The Grass is Greener (1961)

Our love for each other is founded on mutual distrust. In order to maintain their crumbling and damp stately home, Earl Vincent Rhyall aka Victor (Cary Grant) and his wife Lady Hilary (Deborah Kerr) reluctantly open it to coach parties of tourists, one of whom, American oil millionaire Charles Delacro (Robert Mitchum), falls for the lady of the manor. Feeling rather neglected, she begins to return his advances and spends four days with him at the Savoy in London. In order to win her back, the Earl has to call on the services of his old flame, Hattie Durant (Jean Simmons) and his very laconic, very English butler Trevor Sellers (Moray Watson) who’s really looking for material for a novel. When Hilary and Charles return to the manor, Victor decides there’s only one way to settle things and it’s straight out of the eighteenth century... That’s the way the world wags. It’s the third time Grant was paired with Kerr following Dream Wife and An Affair to Remember; ditto for Mitchum and Simmons after Angel Face and She Couldn’t Say No; and Mitchum had been memorably cast opposite Kerr in Heaven Knows Mr Allison and more recently in The Sundowners, also released in December 1960. Director Stanley Donen knew what he was doing with this immaculately polished stage adaptation by Hugh Williams and Margaret Vyner of their West End success. Yes, it’s theatrical but it’s beautifully mounted, the setting is fabulous and the Dior costumes wonderful (particularly Simmons’) and the cast really get their teeth into the smart dialogue. There are good in- jokes – including about Rock Hudson (originally intended for Mitchum’s role), a mutual friend of both men called ‘Josh Peters’ (a nod to Donen’s two young sons) and Paramount Studios. A class act, in every sense of the term, this was shot by Christopher Challis at Osterley Park, just outside London and the interiors were by Felix Harbord. There’s no honour where there’s sex

 

Stanley Donen 13th April 1924 – 23rd February 2019

Hollywood great Stanley Donen has died aged 94. Handsome, genial, witty and debonair he was an actor, dancer and choreographer who teamed up with Gene Kelly at a ridiculously young age and made screen history with the first musical shot on location, On the Town. They made the greatest musical in film history together, Singin’ in the Rain, the perfect integrated backstage Hollywood movie, the most brilliant, joyous blend of song and dance and storytelling. It transformed cinema. During the Fifties Donen continued learning his craft as director with romantic comedies and returning to his favourite form with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, another innovative iteration of the musical. He reunited with Kelly for It’s Always Fair Weather and then became an independent producer. He worked with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn in the enduring classic Funny Face and then relocated to England and made some terrific midlife romcoms, including Indiscreet and The Grass is Greener before turning to thrillers with the great Charade, a Hitchcockian suspenser, back in Paris with Audrey Hepburn and another regular collaborator, Cary Grant. He followed that with another Peter Stone collaboration, Arabesque. Two for the Road was his most personal film, a comedy drama about a couple in crisis, again starring Hepburn. His Seventies films were variable with Lucky Lady and Movie Movie the standouts, loving homages and pastiches of a Hollywood that he ironically had helped quash. He produced the 1986 Oscars, which boasted a musical number featuring a roll call of Hollywood musical stars:  Leslie Caron, June Allyson, Marge Champion, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Esther Williams. His legacy is indelible;  he worked with the greats and made them better;  he mastered musicals, elevating them to a different level entirely with animation, editing and choreography;  romantic comedies; thrillers; and dramas.  Each time I see one of his films I feel a lot better about everything. He was one of my all-time favourite directors. Rest in peace.

Bedazzled (1967)

What terrible Sins I’ve got working for me. I suppose it must be the wages. Stanley Moon (Dudley Moore) is a hapless short-order cook, infatuated with Margaret (Eleanor Bron), the statuesque waitress he works with at Wimpy Burger in London. On the verge of suicide, he meets George Spiggott (Peter Cook), the devil, who, in return for his soul, grants him seven wishes to woo the immensely challenging Margaret. Despite the wishes and the advice of the Seven Deadly Sins, including Lilian Lust (Raquel Welch), Stanley can’t seem to win his love and shake the meddling Spiggott… The writing and performing team of Pete ‘n’ Dud (aka Derek and Clive) were top comics in the 60s and this collaboration with Stanley Donen would seem to be a marriage made in cinematic heaven but it’s hard to see how their antic charm works in a Faustian satire that seems more antique nowadays. The seven deadly sins are embodied in quite clever colour-coded scenarios and there are some good visual tricks but overall the surreal touches can’t hit the mark. The deadpan delivery by the debonair Cook and the winsome charms of both Moore and Bron (who inspired Eleanor Rigby) as an unwitting femme fatale compensate for the shortcomings of the script. Best bits:  the pastiche pop show and the cross-dressing as nuns who trampoline. A time capsule of sorts. Julie Andrews!

