Bluebeard
Baron von Sepper (Richard Burton, who seems to sleepwalk through the  film), a European aristocrat of vaguely Germanic heritage, marries and  murders a succession of international lovelies (among them Raquel Welch,  Virna Lisi, Nathalie Delon, and Marilù Tolo) before his seventh bride,  peppy but coy showgirl Joey Heatherton, discovers his secret in a frozen  basement museum. Would you believe the Baron is just a nice guy who's a poor  judge of character? A man who loves deeply but perhaps not too wisely? Or  that he harbors a deep, troubling psychosexual secret? Director Edward  Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny), who also cowrote this Euro-pudding  coproduction, tosses in a bit of all three as he barrels through his reign of  terror. He even attempts to milk laughs from a few of the executions, but  despite its upbeat pace it drags through unnecessary exposition and dull,  dead patches of life-size kewpie doll Heatherton padding around his castle.  Richard Burton struggles with a hoary stage beard and a dull screenplay that  labors under the pretense of wit to deliver a bored performance. This 1972  production gets some mileage from its guest cast (most of whom offer a  tantalizing flash of flesh before succumbing to the Baron's homicidal  impulses), but winds up as lifeless as Burton's vacant, weary  stare.--Sean Axmaker