People We Like - continued ... some British actors

Douglas Hodge, and as Grimes in the current DECLINE AND FALL. (He was a terrific Zaza in LE CAGE AUX FOLLES a few years back).

Rory Kinnear, and as the Frankenstein monster in PENNY DREADFUL.  (also recently in THE IMITATION GAME, SKYFALL, SPECTRE, and theatre including another HAMLET and THE THREEPENNY OPERA). 

Patrick Baladi may have started off playing Nancy in a school production of OLIVER! but is kept busy now, in the current LINE OF DUTY among others - we like him in  the STELLA series with Ruth Jones, where he looked good wearing leathers, and he marries a man in Tom Hollander's REV.

Hugh Bonneville, now that he has left the Earl of Grantham behind at DOWNTON ABBEY, seems to be having fun, amusingly dragging up in PADDINGTON (right), and being hilarious in DAVID WALLIAMS & FRIEND, as well as BBC series W1A, and that surprise turn in DA VINCI'S DEMONS. Looking forward to PADDINGTON 2. 

Daniel Boys, actor and singer, recently seen in the BOYS IN THE BAND revival.

Then of course there's Tom Hollander, and Aidan Turner (POLDARK and handsome! - see Poldark label.)

Mahogany, 1975

I thought I would enjoy this one a lot more, but really, its just rather dull, dull, dull - not quite a '70s Trash Classic then, just forgettable really. It starts with a rather outre Seventies fashion show, but then the plot takes over.

Tracy (Diana Ross) an aspiring designer from the slums of Chicago puts herself through fashion school in the hopes of becoming one of the world's top designers. Her ambition leads her to Rome spurring a choice between the man she loves or her newfound success.

It's a guilty pleasure that you know is bad, but you just can't help enjoying it. Casting Diana Ross as a fashion model was truly inspiring since it gives her an opportunity to look sensational throughout. This she does with little effort. Billy Dee Williams is fine as her idealistic boyfriend intent on changing the world rather than his clothes, but the most fun is provided by Anthony Perkins whose performance could be subtitled "Norman Bates's Greatest Hits." As the neurotic and gay photographer, he chews the scenery like never before, and gives a sensational performance.

Well, yes, that about covers it, but it could have been delirious fun and it isn't. Nina Foch and Marisa Mell are also on hand, but are wasted, as is Jean-Pierre Aumont. Miss Ross glides effortlessly through it all on a rather one-note performance, though its a stretch to imagine her as a novice designer slumming it in Chicago .... but things look up once we hit Rome and all that decadence. It just could have been a lot more fun and taken off into a zany satire on fashion, but as ploddingly directed by Tamla honcho Berry Gordy (who fired Tony Richardson) it isn't. File it next to to those other Seventies glossy items like LIPSTICK, or THE EYES OF LAURA MARS or the brilliant AMERICAN GIGOLO in 1980, but that had the vision of Paul Schrader .... MAHOGANY now comes across like those vanity projects of Streisand or Beyonce.

Ross, who had a hit with LADY SINGS THE BLUES in 1972 (but was nothing like Billie Holiday in a glossy travesty of her life) had another hit here - I refused to see her THE WIZ though ...

Weekend treats ..... six from that fab year 1962

It should be in widescreen reallv....

RIP, continued ...

I was sad to see the obituary of Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1932-2017), aged 84. He was a key influence on my teenage reading years .... as this piece from 2012:

YEVTUSHENKO: SELECTED POEMS - This Penguin Paperback was an early '60s favourite of mine, it was interesting finding it again the other day. The blurb says: "Yevgeny Yevtushenko is the fearless spokesman of his generation in Russia. In verse that is young, fresh, and outspoken, he frets at restraint and injustice, as in his now famous protest over the Jewish pogrom at Kiev. But he can write lyrically too, of the simple things of all humanity - love, a birthday, a holiday in Georgia. And in "Zima Junction" he brilliant records his impressions on a visit to his home in Siberia". Yevtushenko is now much older, but was the Rudolph Nureyev of poetry then. Even now looking at those titles like "Lies", "Waiting", "Colours", "Encounter", "People", "Babi Yar" and that long marvellous poem "Zima Junction" brings it all back, being 18 or 19 again. 

