The Agony and The Ecstasy

Here indeed is a 20th Century Fox "prestige" production, from 1965, by Carol Reed, a sumptuous film of Irving Stone's bestseller. Somehow I had not seen it before.

Pope Julius is eager to leave behind works by which he will be remembered. To this end he cajoles Michelangelo into painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When not on the battlefield uniting Italy, the Pope nags Michelangelo to speed up his painful work on the frescoes.

This is a fascinating, colourful and very-well made film that looks like an epic and is in fact an intelligent drama, with great roles for Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as the warrior pope, who seems an extension of Harrison's Caesar in CLEOPATRA. Others here from CLEO are cameraman Leon Shamroy and a music score by Alex North. Heston seems rather subdued at first - one thinks is this the man who was Moses, Judah Ben-Hur and El Cid? - but he grows into stature as we share the hardships of painting that ceiling and dealing with the wily pope. Harry Andrews and Adolfo Celi are just right in support, and Tomas Milian is the young rival painter, Raphael. 

Diane Cilento does not have much to do apart from looking decorative as a maybe romantic interest, though Michelangelo's homosexuality is not stressed either. 

One feels one has "done" the Sistine Chapel by the end, and there is a 20 minute prologue on Michelangelo's sculptures, including that Pieta and his Moses and of course David and the tomb for Pope Julius. Heston and Harrison are well-paired and its genuinely affecting by the end. Reed went on to direct OLIVER! next, and Heston next took on Olivier in KHARTOUM, which was better than expected when I saw it a while ago - review at Heston, Olivier labels. When I met Heston at the BFI in 1971, he towered over me. He was certainly a physical presence, 

Kay

Another favourite lady, I see a theme here .... Kay Kendall, a patron saint of The Projector, as per the posts on her, at label. 

LONDON TOWN is a perfectly dreadful British musical from 1946 - trying to copy the Americans who were doing this kind of thing so much better.  It stars a comedian Sid Field, who has not aged well at all and looks terribly dated now - give me Arthur Askey any time - with a very young Petula Clark as his daughter, and Kay - just 18 here - is the ingenue, a young showgirl. The film was a huge flop and practically sunk her starting career, the Forties fashions do not suit her at all, but one can see her emerging talent - she went back to being a showgirl, with her sister - but seven years later she got that role that defined her, the trumpet playing model in GENEVIEVE. (She had already done bits in DANCE HALL, IT STARTED IN PARADISE and more). 

GENEVIEVE was followed by favourites like THE CONSTANT HUSBAND, SIMON AND LAURA, QUENTIN DURWARD, then thankfully Cukor, Minnelli and Donen got her in her prime for their delicious treats, they knew how to showcase stylish ladies -
 she went to Hollywood for LES GIRLS (above, with Gene Kelly) taking pal Gladys Cooper's corgi June with her for company (right); THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE teamed her with new husband Rex Harrison (and Angela Lansbury and Sandra Dee, below) and is sheer bliss too, she looks sadly frail in ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, her last film, she died of leukemia in Sep 1959, aged 33. 

I have been to that nice churchyard in Hampstead, where her stylish headstone is just right. (See previous posts at label). As a stylish comedienne she was compared to Carole Lombard, and was a friend of Dirk Bogarde's, and a favourite of Monica Vitti - see post below. Lots on LES GIRLS at label.

Cleopatra out-takes ...

Elizabeth Taylor and veteran actor Finlay Currie on the set of CLEOPATRA. But Finlay wasn't in CLEOPATRA you say - quite right, his part was surgically removed when they were cutting the 6 hour epic down to a more manageable 4 .... pity Finlay didn't make the cut here, he was in so many other epics, from QUO VADIS? to BEN HUR. 

FILMS IN REVIEW is a fascinating little magazine I missed at the time, its good discovering them now, like that 1988 one with a terrific interview with Lee Remick looking back over her career, and this recent acquisition I found on ebay, dated January 1988 with a good feature on CLEOPATRA, going through the original Mankiewicz screenplay for his proposed six hour version, which would be shown in two parts. Zanuck at 20th Century Fox soon put paid to that and the 4-hour version that exists now is as much as we are going to get. 
I don't think there will be any A STAR IS BORN-type restoration here! 

Other deletions, apart from Finlay, included background material on those other characters like Ruffio, Sosigenes, Apollodorus, Octavian, etc. 

