Squeaking and sqawking with the animals

Posted by Lance Mannion
June 26, 2008

Our Wednesday Night at the Movies open thread on Doctor Dolittle is now open. Come on in. Watch where you step though. Lots of animals here. They can talk, they can cook, they can help sail a ship, but they can lift a shovel or push a broom and clean up after themselves.Go ahead and get started. Please, type in human. No typing in chimpanzee. Unless there are a hundred chimps here who have been typing for almost a million years already and are about to turn out Hamlet.

Here’s a few notes from the Self-Styled Siren:

…while it’s the worst of the nominees for 1967’s Best Picture Oscar, it still provides Mark Harris with the best parts of Pictures at a Revolution. The Siren was glued to the book in general but Doctor Dolittle, like all disasters, makes brilliantly good copy–from the tons of shit produced by the animals, to the choice of the rainiest village in England for a location, to Rex Harrison’s lord-of-the-manor racism and ability to be a towering prick to all who encountered him, to Harrison’s wife Rachel Roberts and her alcoholic benders that even appalled Richard Burton. There aren’t many movie books that can make the Siren shriek out loud on the subway but Harris’s did, and it was a Doctor Dolittle part that done it. This legendary turkey does need to be seen at least once. Like it (does anyone love it?) or hate it, Doctor Dolittle embodies a type of moviemaking that’s as dead as the dodo. I’m willing to bet you will at least appreciate the scale and scope of the movie, in those wonderful days before CGI came along to annoy the bejesus out of us. And if you are a Netflix subscriber, it’s available for instant viewing.

I don’t know why there’s so much blank space below. Comments here.

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Information: June 26th, 2008; Comments

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Other Posts: I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Any More; or, A Couple of Old Farts Sitting Around Commenting; George Carlin Was A Liberal

Viewing 107 Comments

HenryFTP 2 years ago 1 point
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I think Mary Poppins isn't quite as unfaithful to the books as we remember it -- from childhood, I remember it as saccharine-sweet and Van Dyke godawful (why Disney thought they needed a token American when the film was already irretrievably British with Julie Andrews, David Tomlinson, and Glynis Johns, goodness knows). But screening it again as a parent I was really struck by how hard Andrews tried to darken the characterization -- somehow, I think many of us blend her Mary Poppins into her Maria von Trapp (I plead guilty to that anyway), and they're really very different. The other factor is the score by the Shermans, which buzzes through your head even when you wish it didn't, and also lightens up the shadows in the film -- particularly the "Every Day's a Holiday" number, where they make Andrews break character.

Somewhere later in life Rex Harrison acquired a more avuncular image, but there is little doubt from his best performances (Unfaithfully Yours, Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Higgins) that he wonderfully satirizes male narcissism, and it's not just acting. To dump Lilli Palmer and end up with Rachel Roberts, that's got to tell you something about the man.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Henry, it really was Julie Andrews' greatest role, I think - Sound of Music be damned. And I add that the fact that my kids (the youngest born in 1992) are huge Julie Andrews fans because of Poppins just bolsters that claim - the thing holds up.

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HenryFTP 2 years ago 1 point
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And the really cool thing is that the kids are now old enough for Victor, Victoria!

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Dan Leo 2 years ago 1 point
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Picking up on one the the off-topic subjects, namely the magnificent Oliver Reed, I was remembering a notorious appearance of his on Johnny Carson, and damn if I didn't find it on Youtube:

Enjoy.

I love Youtube.

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nycweboy 2 years ago 2 points
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Well, I finally did my part to get to one of these... and everyone's gone to bed. :)

To the extent that I care about sixties films - and largely I don't - I find the dichotomies of the period fascinating. The "new realism", the bloated overlong establishment pictures (I mean, Dolittle's got nothing on the huge bloated hash of Hello Dolly, or Cleopatra... it's actually kind of small in that league)... the schizophrenic nature of the era still leaves me reeling.

Siren mentions the whole question of bloated sixties musicals, and mentions Star!, which I happen to own, mostly for that giant, strange number in which everything is like a circus of trapezes and tightropes and it's a Noel Coward song, I think, or a Gershwin one, and it's lovely, and Andrews, God love her, makes it work (which, along with having seen Darling Lili and the famous breast baring, leads right to SOB). I'm meandering, but it's the very idea of Dolittle as a musical that's so gobsmackingly obtuse... really, who thought a string of patter songs was a good idea? And just how did this build on anything Harrison achieved in My Fair Lady (which, by the way, is its own bloated mess... but never mind)? And Leslie Bricusse??? Seriously???