David Storey (1933-2017) aged 83. Prolific British writer and playwright, Storey - like Alan Sillitoe and John Braine - caught that early 1960s Northern new wave, with his novels like THIS SPORTING LIFE (filmed by Lindsay Anderson n 1963), FLIGHT INTO CAMDEN and SAVILLE. He and Anderson collaborated on several of his plays, I loved HOME in 1970 which I saw twice, with Gielgud and Richardson at their peaks, and also Storey's IN CELEBRATION and THE CHANGING ROOM.

Tim Pigott-Smith (1946-2017) aged 71. Veteran British actor, best known for his leading role in the classic 1984 series THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN, which I have been meaning to re-visit. He was still working with several projects in post-production and was in the current hit BBC production of DECLINE AND FALL. Other roles included in DOWNTON ABBEY, ALEXANDER, FOYLE'S WAR, GANGS OF NEW YORK, BLOODY SUNDAY, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, MIDSOMER MURDERS and more, 

FEUD ?

WHEN is this going to be screened here in the UK? The word is good and it looks super, with Susan Sarandon an effective Bette Davis and Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford. Alfred Molina looks right too as BABY JANE director Robert Aldcrich .... 9 episodes I understand, we looking forward to this Ryan Murphy extravaganza.

Hitchcock blondes driving to ......

Here's Janet and Tippi driving towards their respective fates ..... the sense of doom created by Herrmann's great score builds as Marion Crane approaches the Bates Motel; and poised socialite Melanie Daniels blithely driving towards Bodega Bay with those lovebirds ...

I am now away for a week in Ireland, but will return with those NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
and DR STRANGE, and a Seventies camp classic; Diana Ross in MAHOGANY, as well as More Bad Movies We Love, and a selection of lesser-known European Classics. and some more "Interesting Careers".

Still of the day ...

Two of our favourite blondes: Faye and Michael - Dunaway and York that is, in Richard Lester's all-star extravaganza THE FOUR MUSKETEERS, the more sombre follow-up to his jolly THREE MUSKETEERS, both filmed in 1973. Faye is a deliciously wicked Milady with the York boy as the hapless D'Artagnan .... Charlton Heston scores too as the devious Richelieu, as does Olly Reed as Athos and Christopher Lee in a different role for him. Lots of enjoyment here .... it all looks great too,

Hamlet, 2017

Can we take on yet another HAMLET? I missed Benedict Cumberbatch's over-hyped one last year, but will definitely want to see his SHERLOCK co-star Andrew Scott as the Dane in the current production, sold out at the Almeida Theatre, but on its way to London's West End in June, at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Scott is a fascinating actor, he was Moriarty to Benedict's Sherlock in that TV series. 

Modern versions of Shakespeare don't usually work for me (though I liked Ken Branagh's LA DOLCE VITA era ROMEO AND JULIET last summer - review at Theatre label), but this new one, directed by Robert Icke seems a fresh interpretation .... as per these comments

Celebrity Hamlets are a rite of passage for stars wishing to test their metal against The Bard's most introspective and challenging central character. 

This technologically sound production grounds the intrigue in a modern Danish court complete with rolling news and modern surveillance. Whilst it's not necessarily a new idea the live camera work picks up on subtle flashes of Scott's genius, from 'The Mousetrap' scene that's played within the auditorium itself and allows a close-up view of the murderous reactions to the filmed fencing that brings his downfall. Characters are wiretapped adding to the paranoia whilst the Ghost appears via CCTV, but the addition of guns create more problems than they solve.

Juliet Stephenson is a radiant Gertrude finding life in the poetry and carefully maintaining the post-wedding exuberance that Icke extends to hang over much of the first act played through a clinically Nordic set that allows split scenes to operate on multiple levels.