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Let me tell you something, no woman is gonna go to bear country with you to cook and wash and slave for seven slumachy back woodsmen. 1850 Oregon. Milly (Jane Powell), a pretty young cook, marries backwoodsman Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel)after a brief courtship. When the two return up the mountains to Adam’s farm, Milly is shocked to meet his six ill-mannered brothers, all of whom live in his cabin and she is shocked to realised she’s basically their skivvy, washing and laundering and cooking and cleaning. She promptly begins teaching the brothers proper behavior, and most importantly, how to court a woman. But after the brothers kidnap six local girls during a town barn-raising, a group of indignant villagers tries to track them down and Milly splits from Adam then there’s an avalanche and the pass is blocked for months … Husband and wife team Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Dorothy Kingsley adapted Stephen Vincent Benet’s story The Sobbin’ Women. It’s one of the most spectacularly staged Fifties musicals but the usual versions are panned and scanned and the colour hasn’t been graded correctly for current enjoyment. Nonetheless, Michael Kidd’s great choreography, the humour (some quite daring) and the relationships are nicely done and the songs are wonderful. Directed by former dancer and choreographer Stanley Donen. Bless your beautiful hide!

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

It hasn’t taken the death of Debbie Reynolds for me to watch this again;  it’s a regular viewing choice for me and has been for a very long time. It’s the ultimate film about Hollywood moviemaking and let’s pretend and the transition from silents to talkies; it’s the greatest ever musical; it’s a film to grow up with and grow old with, with comedy and romance and great song and dance routines and that number, in the rain; it is a heaven-sent ode to joy. Goodbye, Debbie.

Two For the Road (1967)

