Wednesday 15 November 2023

Hotel Paradiso (1965, rel. 1966 Peter Glenville, & co-scr, prod)

Based on a play by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières, adapted by Glenville and Jean-Claude Carrière (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois and other Buñuels, 151 credits on IMDB!) One of those French bedroom comedies in which everyone's in the wrong room sort of thing - not a great idea in 1965, I would have thought. (Indeed not really any time since the 1920s - though I can see fifties British audiences would have had a titter. In fact I see Glenville had staged it originally for the West End - with Alec Guinness - in 1956 and it was a hit. So those ten years made all the difference.)

Still, an intriguing cast led by a sparkly Guinness; with Gina Lollabrigida, Robert Morley, Peggy Mount, Duggie Byng, David Battley, Derek Fowlds, Ann Beach (probably familiar from TV), Akim Tamiroff and (fleetingly) Leonard Rossiter.

Laurence Rosenthal's music keeps it on a frantic pace - it's exhausting. Quite fun though, edited by Anne Coates, photographed quite high key by Henri Decae at a private Paris villa and on Franstudio, Paris sets.


Fowlds on the left

L to R: Ann Beach, Guinness, Peggy Mount, Leonard Rossiter

Jonathan Bates is the sound editor.

An MGM release, which 'fell flat on screen' (The MGM Story).


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