Pendulum (1968, rel. 1969, George Schaefer)

I bought this for no other reason that it was showing at the cinema in the background of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, whether as a fond reference from Tarantino we don't know. It's a thriller about the murder of cop George Peppard's wife Jean Seburg, who's found in bed with another man - Peppard is the obvious suspect. This is mixed up with a somewhat ham-fisted discussion about civil liberties when Peppard is defended by attorney Richard Kiley.

I say 'thriller' but it's not very thrilling. It's rather talky and unenlivened by 1968 flavour. The real killer Robert F Lyons has a methody menace but the ending, involving he, his alcoholic mother Madeleine Sherwood and Peppard, is badly amusing.

There are one or two interesting maps (you have to focus on something), some vile green curtains, and Peppard has a weird way of smoking cigarettes.

With Charles McGraw, Frank Marth, Marj Dusay, Isabel Sanford (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?).

Photographed by Lionel Linden for Columbia. Music by Walter Scharf. Song 'The Pendulum Swings Both Ways' performed by the Lettermen.