1965 - Marie Chantal & King Rat

A detour from 1966 to a treat from 1965 which I just had to see right away: Claude Chabrol's MARIE CHANTAL VS DR KHA - thanks Jerry!, plus Bryan Forbes' KING RAT, not seen since 1965 ...

Dr Kha (Akim Tamiroff hamming it up) the evil mastermind sends out his minions, including the slinky Olga (Stephane Audran) to obtain the jewelled panther with ruby eyes which actually contains a virus that could wipe out all of mankind!  The man carrying the ornament knows he is being followed and strikes up conversation on a train to a ski-ing resort with the madcap Marie Chantal (Marie Laforet) travelling with her cousin and a mysterious stranger (Francisco Rabal) and persuades her to take the panther and hide it for him ...... there is derring-do on the train, and also in Switzerland on the ski-slopes. He gets killed of course and Marie Chantal realises she is in danger, but she is a resourceful girl and runs rings around all the others. We then head off to Morocco, with more danger in the souks ... Olga does her best to get the panther and faces the wrath of Dr Kha - Marie Chantal though takes the rubies from the panther and turns them into ear-rings! - so the actual panther is now worthless as the precious virus is stored in the rubies ! Finally she confronts the evil mastermind .... who will emerge triumphant ?

This is delirious fun - a comedy thriller by Chabrol, up there with the best of them, like his ROUTE TO CORINTH, another bright comedy thriller set in Greece with Seberg and Ronet in 1967, and like De Broca's L'HOMME DE RIO which did for Brazil what Chabrol does for Morocco here, with the perfect duo of Belmondo and Dorleac (French label). It is also rather like what Losey was trying to achieve in MODESTY BLAISE with his heroine (Vitti) outwitting the bad guys, and it is all very Austin Powers ... and the Moroccan backgrounds are even better than in MAROC 7 or DUFFY (60s labels)...

 
The attraction for me are 2 stunning French actresses - I was transfixed by Marie Laforet since I first saw Rene Clements' PLEIN SOLEIL as a child (see label), she is the original Marge, and looks as perfect as Delon, she also sings, in a French folk style - I have some of her albums and downloads. 

She has one of those perfect angular faces - then there is Audran, as cool and delicious as ever, just as she and Chabrol began that marvellous series of films in the late '60s (like LA FEMME INFIDELE, review at Audran label). Serge Reggiani, Charles Denner and Roger Hanin are also involved in this delirious spy spoof, which is a joy to see now. Chabrol himself puts in an appearance too ... This is really a "pulpy" genre item like the Eurospy Bond spoof (like DANGER DIABOLIK) filtered through Chabrol's arty sensibilities (as Losey was doing at the same time with MODESTY). For an arty Eurospy movie with a strong female lead MARIE CHANTAL is just the ticket, and an interesting addition to the Chabrol boxsets ... I will be looking forward to visiting Marie Chantal again before too long ...

Now for something completely different: KING RAT, from the James Clavell novel, set in Changi prison in 1945. This is not a GREAT ESCAPE kind of prison where everyone looks well fed - the heat and humidity are well conveyed in the black and white photography - and as in the same year's other war movie Lumet's THE HILL a terrific cast of army types is assembled. Bryan Forbes directs and keeps us engrossed. It is one of the few war films to depict the conflict in the East, like A TOWN LIKE ALICE or THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL ...

When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942 the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. This was a POW detention center like no other. Included among the prisoners is the American Cpl. King, a wheeler dealer who has managed to established a pretty good life for himself in the camp. While most of the prisoners are near starvation and have uniforms that are in tatters, King eats well and and has crisp clean clothes to wear every day. His nemesis is Lt. Robin Grey, the camp Provost who attempts to keep good order and discipline. He knows that King is breaking camp rules by bartering with the Japanese but can't quite get the evidence he needs to stop him. King soon forms a friendship with Lt. Peter Marlowe an upper class British officer who is fascinated with King's élan and no rules approach to life. As the story develops, it reveals the hypocrisy of the British class system and for King, the fact that his position in Changi's "society" is tenuous as best.

George Segal is ideal as King, as are James Fox as Marlowe (whom King practically seduces with a fried egg first time we see him), while Tom Courtenay seethes with rage at being unable to pin a charge on King. Add in John Mills, James Donald, Alan Webb, Denholm Elliott, Leonard Rossiter, John Standing etc ... King is a cynical huster/wheeler-dealer, while the British officers try to maintain civilised behaviour and standards in a pitiless world.

 
KING RAT now seems a very under-rated almost forgotten '60s film, odd as Segal, Fox and Courtenay were leading lights at the time, and Forbes had several successes (SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, THE L-SHAPED ROOM and went on to THE WHISPERERS, THE WRONG BOX, THE STEPFORD WIVES etc, but somehow it was Losey, Schlesinger and Lester who were the critics' darlings - with THE KNACK winning best film at Cannes - I liked it but did not think it was that good!  KING RAT though is fascinating to see now, the outcome and final scene between King and Marlowe being quite affecting ... Courtenay of course also had his Losey moment with Bogarde in 1964's  KING AND COUNTRY, I must one of the few to have seen that rarity! Fox and Courtenay had of course already played in the 1962 LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, Tony Richardson's downbeat drama from another Alan Sillitoe story, where resentful borstal boy Courtenay throws the race to spite his governor Michael Redgrave, Fox is the boy from the posh school who therefore wins ... According to Fox's biography KING RAT was made in Hollywood, and they were all on special diets to look suitably emaciated ....

Next 1965 item: the also little-seen now Kramer extravaganza SHIP OF FOOLS where Simone Signoret, Vivien Leigh (her last fiilm), Oscar Werner, Lee Marvin, and Segal again all deliver powerful performances ...