I like this particular scene closing the first half, as Cleo sails away, its perfectly written, acted, and scored with that great Alex North score.

Among the supporting players we also like Richard OSullivan (the little boy in DANGEROUS EXILE) as the petulant young Pharoah, Gregoire Alsan as the scheming Pothinus, and Pamela Brown's all-seeing high priestess, and of course we love the opulent sets and costumes, as discussed before, and that great panning shot over the bay of Alexandria as Caesar arrives ....  There is still a lot to enjoy in CLEOPATRA not least Rex as Caesar and as befits a Mankiewicz film, the dialogue is to savour.

The Honeypot, 1967

THE HONEYPOT, filmed in Venice in 1966 and released in 1967, is a choice treat now, an acid comedy by Mankiewicz with  great role for Rex Harrison and three super ladies: Susan Hayward, Capucine and Edie Adams with two rising players on the sidelines: Maggie Smith (already a scene stealer as she proved in THE VIPs and THE PUMPKIN EATER) and Cliff Robertson. Its lensed by ace cameraman Gianni Di Venanzo and looks great. Talky yes, but when Mank is scripting and Rex and Maggie saying the lines bliss is assured. 

Inspired by a performance of his favorite play, Ben Johnson's "Volpone," Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) devises an intricate plan to trick three of his former mistresses into believing he is dying at his opulent home in Venice. Fox hires William McFly (Cliff Robertson), a man of many trades including being a sometime actor to act as his secretary. Though the women have vast fortunes of their own, Fox depends on their greediness to bring them running. There is Merle McGill (Edie Adams), a Hollywood sex symbol; Princess Dominique (Capucine), who once took a cruise on Fox's yacht; and Lone Star Crockett (Susan Hayward), a Texas hypochondriac who travels with her nurse Sarah (Maggie Smith). 

As Fox and McFly act out their charade, Lone Star states to the other women that she is the only one entitled to the inheritance since she is Fox's common-law wife. Later that night as Sarah and William go out for drinks where Sarah tells of her daily routine of walking Lone Star at 3:00 AM to give her more sleeping pills to get through the night, William then excuses himself to make a phone call and Sarah, tired from her travels slips off to sleep for about an hour. When Lone Star is found dead later that morning from an overdose, Sarah immediately suspects William. Her suspicions are confirmed when she finds the roll of quarters missing from Lone Star’s bag in William’s room. 

She confronts William with her findings and he promptly locks her in her room demanding she keep her mouth shut about the whole situation. Fearing that William will now kill Fox, she uses the dumbwaiter that connects her room to his to pull herself up and warn him. Fox both praises her intellect and her stupidity, leaving Sarah slightly confused but relieved that she has forewarned Fox.

But Fox has one more trick up his sleeve, and Lone Star gets the last word in ..... to say any more would spoil the surprise. 

Harrison, in his fourth outing with Mankiewicz, relishes the witty dialogue, the three woman are all up to their usual level, though we do not see too much of Hayward as Lone Star. Her husband back in Georgia USA died during the shoot, and old pal Mank may have released her early so she could return home ... Capucine displays her usual haughly elegance and glamour as the impoverished princess, and Edie is as amusing as she was in LOVER COME BACK or LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER. 
Maggie of course compels all the attention whenever she is on, particularly her scenes with Rex.   Its all probably a bit too talky and high-faluting for some, but certainly a treat if one is in the mood and ready to spend time with these fascinating people .... 
Susan went on to give us her Helen Lawson later that year in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, but thats another post. Maggie of course later played nurse/companion to Bette Davis in DEATH ON THE NILE in 1978 where both were very droll. Mank had one more hit in store: SLEUTH in 1972. We love him of course for LETTER TO 3 WIVES, ALL ABOUT EVE, THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, CLEOPATRA, THE GHOST & MRS MUIR etc, as per reviews, at label. Its a good late role for Rex too, after his Caesar for Mank in CLEOPATRA, THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE and MY FAIR LADY - unless one counts DR DOLITTLE or, heaven forbid, STAIRCASE! 

Cleo & Alex revisited

I always enjoy settling down to watch CLEOPATRA again - particularly if recording it from widescreen HD television, so one can zip past an occasional dull bit. Ditto Robert Rossen's 1956 ALEXANDER THE GREAT - a more turgid telling of the Alexander story than Oliver Stone's 2004 dazzling magnum opus which I like a lot - check posts on ALEXANDER at Colin Farrell label.

