The Illustrated Man Movie Review

Ambitious but ultimately limited attempt at dramatizing the famous short-story anthology by Ray Bradbury. Young drifter meets obsessed wanderer Rod Steiger, searching for a mystery woman (Claire Bloom, at the time Steiger's wife) who, before dematerializing, tattooed him head to foot. Uncanny tattoo designs inspire three narratives with the same three actors: “The Veldt” concerns a children's holographic-type playroom that becomes all too real; “The Long Rains,” probably the most effective of the lot, details astronauts on Venus struggling to survive the planet's eternal downpour that makes it a true Waterworld; “The Last Night of the World” botches a Bradbury mood piece about, well, the last night of the world. The skin-art framing story tries too hard to be weird. Conversely, the short segments aren't halfway weird or imaginative enough.

1969 (PG) 103m/C Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, Robert Drivas, Don Dubbins, Tim Weldon, Christine Matchet, Jason Evers; D: Jack Smight; W: Howard B. Kreitsek; C: Philip Lathrop; M: Jerry Goldsmith. VHS, Beta WAR, FCT, MLB