Not a murder mystery this time from Dame Agatha, more psychological thriller. Not that a dead body won’t show up! And while the film doesn’t quite come off, it holds interest as last call (or nearly so) for writer/director Sidney Gilliat, actor George Sanders & composer Bernard Herrmann. The latter two still showing vital signs of life, the first a little lost away from his usual comic fach. Hayley Mills & Hywel Bennet, the newlyweds from THE FAMILY WAY/’66, reunite as another young couple.* HIM: Working Class dreamer, a chauffeur who larks about as a toff. (Looking rather like David Hemmings as a chubby blonde baby.) HER: The world’s sixth richest heiress, out to prove she’s no snob in the love department. But life in the idyllic countryside proves bumpy. His oldest pal, a dying architect warning him of bad life choices when not making passes. (Or so it seems. Was a gay subtext clearer in the book? Or fitfully added on set?) And on her side, an unwelcoming family on her betrothal and Britt Ekland, back in her life as a controlling confidant. Gilliat doesn’t have the technical chops to play with the subliminal overtones of sex, class, resentment and cash, but you can fill in any missing pieces on your own. Easy to do whenever family solicitor George Sanders swings by to sequentially warn and threaten the newlyweds. Or when composer Herrmann, in a major unknown score, touches base with some of his own stuff or turns to his favorite English Pastoral composers (George Butterworth’s ‘On the Banks of Green Willow’ gets a big nod). The source print looks too soft in the opening reels, but Harry Waxman’s lensing soon firms up. Just in time to cringe at the alarming 1972 Mod attire Bennett wears. They say a good suit should feel as comfortable as a pair of pajamas, but should it look like one?
DOUBLE-BILL: *THE FAMILY WAY (not seen here) earned most of its attention from Paul McCartney’s debut film score, written at the height of Beatlemania.
No comments:
Post a Comment