Yet, there it is, trundling along at a snail's pace, full of amazingly stupid, offensive (Geoffrey Holder! Jesus!) images, never ending... and there it sits, with multiple Oscar nods because... it's big, it's studio... and they have clout. One could, I suppose, generously argue that Fleischer's done as much as he could with the fantasy elements (though, God knows, this film actually has me reconsidering Eddie Murphy's version, CGI and "human talk" animals and all... it's genius compared to the original, I now see). for that period, but... that's about it.

And by the way, Newley is fabulously miscast - that drunken Irishman on the make thing he's got going is fabulously inappropriate from minute 1 (or is it minute 10, given the bloated credit sequence), and never gets any better. And as much as I can imagine what a cocktail party the set was (what intrigues me about the Rachel Roberts tale is not her crazy behavior but that she's alienating Tennessee Williams!), that's cold comfort for having that film inflicted on me. Ouch it smarts. :)

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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And just how did this build on anything Harrison achieved in My Fair Lady

nycweboy, you've hit on something that bothered me throughout the parts of Harris' book on Doctor Dolittle. Why did they keep Harrison? What had them convinced that audiences were clamoring for more of his brand of frigid Englishman? It was as if they were building Doctor Dolittle from a kit and a Rex Harrison was something the instruction manual told them was essential. It struck me that although the movie flopped that kind of thinking about how to make a hit movie---pick any five recent hits, take an element from each, this star, that rising starlet, this plot element, that screenwriter---has triumphed to the point that it's become the way most movies are made today. Why else does Matthew McConnaghey have any sort of a career?

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nycweboy 2 years ago 1 point
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It struck me that although the movie flopped that kind of thinking about how to make a hit movie---pick any five recent hits, take an element from each, this star, that rising starlet, this plot element, that screenwriter---has triumphed to the point that it's become the way most movies are made today.

Well, yes and no - I think to that extent you hit on what's so bad about the big sixties studio pics: no one seems to actually know how to combine elements that actually should be combined (isn't that, really, what you get once Robert Evans and crew take over Paramount? People who actually seem to understand how to package big projects?). Things may be cookie cutter and assembly line these days... but it's not like you have a string of musicals that no one wants to see like they did then (and really, Dolly+Star+On A Clear Day + Dolittle+ Oliver=...no studio musicals for close to twenty years). Even if you argue that it's the comic book movies and the "tent poles" of summer... it seems to me there's a lot they're doing that's better.

And just to follow that point through... really, what did Harrison bring to the screen, ever? I mean yes, McConaghey has his problems, but he is drop dead gorgeous and he's at least charming (I'd point out that Failure To Launch is a better romantic comedy than people give him credit for, and he's really carrying the picture). His problem seems to be choosing bad scripts. Harrison and "appealing" and "box office"? Who ever put those together? I mean, the sixties is chock full of head-scratching choices - set aside the "camp treat" it's become and explain to me who thought that version of Valley of the Dolls was ever worth pursuing - and bizarre castings that are hard to find in modern parallel, when the big problem is casting 22 year olds to play 40. In the old days, after all, wouldn't Meg Ryan still be making romances in her forties, shot through linoleum, pretending to still be a dewy 25 (isn't that what makes her our Doris Day)? Instead she's practically playing grandmothers at 45 (i'm stepping away from the part where she has life threatening surgery to look especially youthful).

I'm leery of saying "everything's just gotten worse" when really, compared to the schizo sixties, we get a lot better, and better made, product these days. Which is proof, I suppose, that it actually could be worse.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Well, I did my best by the Doctor but now it's time to turn in. Night, all. Don't forget to feed the animals, if you've got 'em.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Goodnight C, thanks for trying.

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buttermilk_sky 2 years ago 2 points
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I'm intrigued by the idea of Flanders & Swann being approached for the score (at Harrison's insistence). They wrote charming animal songs but never anything resembling a musical comedy score. I hope they made some money anyway, like Christopher Plummer. Harris says he made a bundle just for signing a contract to play Dolittle, without straying from the Broadway theatre where he was working.

