill as Segal's henpecking mother, and while there is something to be said for how her pestering is just as annoying for Segal as the killer's taunts, the exchanges between Heckart and Segal are generally unfunny and feel like a distraction from the Steiger main plot. Lee Remick only fares slightly better than Heckart as Segal's love interest and her subplot feels like a distraction too. The film consistently works though when Steiger is in focus with a lot of delicious dark comedy derived from how he manages to constantly con all his victims. His exchanges with Segal (each time affecting a different accent) sparkle too and he has one surefire memorable final scene. The title also has a curious double meaning here; Heckart says in disapproval of Segal inspecting female corpses, but it applies equally to Steiger's take on female companionship.

***SPOILERS*** Like its title "No Way to Treat a Lady" it's a film about how not to treat a lady. That with its star Rod Steiger as theater owner and half a** art food & wine connoisseur Christopher Gill going around New York City in a number of disguises murdering single elderly ladies by getting access to their apartments. What are the reason for Gill's strange and murderous behavior is soon discovered by NYPD Jewish cop Morris "Moe" Brummel, George Seagel, almost by accident. It's Moe's annoying and overly pesky Jewish mother Mrs. Brummel, Eileen Hacket, who's always on his case in Moe not making something of himself like his big brother, or my son the doctor as Moma calls him, who's making more money in one day that he's making in two months. Despite the film being about a serial killer on the loose the interaction between, which at times is hilarious, Moe & Moma is by far the most interesting and entertaining scenes in the entire movie.Moe for his part gets involved with the neighbor of Gill's first victim Mrs. Mulley,Martine Bartlett, the pretty Kate Plamer, Lee Remick, who was the only witness to her murder. It the publicity hungry Gill who was greatly impressed with Det. Moe's description of him as being a master criminal who soon began contacting him about his latest or soon to be latest murder. With Gill's string of murders going up to five or possibly six, I'm not quite sure, victims he decides to change his MO, mode of operation,in targeting Kate . It's Kate who's now having a serious romance with lucky Moe who now became his #1 rival for Moe's attention. It's here where Gill screws himself up by coming out in the open and getting very personal with Det. Moe in trying to make his girlfriend Kate victim # 6 or #7.****SPOILERS**** You an soon spot a very strange connection between both Det. Moe Brummel and serial murderer Christopher Gill and it has to do with their mom's who for the most part dominated and controlled their lives. And it was abused son Moe who didn't take his Moma's words, in what a failure he was, all that seriously who was able to lead a more or less normal life. But in Gill's case in not living up to his mother, who was a famous stage actress, high expectations of himself he completely freaked out. Not being able to take out his rage and frustration on his long deceased mom Gill took them out against the next best thing or persons. Those helpless and elderly ladies who reminded him of her whom he ended up murdering.

When Jewish Detective Mo Brummel (George Segal) isn't hunting down a serial killer (Rod Steiger), Mo's momus mother (the talented Eileen Heckart) is shoving food across the table to him whining, "Eat!"Well-scripted for its time, the story still holds up even today. Nothing is contrived. From the manipulating the newspapers so the police can smoke out their man to the verbal snipe at a homosexual. This was life in the 60s! If you grew up in New York you'll applaud writers Gay and Goldman for capturing the Jewish-ness of their characters. Either you had relatives like the Brummels, or they lived as neighbors in the same building you did, but live they did! New Yorkers will love the city street scenes and recognize many establishments like Sardi's and Merv Griffin's studio next door to it. And Lee Remick's funky 60s pad brings back memories of jaunty women caught up in the "new scene." A little disappointing is Lee Remick's character. Perhaps her character development got left on the cutting-room floor? Mrs. Brummel's conniption's over her son's dating a shiksa is right on, and funny.Steiger is a true master of mental disguise.Segal is the perfect mamma's boy, as well as a hard-working sleuth.A nice balance of humor and drama.A clever way to show off New York.Steiger probably would have won an Oscar for his role in NWtTaL if he hadn't received the Oscar the year before for his role in In the Heat of the Night.

This movie wound up being a vehicle for Rod Steiger to show off is acting talents, which were at their peak at this time. Now, he's a cartoon of himself with mostly overacted roles.In this story, Steiger does his Boston Strangler imitation pretending he is different people to gain entrance into their homes and strangle them. Unlike the real-life strangler, Steiger's character disguises himself as different people (and kills half as many as the real life killer in Boston). He's interesting to watch through the entire story.The other main characters weren't as fascinating. This was the beginning of the big change in Hollywood where morals went out the window. I was disappointed to hear Lee Remick announce how she was kicking out her live-in boyfriend of three years. Remick, someone I've always liked watching, was a major disappointment in this. She looked bad and her character was classless and trashy with stupid dialog. I had always seen Remick play classier roles, but then again the restrictions were now lifted. Eileen Heckert also was annoying as the overly-doting Jewish mother. Her act grew tiresome in a hurry, but fortunately, she exited soon anyway.George Segal, meanwhile, plays a good guy cop and is a lot more enjoyable to watch than the two ladies.In all, an interesting film that really started showing how Hollywood was going to be changing in content.