The Jeweller's Shop

Remember this Burt Lancaster vehicle? Me neither. Based on Karol Wojtyla's play, this quasi-religious period piece (apparently made for Italian television) stars Burt Lancaster as a mysterious jeweller who sells wedding rings. In Cracow, Poland on the eve of WWII, Andrej and Teresa (Olivia Hussey), and their friends, Anna and Stefan (Ben Cross), take the marital plunge. When war breaks out, Andrej is killed in battle, and Anna and Stefan flee to Canada. Teresa eventually follows. As the years pass, Teresa's daughter and Anna and Stefan's son grow up, fall in love, and eventually marry. They buy their rings from a mysterious jeweller (Lancaster) who has apparently also emigrated to Canada. Throw in a priest who also likes to continent-hop, and the moral of the parable seems to be: love conquers all, especially if God is on your side. The story is boring, the acting is pure soap, the dialogue sounds like it was created in a student workshop, and the thundering musical score by Michel Legrand offers equal weight to such subjects as death and deciding whether to go out on a date. A total mess. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)