Faye Dunaway "The Extraordinary Seaman", a comedy adventure directed by John Frankenheimer and also starring David Niven that she shot right after "Bonnie and Clyde", was released to poor reviews and proved to be a commercial failure. Despite protests from her agent, Dunaway turned down a lot of high-profile projects in order to spend time with Mastroianni. In 1970, Dunaway took a supporting role as a favor to Arthur Penn in his western, "Little Big Man". In a rare comic role, Dunaway played the sexually frustrated wife of a minister who helps raise and seduce a boy raised by Native Americans, played
Faye Dunaway blind rage at the one sin Hollywood never forgives in its leading ladies: growing old." In his 1996 book "Making Movies", Sidney Lumet slammed Dunaway's reputation for being difficult as "totally untrue", and called her a "selfless, devoted, and wonderful actress". Director Elia Kazan described Dunaway as "a supremely endowed, hungry, curious, bright young talent", and added: "Faye is a brilliant actress and a shy, highly-strung woman. She is intelligent, and she is strong-willed." Like Lumet, Kazan felt she was not difficult, but a perfectionist who was never satisfied. "The artist is rarely, if ever, satisfied. The artist is frequently