The Happening

Elliot Silverstein goes crazy with the mod visuals while directing this bizarre '60s concoction, fashioning it as both a modern-day war satire and a juvenile delinquency drama. Retired Mafioso Anthony Quinn is kidnapped by a ragtag group of punks (Faye Dunaway among them!); unfortunately, Quinn can't get any of his acquaintances or loved ones to pay his ransom, thereby putting him in-cahoots with the misguided young people. Ronald Austin co-wrote the screenplay with help from James D. Buchanan and future director Frank Pierson, yet the cast looks mostly perplexed on-camera (and audiences will most likely join them). The Supremes got a #1 hit song out of the title track, yet their version was not present in the print that I saw. *1/2 from ****