We will be booking it for June then, when it opens. It is four hours long with two intervals, so I think a matinee will be a better bet than sitting in the theatre from 7pm to 11pm, and then getting home. I did that with the David Tennant HAMLET some years ago, and it was quite a slog, and we emerged into a blinding snowstorm! Doing this long HAMLET twice a day must be quite a marathon on matinee days, just saying. 

My collection of HAMLETs include Peter McEnery, Michael York, Alan Bates, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Dillane, and David Tennant's understudy., plus the films by Olivier, the Russian 1964 one, Tony Richardson's 1968 one with Nicol Williamson, Zeffirelli's with Mel Gibson, Derek Jacobi for the BBC, and the Ken Branagh all-star marathon of 1996. 

Decline and Fall - 1968

A new BBC three-part version of Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel DECLINE AND FALL unveils tonight, here in the UK. One hopes it will be as amusing as the rather forgotten film they made of it in 1968. It was the 24 year old Waugh's first novel, first published in 1928, and I am saving it to read on a holiday next week.Comedian Jack Whitehall should be an ideal lead (The new series builds nicely, with Douglas Hodge, as ever, being the highlight here). Here is what I said about the film a few years ago:

DECLINE AND FALL, 1968.  Amusing film version of Evelyn Waugh’s satire which I enjoyed back then and is finally back in circulation (on a no-frills Fox Cinema Archives dvd). It is quite a lavish production from that era when Americans were financing the British film industry, this one is  directed by John Krish, the interest now is the great cast of English players, some of whom keep re-appearing as their characters’ fortunes wax and wane. I presume they titled it DECLINE AND FALL OF A BIRDWATCHER to make it sound a bit more racy … we only see our lead character Paul Pennyfeather watching birds (the feathered kind) once, before he is slung out of Oxford University as he is blamed for the pranks of others. 

Everything happens to hapless Paul, a passive victim of circumstance. He winds up teaching at Llanabba school in darkest, wettest Wales, a grim place run by Dr Fagan (Donald Wolfit, enjoying himself hugely) and his daughter Flossie (Patience Collier). Other teachers include Grimes (Leo McKern) a bigamist with a wonky leg, Prendergast (Robert Harris) with that ill-fitting wig, and Maybrick (Colin Blakely) the handyman turned thief. It rains of course on sports day but the heavens part to allow the sun to shine on Margot Beste-Chetwynd (Genevieve Page), socialite mother of one of the pupils, and soon Paul is in her thrall, as he is invited to her luxurious pad, Margot it seems has plans for him …. As she gets him to assist her with her Latin American Entertainments company, which is a front for white slavery, an amusing scene has her interviewing prospective dancers.  Paul of course takes the rap and is sent to a very grim prison, where McKern, Harris and Blakely turn up again. Margot marries the Home Secretary and gets a pardon for Paul, who is whisked away to a dubious nursing home, run by Dr Fagan . Poor Prendegast has been murdered by a lunatic and his body substituted for Paul at his funeral, leaving our hero free for further adventures. 

So, it is a comic, episodic ramble through English society, as our innocent hero finds duplicity and greed on all sides. Robin Phillips (who went into threatre direction) plays Paul, slinky vamps don’t come any slinkier than Genevieve Page, and Felix Aylmer as an aged judge, Kenneth Griffith, Patrick Magee, Donald Sinden, Paul Rogers, Roland Curram, Marne Maitland and Victor Maddern are among the host of supporting players. Like Tony Richardson’s Waugh film THE LOVED ONE it crams everybody in!  
Robin Phillips (1942-2015)  was also DAVID COPPERFIELD in that all-star 1969 version which I liked (with Olivier, Edith Evans etc), and in a very odd one TWO GENTLEMEN SHARING (right) which we finally caught up with a while back - review at British-1 label.

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, 

Joan

Joan Greenwood: Perhaps my favourite Joan - how we like her. It was a treat seeing the 1952 THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST on TV again (though as my dear friend Martin says, I have the dvd/bluray so can watch it anytime...). Joan as Gwendolyn ....

