• Based on Volpone (in the text all over the place) from Ben Johnson—a play in the 17th century. It’s witty. Definitely feels like Agatha Christie or Charlie Chan (in the text as well) or even Perry Mason (also in the text shown at a home in Italy in a funny scene).
  • It’s a talented cast- but it is Rex Harrison’s show. He’s perfectly cast as the rich, dirty old man (“She was like a combination of a 17 year old Venus and giant squid—she wore me out”) with lines like “I know money… and there’s never enough”
  • I think it would also go onto influence Sleuth and Deathtrap- especially in the 1 on 1 Cliff Robertson vs. Harrison scenes (and they have strong chemistry). All of these films feel stage-bound and so does this. It makes you marvel at something like Inarritu’s Birdman even more.
  • It was cut from 151 to 132 minutes but it’s still too long. It was never going to transcend the “Recommend” grade/evaluation but still.
  • Hayward is doing a Liz Taylor southern dynamo from like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  • Very Lion in Winter where the film is really a series of conversations with two people in a room at a time—the writing and performances not on that level
  • There’s a long scene (with Robertson and Maggie Smith) where it drags—the film needs Harrison to carry it
  • Its fringe-archiveable and must have seen ancient in 1967 in comparison with The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde
  • Ends poorly with the us cheaply going to Smith’s inner monologue voice-over and then to Harrison’s voice-over posthumously
  • Recommend