Do you know what marriage is? 1966, Romney Marsh, Kent. Wealthy and successful architect Mark Wallace (Albert Finney) and his wife Joanna (Audrey Hepburn) drive their 1965 Mercedes 230SL past a wedding on the way to Lydd Airport where they board a British United Air Ferries flight to France where they begin a drive to Saint-Tropez. The purpose is to meet with Mark’s longtime client, Maurice Dalbret (Claude Dauphin). As they make their way to the south of France, the unhappy couple reflect on four previous trips they made along the same route. The film jumps between their present and past trips to show how their relationship has broken down over time. The first trip takes place in 1954 when Mark and Joanna catch sight of each other on a ferry from England to Dieppe. Mark is a young architect on a photography trip, while Joanna is travelling with her choir to a festival in Menton. When the ferry arrives in Dieppe, Mark becomes alarmed thinking he has lost his passport but Joanna finds it in the top of his backpack. On the road to Abbeville, Mark and Joanna cross paths again after the choir’s VW Microbus runs off the road and he stops to help them. Mark travels with the girls to Abbeville and after everyone but Joanna and him catches chickenpox, the two go on alone together southwards. Mark tries repeatedly to ditch Joanna, but she stays with him. She finally tells Mark she loves him, and they spend the night together. Eventually they arrive at the Mediterranean where they stay in cheap hotels and spend their days at the beach. At the end of their week together, Mark asks Joanna to marry him. The second trip is in 1957: the Wallaces have been married two years. On this trip, they travel with an American family in a 1957 Ford County Squire. The family consists of Mark’s former girlfriend from the University of Chicago, Cathy Seligman (Eleanor Bron), her husband Howard Maxwell-Manchester (William Daniels) and their spoiled little daughter Ruthie (Gabrielle Middleton). The relationship between the Wallaces and Maxwell-Manchesters is strained mainly because of Ruthie’s bad behaviour. After Ruthie says out loud in the car that Cathy called Joanna a suburban English nobody, Mark and Joanna leave the Maxwell-Manchesters and continue travelling by themselves. The third trip takes place in June 1959: the Wallaces travel for the first time on their own as a married couple, driving a rundown 1950 MG TC. This is the happiest of the couple’s trips in France. Along the way, Joanna announces that she is pregnant. After the MG catches fire while driving, the Wallaces pull into a luxury hotel, the Domaine Saint-Just. They spend one night at the hotel and in the morning push the burnt-out car away. On the road, they are picked up in a 1955 Bentley S1 by a wealthy couple who were staying at the same hotel. The couple, Maurice Dalbret and his wife Francoise (Nadia Gray), mention that they need an architect and when they find out that this is Mark’s profession, ask if he would help them. The Wallaces travel south with the Dalbrets and stay at the latter’s villa in Ramatuelle, where Maurice gives Mark the details of the project and introduces him to his Greek partner, Nikos Palamos (Mario Verdon). At the end of the trip Maurice hires Mark to work for him. Sometime after the birth of the Wallaces’ daughter, Mark travels alone to France in a red 1961 Triumph Herald … At least you’re not a bad-tempered, disorganized, conceited failure anymore. You’re a bad-tempered, disorganised, conceited success.The short version? Architect Albert Finney is on a road trip to Saint Tropez with wife Audrey Hepburn to meet a wealthy client. On the way, they reflect on their relationship, how they met, their marriage and the possibility of splitting up for good. Who was it said every road movie was an emotional journey? And this Frederic Raphael screenplay directed by Stanley Donen is all that, and more besides, influenced as it was by the work of French auteurs, chiefly Alain Resnais, whose non-linear mosaic-like approach also had its effect on Nicolas Roeg. So the contemporary scenes are juxtaposed variously with scenes from alternating phases in their 12-year long relationship, all emblemised by different models of  (enviable!) cars, tracking the improvement of their circumstances (and representing the timeline visually), to great effect. The leads are as magnificent as you’d expect (Hepburn was not even wearing Givenchy, shock horror!) but picked up Mary Quant and Paco Rabanne outfits off the rack instead and it really is as magical as you’d want for a film that sends them towards the glorious Med as their marriage spirals up and down. It’s a daring film for its time with adult themes, realistic depiction of the banality of marriage and brilliant locations for the armchair francophile. It probably helped that Finney and Hepburn had a very close relationship throughout production. Extraordinary photography by Christopher Challis, a great score (and song) by Henry Mancini and a notable titles sequence by Maurice Binder distinguish this mid-Sixties gem. A wonderful meshing of talents, this was the final of the three films Hepburn and Donen made together after Funny Face and Charade and it’s not remembered as well as it deserves to be. And for talent-spotters of that era, it’s lovely to see Nadia Gray, Jacqueline Bisset and Olga-Georges Picot in the ensemble. What kind of people just sit like that without a word to say to each other?/Married people

Funny Face (1957)

Now when I say Go, walk down with fire in your eyes and murder on your mind. New York City. Fashion magazine publisher Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) who edits Quality magazine, is looking for the next big fashion trend. She wants a new look which is to be both beautiful and intellectual. She and top fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) want models who can think as well as they look. The two brainstorm and come up with the idea to use a Greenwich Village book store as backdrop. They find what they want in Embryo Concepts, which is run by the shy shop assistant and amateur philosopher, Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn). Jo thinks the fashion and modelling industry is nonsense. Maggie decides to use Jo but after the first shot Jo is locked outside to keep her from interrupting Maggie’s take-over of the shop. The crew leaves the store in a shambles; Dick stays behind to help clean up and apologises to Jo, then kisses her impulsively. Jo dismisses him, but she feels the stirrings of romance. What Jo wants above all is to go to Paris and attend the famous Professor Émile Flostre’s (Michel Auclair) philosophy lectures about empathicalism. When Dick gets back to the darkroom, he sees something in Jo’s face which is new and fresh and would be perfect for the campaign, giving it character, spirit and intelligence. They send for Jo, pretending they want to order some books from her shop. Once she arrives, they try to make her over and attempt to cut her hair. She is outraged and runs away, only to hide in the darkroom where Dick is working. When Dick mentions Paris, Jo becomes interested in the chance to see Professor Flostre and is finally persuaded to model for the magazine… Every girl on every page of Quality has grace, elegance, and pizzazz. Now, what’s wrong with bringing out a girl who has character, spirit, and intelligence?/That certainly would be novel in a fashion magazine. The bookshop assistant who’s picked out to model by the world’s leading fashion photographer and uses a trip to the City of Light to try out her belief in empathicalism. Charm, wit, style, panache – and that’s just the costumes. Acting by Hepburn and Astaire, direction by Donen, photos by Avedon, humour by Kay Thompson, clothes by Givenchy. music by Gershwin. An MGM musical in all but name (in fact they all went to Paramount.) City by Paris. What more could you possibly want? ‘Smarvellous. Written by Leonard Gershe. Livin’ is easy. Livin’ is high. All good Americans should come here to die