Harris's book is about old and new Hollywood confronting each other, right? Well, Jack Warner was dead wrong about "Bonnie and Clyde," but Darryl Zanuck wrote a long memo warning of all the things that could go wrong, and the only thing he missed was the dysentery outbreak in St. Lucia. Old isn't necessarily wrong.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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What was fascinating to me as I read Harris' book was how it was clear Dolittle was going to be a disaster from the very beginning and fate kept handing the younger Zanuck chances to back out or shut down at every turn. I kept screaming in my head, Don't do it! Quit now! Let it go! But they kept at it, knowing they were headed off a cliff.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Yep, Zanuck nailed that one. All the moguls had their moments of hubris but Zanuck was, in this instance, as trustworthy as the world almanac (to steal a line from a picture he produced).

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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After Mary Poppins was there a single well-made musical in the decade? A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum almost seems like another kind of movie.

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klg19 2 years ago 1 point
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"Oliver!"

My family went to see that film, and then went again the next week. My father's idea, and completely unprecented. A great movie musical.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I'd say "Babs," but that's too easy.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Think about Hello, Dolly. Great show. Gene Kelly's directing. What could go wrong?

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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klg,

I never read the Travers books when I was a kid. I read them for the first time when my kids were little. I was stunned by the difference between the Poppins of the books and Julie Andrews. I'm not sure if you could get away with a movie version that was faithful to the books.

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klg19 2 years ago 1 point
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No, I don't think you could. Not for an American audience, anyway. "Nanny McPhee" came close, but still needed to make McPhee loveable by the end.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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All the Poppins books were reissued in very nice paperback editions about 10 years ago. They're still in print. So I guess American kids are still reading them.

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klg19 2 years ago 1 point
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Yes, I bought those editions for my nephews.

Of course, the story "Bad Tuesday," in the first book, was rewritten by Travers in the 1970s, replacing the racist stereotypes with animals. So the purist needs to buy the earlier editions.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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I've always heard there's a huge difference but I never read the books. Is Mary Poppins scary in the books?

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klg19 2 years ago 1 point
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Not so much scary, as intimidating.

I don't know what the books are like if read for the first time as an adult. But I first read them when I was in the single digits, and they became sacred texts of escape for me. Clearly, no movie version would have made me happy, but making them sappy and cheerful was not likely to make me happy.

And they're very, very English.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I wouldn't say she's scary. But she's definitely weird, and I mean weird as in wyrd.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Wait. I'm not remembering it right. Sound of Music. Was that before or after Mary Poppins?

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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MP was '64
SOM '65
Oliver '68

In my book, Poppins is the class of that lineup....but it's probably a minority view.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Poppins is well-nigh perfect.

It's the best cartoon Disney turned out in the 60s too, and I'm not talking about the dancing penquins part.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Aside from the leads, it was David Tomlinson's flick - what a turn!!

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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My world was calm, well ordered, exemplary
Then came this person, with chaos in her wake
And now my life's ambitions go with one fell blow
It's quite a bitter pill to take

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Or his blustering soliloquy in song about English manhood as his household falls apart around him: "King Edward's on the throne and it's the age of men." Foreshadowing there of the disaster of war, the new century, too. Oh, it's a great role.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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A man has dreams of walking with giants
To carve his niche in the edifice of time
Before the mortar of his zeal
Has a chance to congeal
The cup is dashed from his lips
The flame is snuffed aborning
He's brought to rack and ruin in his prime

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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And that lonely walk he takes down Cherry Tree Lane when he knows he's heading out to get fired....breaks my heart.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I love his duet with Van Dyke after the sweeps leave.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I should say, Mary Poppins was practically perfect, in every way.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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no, I would agree and so would most critics I think. Poppins is supremely well done even if it has nothing to do with Travers' books.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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God, I love Mary Poppins - we've gone from VHS tape through two DVDs with my kids....and they still like it.

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klg19 2 years ago 1 point
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God, I hate "Mary Poppins." I grew up reading the original books, and the film simply destroys them.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Yeah it may, but I'm a sucker for it - even Dick Van Dyke's phony accent...

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Even now Doctor Dolittle does not seem to be packing them in. I tried my best. Maybe I should have mentioned the bassett hound in my teaser post. Killer stuff, that.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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NYCweboy promised he'd watch and come over and take part. Maybe that pink snail turned his stomach so much he had to give it up.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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There are lurkers, I can feel them...

