The Illustrated Man (1969)

In 1969 director Jack Smight optioned the movie rights to the Ray Bradbury book The Illustrated Man. Reportedly, Bradbury stipulated only a few actors were acceptable including Steiger who ended up with the role. It's a super juicy role too with plenty of character screen time. You could say the Illustrated Man was nearly perfect to showcase an actors ability. One of those meaty parts that come along once in a lifetime.

And Steiger is astonishing in it. Seeing him work is like a revelation. It's one of his best performances and that's saying something when you're talking about Rod Steiger.

The book is a collection of short stories written by Bradbury for the pulps. He collected these shorts into a single novel using the Illustrated Man merely as a framework to loosely tie it all together. Three stories included in the film are The Veldt, The Long Rain, and The Last Night of the World and they are relatively weak, especially as adapted for the movie. The screenwriters managed to lose all the psychological edge Bradbury instilled while reducing all three to gadget stories with a trick ending. A rather disappointing treatment to some of the finest ironic fiction of grandmaster writer Ray Bradbury.

At the same time the writers expanded the framework character of Carl (the Illustrated Man) into the centerpiece of the movie. They added a complete backstory to his "Skin Illustrations" along with motivations that never existed in the book. Carl probably occupies half the film now which is a very good thing. The expanded role along with Steiger's mesmerizing performance transforms the movie into something special indeed. The three little sci-fi stories, although not well done, are still sufficiently interesting to keep your attention. They too star Steiger which only adds to their appeal.