My enjoyment of Jack Smight's No Way to Treat a Lady goes back to watching it with my dad 35+ years ago on ABC. In some ways it was the most grown up movie I had seen, yet it had a gentle, TVish quality that made the gamier aspects more palatable (and ABC trimmed some of Rod Steiger's hairdresser bit a bit).What I remember is enjoying George Segal's understated and Rod Steiger's over-the-top performances as, respectively, a murder cop on the trail of a serial killer. What I really enjoyed--along with my dad--was Lee Remick. To this day, I think Remick was proof that God is an artist. Even in bad parts, she was breathtakingly lovely, and had a wonderful chemistry between her two parts, the vulnerable girl and the WASPish woman.I needn't bore you with the plot--just read some of the other reviews. What I want you to do is get signed up with TCM or Netflix and watch this funny and suspenseful little movie. Enjoy the performances. Revel in the location photography.And marvel at Remick, in a backless dress, hung over from a party, and looking better than anyone should with a hangover!

I've seen lots of films dealing with psychos and serial killers, some excellent and others good, average or really bad. In my opinion, "No Way to Treat a Lady" is among the good ones and deserves more attention in the genre than that given to it.A "plus" of the film is that you know right from the start, or almost, who the insane murderer is and yet it keeps interest and tension all the way to the end. Rod Steiger has much to do with it in a character rich in ingredients and different focuses in which he is excellent. The "obsession with dead dominating mom" is there too and has to do with the "signature" the killer leaves behind after each death and puts him in trouble at the end.Pretty and talented Lee Remick is the main menaced damsel and George Segal plays the detective in charge of the case (yes, they get romantically involved in spite of the man's Jewish mother, a perfect -as usual- Eileen Heckart).If you enjoy thrillers this is an unpretentious one to see. Not a classic or even a great one, but a good one in the genre.

As far as I know, this was only ever shown once on Italian TV; I had always wanted to watch it, due to Leonard Maltin's ***1/2 rating but also because I find the subject matter of a serial killer using a number of disguises fascinating, so when Paramount's bare-bones DVD (why, not even the theatrical trailer is included!) was on sale at "DVD Empire", I decided to order it - along with about 15 other titles from the same studio...Though somewhat patchy and verbose, the plot (adapted by John Gay from a novel by William Goldman) is undeniably compelling and the performances of the entire cast - including George Segal, Lee Remick and Eileen Heckart - are faultless; still, Rod Steiger as the flamboyant murderer (this is no spoiler, since the killings start from the very first scene!) dominates the proceedings and obviously relishes the opportunity of sinking his teeth into such a juicy role: his disguises - including a priest, a plumber, a gay hairdresser, a police officer, a chef and, at one point, he even turns up in drag! - also incorporate various accents and imitations, among them that of W.C. Fields, whom Steiger would eventually play in a biopic of the great comic some years later! Diminutive actor Michael Dunn has a hilarious bit in which he shows up at Segal's police station and confesses to the crime spree.While the film displays no particular evidence of technique (Jack Smight was, at best, a journeyman director), it emerges unequivocally as a product of the late Sixties with the added qualities of good location photography and an effective score by Stanley Myers (best known for composing the "Cavatina" theme utilized in THE DEER HUNTER [1978]); as a matter of fact, it reminded me of PRETTY POISON (1968), another black comedy I watched only recently for the very first time - but also of EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962), a classic black-and-white film noir I caught up with during the past few weeks which also features Remick as a potential victim of a formidable villain (who, like Steiger's character here, is not above adopting a female disguise in order to get what he wants!).Among the film's most successful elements is the murderer's relationship with flustered Jewish cop Segal, whom he phones and teases prior to each killing. Also notable is the climax set in a theatre, where the fatally wounded Steiger goes into each one of his 'personalities' before expiring, as well as the subtle contrast the film creates between the two characters' mothers: Segal's is a typically nagging Jewish woman who always puts him down while praising her other businessman son, whereas Steiger's late mother (who is only shown in portraits) had been a great theatrical actress - whose talent for larger-than-life roles was adopted to its extremes by her unbalanced son!

This is an amazing movie that is a dark comedy and a thriller at the same time. This was directed by Jack Smight and stars Rod Steiger, Lee Remick and George Segal. Segal is a Jewish detective who still lives with his mother and Steiger is a serial killer who had some problems with his mother and now goes around killing middle aged woman and leaving lipstick on their forehead. Remick is a witness who briefly saw Steiger but didn't get a good look and Segal and Remick begin dating. Steiger begins to call Segal and talk to him and also at his home and the captain tries to take Segal off the case. It's a really great movie that has some very funny scenes.