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taoneill 2 years ago 1 point
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I am a lurker, usually. What I would like to know is how it got a nomination for best picture.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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taoneiill,

I think the studio just went out and bought it.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Fox had a lot of Academy voters on its payroll. They also arranged a lot of screenings, promising dinner and champagne.

which reminds me of Lance's post on how the press corps loves McCain because his campaign runs an open bar ...

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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That's what we need here! An open bar!

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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**raises her wineglass to Mannion**

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I know, I know. White wine for the Siren.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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We do need a bar

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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**imagining Tom as the Childcatcher -- "I can smell them"**

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Anybody here reading Nixonland? I'm just in the riots of '67 section, and it's fascinating - quite the contrast the march of popular culture like our beloved Dr. D. What a year, perhaps that's why Dolittle stands out to clearly from the other nominees of '67 - sure it's a clunker, but it's also way out of step with what was happening, a fantasy is year of reality.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Yes, I am reading it too. That kind of escapism can work well -- look at Oliver!, which won the following year -- but Dolittle was a fantasy nobody was buying. Oliver! has energy that Dolittle doesn't.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Ok, C.

Oliver Reed or Anthony Newley?

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Oh Reed, definitely.

According to Joan Collins, Newley could give Reed a run for his money in the ladies' man department, but Reed nonetheless. Those hooded eyes and that marvelous silky voice.

He's absolutely terrifying as Bill Sykes and is much closer to Dickens than just about anything else in the entire movie. It's like he's the only actor who's read the book.

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klg19 2 years ago 1 point
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Good heavens, Reed by a country mile! He was just insanely sexy. Those eyes, as the Siren points out. That voice, low enough to draw you in closer. You never had to winder why Nancy stayed with Bill, despite his brutality. He's amazing in "The Assassination Bureau," too.

Of course, he didn't age well. But in his prime? Makes the backs of my knees sweat.

Whereas Newley's appeal, for me, was completely ruined by his singing, which I always founfd really off-putting.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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To combine the subjects of Newley and movie musicals based on Dickens, didn't Newley star in a musical version of The Old Curiosity Shop?

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Yep. Thank you once again, imdb. It was called Quilp! Anybody ever see it?

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Here's the imdb link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073480/

Some intriguing pictures of Newley as Quilp.

Had a good cast. David Warner as Sampson Brass was a good choice. Michael Horden as Nell's grandfather also good. David Hemmings was a little too old for Dick Swiveller at that point though.

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taoneill 2 years ago 1 point
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1975 - it must have been awful.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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I am about to turn in, but I have to applaud you for also knowing and loving The Assassination Bureau. Very sexy movie and a lot of fun.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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The Assassination Bureau's been rising in my netflix queue. I can't wait. I'll let you know when it's about to ship.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Menace! That's what's missing from Dolittle. There's a lot of plot but now threat!

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Oh that snail! That snail! That damn-ed snail! From hell's mouth I spit at that snail!

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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you're right, there's no sense of urgency at all. WHY does he want the damn snail? He just does. That may work for an everest expedition but it's a piss-poor plot engine for a children's movie.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I can't really remember, but I'm convinced it was that snail that made me refuse to go to the movie. My parents wanted to take me and I just wouldn't go.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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I think they should have done Bleak House instead...

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Yeah, Lady Dedlock's swan song at the gate of the cemetery where Nemo's buried would have brought the house down.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Exactly, an up tempo number to get the kids dancing....

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I think Ron Moody read the book. He has moments where he seems to be winking at the audience, as if to say, You know this isn't what Fagin's really like, don't you?

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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There's your doing more with less, C.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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I forgot about Oliver!

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taoneill 2 years ago 1 point
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I watched it for the first time last week and thought it was very condescending, even for the times.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Oliver, or Dolittle?

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taoneill 2 years ago 1 point
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Doolittle. Oliver was at least fun.

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taoneill 2 years ago 1 point
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As I remember 1967, people were caught unawares by the Vietnam war and the riots. If this movie was planned in the mid-60s, it would fit in with the unrealistic mindset of the time.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Hey Lance, suggest you drop some of your longer post along with Siren quote above for any newcomers or late arrivals....that was good fodder.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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I did find a couple of youtube clips:

Dr. Dolittle trailer
Anthony Newly sings
More Newly, with a Miss Eggar

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Harrison's unpleasantness always came through on the screen. I know why they wanted him to star in their movie, but really he's a very poor choice for the benevolent Doctor Dolittle.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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They just figure Mary Poppins was based a popular series of British children's books so all we need is another popular series of British children's books and we're golden?