Joan as Sybilla in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, 1949, and as Peggy Macroon in that year's WHISKEY GALORE! and of course there's her "notorious" Lady Bellaston in TOM JONES in '63, and in films like MOONFLEET and THE MOONSPINNERS, and with Gerard Philipe in KNAVE OF HEARTS in 1954.

I have done several posts on Joan (1921-1987), one of the first "People We Like" on here - as per label - and was lucky to catch her on stage with the equally marvellous Gladys Cooper in a revival of THE CHALK GARDEN in 1971 - I really should have met her then ... her voice of course was unique too. 

Joan with Stewart Granger and George Sanders in one of my favourite Fifties movies, which I loved a a kid: Fritz Lang's MOONFLEET, 1955 She and Granger were also the doomed lovers in that great Ealing film, SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS, in 1948.

A new LUDWIG

I was intrigued to see a new 4-disk Bluray of Luchino Visconti's 1973 opus LUDWIG is about to be released. I already have the 2 disk dvd, but this seemed too good to pass up, so it is on its way to me. We have covered LUDWIG and Visconti, Helmut, Romy, Silvana, Trevor Howard in detail here before, as per the labels - so more on it in due course. It should be a nice companion piece to the new Criterion bluray of Antonioni's BLOW-UP also out next week, and on its way to me from Barnes & Noble in New York. A brace of European classics then, all spruced up for the new era ...

Helmut acquits himself well here, and Romy is sheer perfection as the older, more cynical SISSI, while Trevor Howard and Mangano are ideal as the Wagners. Then there are all those attractive footmen as Ludwig battles his proclivities ... As with all Visconti films costume dramas don't get more opulent, and our perennial favourite Romy is simply stunning as the older Sissi. 
It was great seeing it initially on the large screen at a London Film Festival back then, watching at home it may be too long to see all at once, but ideal in chunks as the opulence washes over one ... its certainly up there with the other Visconti classics like SENSO, THE LEOPARD, L'INNOCENTE ...
Its a terrific package, with a 60 page booklet, a 1999 hour-long documentary on Visconti, when a lot of those who worked with him were still living and interviewed here, a documentary on Mangano and the full version of the film, in two parts, at almost 4 hours (238 minutes) or a 5 part TV version. There's also a new interview with Helmut Berger ..... Essential, then, As one review says: 
Among the scenes you’re most likely to remember – from all the versions – will be Ludwig’s wooing of the young actor Kainz in that glorious underground grotto with the swans and that charming little love boat, and Elizabeth’s visit to Ludwig’s most famous castle in the room with all those mirrors. Visually the film is a near-constant treat, with sets and costumes as gloriously garish and/or stunning as you’ll have seen. And then there’s that hunting lodge scene with all the young men perched atop and around the limbs of the giant tree that grows in the middle of the lodge.

Visconti with Romy & Helmut

RIP, continued ....

Tomas Milian (1933-2017), aged 84.  Tomas Milian, an American actor born in Cuba; was trained at the Actors Studio. He appeared in a few plays on Broadway in the 1950s. Italian director Mauro Bolognini noticed him and that was the starting point of a rich cinematographic career in Italy, 
where he played in all manner of genres. 
We like him as the rich young guy propositioning Jean-Claude Brialy in Bolognini's 1959 saga of Italian youth LA NOTTE BRAVA (below), and he is Romy Schneider's husband in the Visconti episode of BOCCACCIO 70 (right) in 1962, and Claudia Cardinale''s brother in TIME OF INDIFFERENCE in 1964, and with Belmondo in MARE MATTO. He was Raphael in THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY in 1965.

He progressed to Spaghetti Westerns (DJANGO KILL in 1967) and Italian giallo thrillers, and the lead in Antonioni's IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN in 1982. Later films included TRAFFIC in 2000, Spielberg's AMISTEAD, Stone's JFK. He continued working, 120 credits in all, until 2014. Quite an acting career. More on Tomas at label ....