CLEOPATRA got a bad press at the time and was considered a turkey for a long time, but its a fascinating movie -- the first half at any rate as Rex Harrison is a dynamic Caesar and there are impressive set pieces - that great panning shot over Alexandra as Caesar arrives (Stone must have hommaged this in his ALEXANDER as he also shows us Alexandra where the aged Ptolomy is dictating his memoirs), and all those early scenes with Taylor and Harrison and of course that entry into Rome! 20th Century Fox certainly lavished care and attention and money on the sets and costumes and crowd scenes - all those people were really there. Taylor is impressive with that make-up and all those costume changes (a great wardrobe by Irene Sharaff, like that contrasting blue and red she wears when seeing Caesar's assassination in the flames, with high priestess Pamela Brown) and I love the score by Alex North - my best friend had the soundtrack album so we used to play it a lot. Leon Shamroy's cinematography captures the opulence of the sets.
I like that closing scene to the first half too as Cleo sails away and the music swells up. Her barge entering Tarsus in the second half is a wow too .... but here Burton rants and Taylor gets shrill ("I asked it of Julius Caesar, I DEMAND it of you"..), then the final scenes in the tomb are marvellous. I first saw this on its general release, maybe in '64 or '65, and those close-ups of Taylor on the big screen as the asp bites are someone one remembers .... Legend has it that Mankiewiz was writing the script by night and shooting during the day, after the film relocated to Italy and the famous scandal erupted. The dvd and blu-ray packages are good too, packed with all those features and documentaries including footage of Peter Finch and Stephen Boyd, initially cast, and Joan Collins' screen test as Cleo ...... it would not have been the same. 
CLEOPATRA remains impressive and a lot of fun, without the cachet of  Kubrick's SPARTACUS or Mann's EL CID or FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, or those other great epics of the time like Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA or Visconti's THE LEOPARD. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 1956, is another movie I remember fondly, first seeing it as a kid at a Sunday matinee, some great images linger: Danielle Darrieux as Alexander's mother Olympias on the battlements as the troops depart, and that great moment with the dying Darius (Harry Andrews) abandoned after the battle. A blond Burton does his best, and again there is a good cast including Claire Bloom, Peter Cushing, Andrews and Stanley Baker. Here are a cache of lobby cards:  

From that era, we also like Robert Wise's HELEN OF TROY, Fleischer's THE VIKINGS , Cecil's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, LeRoy's QUO VADIS and of course Wyler's BEN HUR, and I will add in SOLOMON AND SHEBA too ! Then there' those Steve Reeves movies ..... 

Some Minnelli's for Easter ....

We have been enjoying some prime 1950s Minnelli films: musicals, dramas, comedies ..... THE BANDWAGON remains our favourite musical - see separate label. We recently covered TEA AND SYMPATHY, and also reviewed TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN a while back, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE and DESIGNING WOMAN are particular favourites, very stylish entertainments which find Minnelli in his element, as per previous posts on them - check all at Minnelli label. I may have to go back to SOME CAME RUNNING and GIGI again (we did not care forthe 1955 THE COBWEB at all though) ..... and those other dramas like HOME FROM THE HILL (1960) ..... I actually like 1954's BRIGADOON, that studio-bound Scottish highlands musical, a childhood favourite, though it has its very obvious limitations - but Minnelli makes the most of the glittering New York interlude. For today, its BELLS ARE RINGING and KISMET, and back to the DESIGNING DEBUTANTE.

The get-up in New York's get-up-and-go comes from the switchboard operators of 'Susanswerphone'. Need a wakeup call? Your appointments? Encouragement from 'Mom'? A racetrack bet? It all comes from that dutiful nerve - or naive - centre that keeps enterprises enterprising and maybe wedding bells ringing.

Judy Holliday reprises her Tony-winning Broadway role of irrepressible switchboard girl Ella in a jubilant adaptation that marked her final movie and the final teaming of movie-musical titans Arthur Freed and Vincente Minnelli. Dean Martin co-stars as a struggling playwright in for a surprise when he learns 'Mom's' identity. The sparkling Jule Styne/Betty Comden/Adolph Green score includes Holliday's heartfelt "The Party's Over" and the Martin/Holliday duet "Just In Time". You've dialled the right numer, musical fans!