Arabesque (1966)

There’s nothing like a little kidnapping now and then to keep the circulation going. When a plot against a prominent Middle Eastern politician is uncovered, David Pollock (Gregory Peck), a professor of ancient Arab hieroglyphics at Oxford University, is recruited to help expose the scheme. Pollock must find information believed to be in hieroglyphic code and must also contend with a mysterious man called Beshraavi (Alan Badel). Meanwhile, Beshraavi’s stunningly beautiful lover, Yasmin Azir (Sophia Loren), seems willing to aid Pollock – but is she really on his side? … Follow that car!/All my life I have waited for someone to say that! Pollock was a role conceived for Cary Grant after Charade, but he was retiring and it went to Gregory Peck instead and a huge amount was spent on rewrites – utilising the talents of Pierre Marton aka Peter Stone (and Julian Mitchell and Stanley Price) once again but even he can’t make Peck deliver humour like Grant and Peck never finds that sweet spot between danger and jokes that Grant made his own in North By Northwest. The beautiful woman this time is the awesome Loren who is the mistress of Badel and she plays it like a bewitching basilisk. Since it’s Peter Stone – a writer who is terrific at issues of identity and suspense – there is cross and double cross and code and it’s espionage so there’s tension to burn if you can decipher the plot. It really is quite a lot of hieroglyphics but it’s also one of the most incredibly lovely films ever shot, with the glory going to British cinematographer Christopher Challis who gives great colour and there are lots of wacky angles a la the mod style of the era, supposedly to camouflage the production issues. This is like a recurring dream I used to have. If you hate going to the optician best avoid the first ten minutes. It’s the last film of John Merivale, Vivien Leigh’s last companion, and the debut of legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong. There’s another fabulous titles sequence by Maurice Binder and it’s scored by Henry Mancini with some interesting sax and trombone work. Gorgeous entertainment directed by the inimitable Stanley Donen around Oxford, Ascot, Carlton Gardens, Regent’s Park, Trafalgar Square, Gatwick, Waterloo, Eton, London Zoo, Caerphilly and Berkshire. Boy, every time I try to listen to you someone either hits me over the head or tries to vaccinate me

Charade (1963)

One of the great entertainments, from the pen of Peter Stone (aka Pierre Marton – get it?!) with a story by him and Marc Behm, and directed by the estimable Stanley Donen. Audrey is the befuddled widow whose husband turns out to have been in on a wartime heist and she’s expected to know where he stashed the loot; Cary’s the guy from the US embassy keen to help her out … or is he? With hubby’s ex-gang after her for the money, nobody is who they seem in this play on identity, a pastiche of thriller tropes that is betimes gleefully black – George Kennedy’s hook for a hand lends itself to a lot of interesting outcomes! Walter Matthau is brilliantly cast as the CIA man. Great romance, wonderful locations in Paris and Megeve, incredible stars and extremely slickly done. This is pure Hitchcockian enjoyment with the difference being that the gender roles are switched and we care about the McGuffin. On a meta level, the use of names is particular to people on the production – eg Cary is called Peter Joshua after Stanley Donen’s sons. Stone plays the man in the elevator, Jim Clark edits and Charles Lang does the incredible cinematography. Audrey is dressed by Hubert de Givenchy – qui d’autre?!  For lovers of Paris you get a travelogue of practically everything you want to see – the Comedie Francaise, the Eiffel Tower, Les Halles, the Theatre de Guignol … Watch for that classic titles sequence by Maurice Binder and music by Henry Mancini. This came out the week after JFK was assassinated so maybe its humour wasn’t loved that winter, but it’s going with me on that desert island for sure. Totally delightful.

Indiscreet (1958)

Delightfully spry adult comedy about a famous actress having an affair with an apparently married economist. This adaptation of Norman Krasna’s play (by the man himself, a prolific screenwriter) is an elegant and sexy drawing room comedy reuniting the stars

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from Hitchcock’s great S&M outing, Notorious, after 12 years. Everything about Stanley Donen’s direction is well judged – including the use of split screen for the couple’s late night phonecalls: watch their hands!!! Wonderfully atmospheric location shooting in foggy London is matched by the lush interiors of Bergman’s flat – this is what made me want to live exactly like her!