Christine Kaufmann (1945-2017), aged 72. She had a promising European and maybe international career, which she temporarily gave up when she became the second Mrs Tony Curtis (they co-starred in TARAS BULBA in 1962). Other titles included TOWN WITHOUT PITY in 1961, and some peplums THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII with Steve Reeves (below), 1959,and CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS with Belinda Lee. She later appeared in films like BAGDAD CAFE, and clocked up 110 credits. 

Lola Albright ( 1925-2017), aged 92.  I featured her only a month or so ago, in a review of some interesting careers - see Lola Albright label.

Sixties rarity: The Day The Fish Came Out, 1967

There MAY be a more bizarre 1960s movie than THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT, unleashed in 1967, but I can hardly think of one, apart from THE TOUCHABLES in 1968, or JOANNA or HEROSTRATUS or LEO THE LAST or MYRA BRECKINRIDGE or BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS in 1969 ...

FISH is Michael Cacoyannis's followup to his huge hit ZORBA THE GREEK in 1965 - 20th Century Fox were hardly expecting the madly camp, if not gay, mishmash he produced next .... We were dazed by it at the time (it was taken off after two weeks and never seen again, until dvd arrived), as Candice Bergen in some bizarre outfits and pretty young Ian Ogilvy danced with the beautiful gay people on a Greek island, contaminated by some nuclear waste material dropped into the sea from a plane piloted by Tom Courtenay and Colin Blakely - who spend most of the time in their underwear as the pilots tried to hide, and the locals try to increase their tourism trade and anxious government officials try to cover up the disaster and locate the radioactive material .... Mikis Theodorakis adds another Greek score, and it is all delirious fun. 

Here is what we said some years ago: 

Life on a remote Greek island is forever changed when two atomic bombs are accidentally dropped in the sea there when a NATO plane flies overhead. This so-called comedy chronicles these changes. When the pilots Tom Courtenay and Colin Blakely realise they have lost their cargo, they bail out and land on the island - dressed throughout in their underwear - and try to get help without being found. The government has beaten them to the punch and has already sent an agent disguised as a resort developer. All of them are busy looking for the missing weapons when the island is suddenly filled with hedonistic tourists, all looking very gay, who believe the developer is going to build the best resort in the area. The locals are also overjoyed, thinking their quiet little village is finally going to be a tourist resort. When the Agean fish being to mysteriously die (hence the title?) everyone realises that the jig is up and so they give into their wildest desires...

add in Candice Bergen and lots of pretty unisex people, the pilots in their skimpy briefs and it all adds up to one pretty bizarre movie !

Sixties rarities: bawdy fun with Kim, Susannah etc.

It’s a return to that bawdy, lusty 18th century with LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS, Peter Coe’s 1969 film of a stage show with songs, though the songs are gone here, as this vainly follows THE ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS in trying to capture the success of TOM JONES. It ramps up the squalor of the era and plays like a CARRY ON on speed – all it has going for it really is that cast. It basically follows the misadventures of three sailors on shore leave: Lusty (Jim Dale), Shaftoe (Tom Bell) and Ramble (Ian Bannen) who are all looking for some action – willing to provide it are Susannah York (Hilaret) who is rather underused here, Vanessa Howard (Hoyden) and Glynis Johns (Mrs Squeezum). Fabulous Fenella Fielding has the Joan Greenwood role as Lady Eager, allowing herself to be seduced at the theatre and ensuring her seducer has the correct window to call on later – Kathleen Harrison and Roy Kinnear are also funny as Lord and Lady Clumsey, and Roy Dotrice is the Gossip. Other familiar faces include Arthur Mullard, Peter Bull, Fred Emney and its good to see Georgia Brown (the original Nancy in the original OLIVER) as the local strumpet. Top billed though is another extraordinary performance by Christopher Plummer as Lord Fopington with a grotesque wig and what looks like a false nose and who can barely walk he is so effete - he is as stunning as his Inca king Atahualpa in the film of THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN, also that year.. Shot in Kilkenny, Ireland it is an amusing trifle to see at this remove.

