A big-budget soap opera based on the massive Irwin Shaw best seller of the same name, 2 WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN is a relic from another time.

Released in 1962, it was directed by Vincent Minnelli (An American in Paris, Gigi) and featured a major international cast.

Kirk Douglas stars as washed up matinee idol Jack Andrus, newly released from three years in an asylum, or at least the 1960's version of rehab.

He's summoned back to Rome by his friend and Director Maurice Kruger, played to the nines by Edward G. Robinson, for a part in the director's troubled new opus.

From the moment Andrus arrives, he's thrown into a storm of young actors who hate him (George Hamilton in an early role), old flames who want him back in bed (a very over the top Claire Trevor) and tempting new young actresses like Veronica, perfectly played by Dahlia Lavi of "Casino Royale" and "The Silencers" fame.

Imagine "Days of Our Lives" with a massive budget and an international shooting schedule and you've captured this silly, gold plated trash in all its glory.

Douglas can carry the screen with one hand tied behind his back, and there are moments where he manages to rise above and make you cheer for him to rescue his old career and reputation.

Those moments soon glaze over in the haze of bad back screening and stage bound antics. It's the kind of movie where actors are always throwing bottles of booze against the wall and women are flinging themselves sideways across beds in impossibly garish European hotel rooms.

If that is your thing, you are going to LOVE this movie.

For me, it was pretty funny to see George Hamilton in his early twenties, sporting the same tan he's got today but with a lot less confidence. Douglas and Lavi are a blast together and Robinson is as old-school Hollywood as it gets.

The movie was a massive box office bomb in '62, losing over $3 million against it's $4M budget.Douglas made $500k for his role and a share of the profits, but the film never got anywhere near break even.

I don't know about TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN, but I can tell you that less than two hours was far too long. I'll give it a big old widescreen Cinemascope wrapped D.