So goes the nice blurb for this 1960 Minnelli musical, it starts with nice Scope views of New York (rather like THE BEST OF EVERYTHING or BUT NOT FOR ME) as we look in on that telephone service. Telephones play an important role (as in PILLOW TALK where Rock and Doris have to share a line, and of course that telephone service in SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY which relays messages to its users...).

BELLS ARE RINGING is a pleasant view but lacks the pizazz of THE PAJAMA GAME or FUNNY FACE or MY SISTER EILEEN or KISS ME KATE or ..... It is marvellous seeing Judy Holliday one more time, sadly in her final film, she is the whole show here as the telephone operator who meddles in the affairs of clients, with nice support from Dino, Jean Stapleton and Frank Gorshin doing a Brando. Minnelli seems rather subdued here but creates some nice colour schemes and decors, but the subplot about racketeers seems tedious. The score is conducted by Andre Previn. Holliday also sings up a storm when she tells us she is "going back to be me, at the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Company". Judy Holliday died aged 43 in 1965, but was marvellous in her movies ever since ADAM'S RIB in 1949.

Much more brash is Vincente's 1955 KISMET, a gaudy Arabian Nights fantasia, with that score adapted from Borodin, which thankfully provides good roles for Howard Keel and Dolores Gray - while Ann Blyth scores as Keel's daughter and Vic Damone as the Caliph. The convoluted plot features begger/poet Hajj (Keel) wanting a better life for his daughter, meanwhile she and the Caliph meet and fall in love, then Dolores Gray comes as as Lalume and she and Hajj end up together ..... the nice score includes "Stranger in Paradise", "This is my beloved", "Baubles, Bangles and Beads", "Night of my Night" and "Not Since Nineveh" as the wicked Wazir wants the Caliph to marry one of his choices, while the bandit chief is looking for his long lost son who turns ou to be the Wazir, who promptly has his father killed. This is all delirious fun as the various strands come together and the Wazir gets his just deserts. Minnelli makes it all look great too. Dolores Gray shines too as she does in her other MGM mid-50s movies (Dolores Gray label). We also liked Blyth in THE STUDENT PRINCE, 1954 and of course her immortal Veda in MILDRED PIERCE! 

The supporting cast has a nice bevy of old-timers with Monty Wooley, Sebastian Cabot, Jack Elam, Jay C Flippen and Mike Mazurki, This was another Sunday afternoon matinee favourite when I was young, and would b e a delicious double bill with the 1956 JUPITER'S DARLING another MGM extravaganza, with Esther Williams in her last musical, with Keel as Hannibal, with all those elephants ....

THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, 1958, is all about Kay Kendall's Balmain wardrobe: Kay in champagne coloured Balmain chiffon and feathers, or that red suit with matching hat for her first scene, Rex looks bemused by it all and their apartment is a joy too - with those lovely green lamps and sofas, and yellow and red furnishings all very Minnelli. Angela Lansbury plays another bitch mother who wants that chinless wonder for her own deb daughter, while Americans Sandra Dee and John Saxon are the young couple. There is a lot more on this at the various Minnelli/Kendall labels. 

DESIGNING WOMAN is delicious fun too and so very 1957, another childhood favourite. Greg and Bacall are perfectly matched here and the plot is a joy. 

Summer views: The Constant Husband, 1955

Nice to see Sidney Gilliat's THE CONSTANT HUSBAND crop on tv - particularly after having read Carol Matthau's chapter on its stars Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall in her marvellous memoir, as reviewed below. I had not seen the film since I got he dvd some years ago,. It is mid-'50s England in aspic really as amnesiac Rex Harrison wakes up in Wales with no idea of who he is or how he got there. Its amusingly put together as with the help of jolly psychiatrist Cecil Parker his past is slowly unravelled as he ends up in court, presided over by judge Michael Hordern, charged with being a serial bigamist. It turns out of course that the women - all 7 of them - would all take him back - and even his defence barrister, a very dry Margaret Leighton, also falls for those legendary Rex charms. Its a perfect role for Harrison, coming into his own here, just before taking on the role of Henry Higgins.

