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Thursday, September 7, 2017

IN THE COOL OF THE DAY (1963)

Infidelity drama finds a couple of couples drifting apart in one of those early ‘60s pics that works hard to reflect changing mores, stretching the old Production Code in the process. As if everyone involved saw Antonioni’s L’AVVENTURA/ '60, admired it, smelled something new in the air, then got it all wrong. Attempting a more Euro/Adult tone, they just manage disagreeable. Progress! Arthur Hill is the adoring husband of frail, health-challenged Jane Fonda (so unlike our radiant poster gal); while old British buddy Peter Finch is married to drama queen Angela Lansbury with whom he shares a tragic past. What a foursome for a holiday in Greece! But Hill backs out of the trip, and Finch’s declared, if chaste love for Fonda hots up; quickened once Lansbury steps out with a pick up. Dreary, unconvincing stuff in scenic locales, with Lansbury winning the Most Disagreeable Trophy . . . and eventually our respect for blunt honesty and as the only lively thing in the pic. She’s both horrid and funny. Whatever it was producer John Houseman* saw in the material remains unrealized under Robert Stevens laissez-faire directorial hand, with Fonda very raw against all those pros.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: As mentioned, L’AVVENTURA which shows up the tacked on melodrama this film still clings to.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: *Or rather don’t read all about it as Houseman’s third volume of memories, FINAL DRESS, skips this film entirely.

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