THE AMOROUS ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS in 1965 was obviously following in TOM JONES' footsteps with Kim Novak in the lead as amorous Moll, but is good-humoured fun as Terence Young directs a good cast and practically every British comedian and character actor of the era. There is that terrific star quartet of Angela Lansbury and Vittorio De Sica having fun as impoverished aristocrats, Lilli Palmer as leader of the criminal underworld, and George Sanders as Moll's first husband. Kim was so iconic in the '50s [PICNIC, EDDIE DUCHIN STORY, VERTIGO, BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET etc] but - rather like Carroll Baker - she seems diminished in the '60s as items like BOYS NIGHT OUT, OF HUMAN BONDAGE etc did her no favours. She plays along gamely here ... its still a laugh.

Dame Vera

We were celebrating those veterans like Olivia DeHavilland and Kirk Douglas turning 100 - here is another one: Dame Vera Lynn.

Watching the 1980s British TV series WISH ME LUCK (now on dvd) about the French resistance in World War Two and the work of British female agents in France - more on that later, we enjoyed it at the time - there is a passing reference to popular wartime singer Vera Lynn. The series ran from 1987 to 1990 and is of course set in the 1940s, and yet Vera Lynn, now a Dame, is still here at age 100 and has a new album in the charts and its a big seller. 

So here are congratulations to "The Forces Sweetheart" with that rich popular voice and those songs like "We'll Meet Again" which certainly boosted morale during that time of conflict. 

In 1952 she became the first British artist to score a Nr 1 hit in America, a decade before 'The British Invasion'. She has been described as "as much the voice of the Second World War as Winston Churchill".

Pets headline Brighton Pride !

I was delighted to see that The Pet Shop Boys were the main act at this year's Brighton Pride here on Saturday 5th August, doing a full 90 minute show.

Much as I like The Pets - still going strong after 30+ years - and their innovative, stylish shows, on reflection we will be giving it a miss - it would not be a good venue for us to see them, as they will attract a huge crowd and one may well be stuck in the middle of a throng, unable to move. Now that we are getting on a bit, comfort is a necessity, I demand a seat and a good view. 

Thankfully I have seen the Pets several time before, as per label - their Savoy Theatre residency in 1997, London Pride that year, and on tour in Brighton in 1999 and also at The Tower Of London in 2006 etc. I am sure they will have other tour dates lined up too. 

But good luck for Brighton on Pride Day. I could always play their Glastonbury or O2 concert dvds instead ,,, Years and Years are terrific too...

Brighton Pride is one of the UK's main Pride events, I have been to several and know the city well having lived there for several years, on the south coast in Sussex. Its a great day out for everyone and events and clubbing continue all weekend.  

Sixties rarity: Nine Hours To Rama, 1963

Another of those long-unseen 20th Century Fox Cinemascope "prestige" films, benefiting from exotic locations and a tense story, even if we know the outcome, from a popular bestseller of the time. I caught it at the time before it vanished ...

NINE HOURS TO RAMA depicts the life of Nathuram Godse the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. How Godse planned the assassination is shown in the film. How he became a Hindu activist who (unfairly) blamed Gandhi for the killings of thousands of Hindus by Muslims is revealed in a series of flashbacks.

Directed by Fox veteran Mark Robson (he had more success with the thriller THE PRIZE that year) with a polyglot cast browned up as Indians and set in India, it features German Horst Buchholz as the assassin, and Jose Ferrer as the weary police inspector on his trail, trying to catch him before it is too late. It is startling now to see the likes of Robert Morley, Harry Andrews, Diane Baker, Valerie Gearon, Francis Matthews etc as Indians, alongside Marne Maitland and other natives, J.S. Casshyap is an effective Mahatma as the film tries to make sense of those violent years. 
It is though colourful and tense, and Buchholz more or less looks authentic. It took several decades though for a more realistic picture of Gandhi to emerge, in Attenborough's 1982 film. 

1963 was the year of the Kennedy assassination, and like THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, NINE HOURS TO RAMA was taken out of circulation for a while,.