The interest here now though are the women. Not only Leighton and Nicole Maurey (and her hilarious Italian restaurant family) but Kay Kendall at her most divine as Monica, the society photographer. Harrison was still married to Lilli Palmer when starting this, but you can see this is where he and Kendall began, she is obviously entraced with him,  (and he with her), and she looks lovely here - as she does in GENEVIEVE and SIMON AND LAURA, before that make-over by MGM for her following films QUENTIN DURWARD, LES GIRLS, RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE and ONCE MORE WITH FEELING. Splendidly entertaining then. Now for another look at SIMON AND LAURA ...

War weekend 3: Rex and the Crusaders .....

KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS. Ah, 1954 that era of westerns and costumers, ideal for an 8 year old’s (as I was then) first forays to the cinema. Those cardboard castles – Prince Valiant, Black Shield of Falworth, and this Crusaders saga, plus The Silver Chalice, The Egptian, Sign of The Pagan, Attila etc. 
David Butler also directed that early Cinemascope western THE COMMAND that year, and KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS is more of the same, maybe shot around the same locations, with the Crusaders clanking around in their chain-mail as the cavalry, and those hordes of infidels the redskins. 
In fact I think this crusaders epic is generally considered one of the 50 Worst Films Of All Time. 

We follow King Richard (grumpy George Sanders) and his cousin Lady Edith (Virginia Mayo – and yes, she really does say “War, War, is all you think about, Dick Plantagenet”!). Sir Kenneth (Laurence Harvey) loves the lady, but cannot marry her. So far, so turgid, as various knights plot to kill the king. 

Then, just as we are getting bored, things liven up with the arrival of Rex Harrison in blackface as Saladin. (This was a lean time for Harrison, after the Landis scandal of the late 40s, before MY FAIR LADY came his way). Here is an actor enjoying himself and relishing the absurdity of it all, as his Saracen leader runs rings around the crusaders and falls for the white Christian woman. The climax of course is pure cardboard castle time, how well I remembered that fight on the drawbridge … The Holy Land looks just like California and the whole Crusaders thing and why they are there remains a mystery. After the success of IVANHOE perhaps Warners thought another romp with knights and armour, and also from Scott – “The Talisman” – would be a success. KING RICHARD though remains a costumer to laugh at and enjoy its terrible absurdity.

That 1966 Royal Film Performance ...

Maybe the best line-up ever?  I have posted photos from this event before here, those shots of Julie Christie, Catherine Denueve, Ursula Andress, and then with Leslie Caron and Warren Beatty. I had not realised there was newsreel footage of it, and that it also included Dirk Bogarde, Deborah Kerr, James Fox, Rex Harrison and Rachel Roberts, Christopher Lee, Raquel Welch and more, as well as the stars of the film (BORN FREE) Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. AND they had a dress rehearsal earlier .... as per below. 

Here are some other shots: Deborah chats to the '60s girls, and Warren noticing Julie being presented to Her Majesty. This apparantly is where they met ... certainly a star-studded evening, the likes of which they don't have now, of course it was 48 years ago! 

 

Deneuve, Lee, Welch, Allen, Andress, Bogarde, Christie, McKenna, Travers

Dames & blithe spirits

A few assorted photos ..... 

Raves of course for Dame Angela back on stage agt 88, reprising her Madame Arcati in Coward's BLITHE SPIRIT, here is the Broadway production with Rupert Everett:

and we just have to include that priceless moment from David Lean's 1945 film when Rex Harrison first sees Elvira's ghost ....

More of Ruth Roman in Angela's MURDER SHE WROTE, finishing off her career here in a good way, as Loretta who runs Loretta's Beauty Shop - think pink! Ruthie enjoys herself here in '87 and '89 doing 3 episodes of Angela's series, set in Cabot Cove. The beauty shop regulars are fun too: Julie Adams looking better than ever, Kathryn Grayson and Gloria de Haven. 

Two more favourites: Geraldine Page and Dame Gladys Cooper who suprisingly have a duet in the 1967 Disney film THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE (its worth sitting through Fred McMurray, Tommy Steele and Greer Garson) for this number ! 

Soon: a real troupe of dames in some campy '60s fun with Curtis Harrington's grand guignol titles: Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Geraldine again with Ruth Gordon - as we find out WHATS THE MATTER WITH HELEN? WHO SLEW AUNT ROO? and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE?, plus Romy Schneider's grand guignol THE INFERNAL TRIO in 1973!