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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I completely agree, and that's why his successful roles play off that nastiness beneath the debonair exterior: My Fair Lady, The Ghost and Mrs Muir (his best movie role), Unfaithfully Yours, Caesar in Cleopatra.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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What I wondered about is how the producers settled on Doctor Dolittle of all books to turn into their---what did Harris say they called these big blockbuster movies with intermissions?

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Roadshow. They also had overtures and music to play as you exited.

The credits were very good, I must say. My kids probably liked those best.

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klg19 2 years ago 2 points
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"Caesar in Cleopatra"?? Wow. No wonder they called him Sexy Rexy.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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readit "the movie Cleopatra." Smart aleck. I'll fix. :)

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klg19 2 years ago 2 points
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Hee. Sorry.

So, I"ve just watched Tom's YouTube Parade o' Doolittle...well, I lie. I watched the first two, and the whimsy was so thick it glopped all over me and left me a little queasy. So I stopped. But the Siren's dead right (as always) about the windowpane pants--Newley is going with Stage Irishman, which is just beyond perplexing for 1967. It's like he had no idea where the culture had already gone. Well, he and/or Fleischer.

The trailer is bizarre; it would never have made me want to see this. Which, apparently, was the effect on my parents, since they didn't take me to it (I was 8 or 9 at the time, so right in the target age range). Oddly, we DID all go to "Oliver!" a few years later, which was enormously more successful--I mean aesthetically, not financially, but then I don't know the numbers for either film.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Oliver was the winner the very next year. I am fond of Oliver, the score is great for a kid. It did very well at the box office as I recall.

I saw Dolittle as a kid when it aired on television in the 70s and quite liked it. When I re-watch it I am still impressed by the scale and beauty of the thing. God it's wonderful to have real people in crowd scenes. But it's pretty bad. It lurches to life in the occasional musical number but it's mostly pretty bad.

One thing I noticed, which may seem bizarre, but -- you can tell the actors can't stand the animals. No chemistry at all. You can see them dying to rush off the set and get away from them.

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klg19 2 years ago 1 point
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Gosh, Siren, you're right--it WAS just a year later! I had no idea--for some reason I thought it came much later. It's such an anomalous sort of film for the period, isn't it?

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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There must have been a stink on the soundstage....

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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oh there WAS! did you read the Harris book? They had to hose things down at the end of the day. and the animals were barely trained and kept biting everybody. And the rhino got pneumonia ... and there was the time they had to get the squirrel drunk to get a certain shot. PETA would have had a cow.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Nope not yet, it's on the pile - hey did you notice it's for sale in the right column? Featured book at newcritics...

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Wasn't there talk of signing Cary Grant for the part? I'm not sure if that would have helped.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Can't remember but Grant was firmly retired at that point. And allergic to musicals. Grant was definitely considered for HIggins but turned it down.

What would have helped was a more modest running time and scale. There's all that exposition at the beginning and it's just deadly. But Fox was determined to have a roadshow engagement which required a certain running time (over two hours if I recall).

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Perhaps not, but he did wonders in the animal like in Bringing Up Baby

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Sounds like Nichol Williamson went to the Harrison school of acting.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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I just saw a Columbo with Nicol Williamson and he was, dare I say it, relatively subtle. And American-accented.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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It's been a while since I've seen it, but in My Fair Lady there are times when I'm convinced he hated Audrey Hepburn.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 2 points
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I wouldn't be surprised if he did. He was intensely competitive and a supremely ungenerous actor, famous for petty tricks. In the stage My Fair Lady, one of Julie's big numbers, Without You, used to bring down the house, until he started stepping on her ovation by coming in with a big laugh and line that cut it right off. He does the exact same thing in the movie, by then it was probably ingrained habit.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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So explains his success? It's not like he had a Brando-like presence to make up for a Brando-like surliness

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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He did have superb comic timing and was very handsome in his youth.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Lance, you need to write more to fill out the page design!

Seriously, I have not seen this movie since 1967. But...well...if I could walk with the animals....

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Tom, what's going on here? Aren't we allowed to write short, ever? How does Bob Stein get away with it? Does he have special privleges?

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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Well, he's Bob Stein....

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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how old were you? did you like it?

I tried to show it to two five-year-olds this afternoon. The boy lasted through the first number and then started building a Lego man. The girl fell asleep during "Talk to the Animals." I think the movie's major problem is length.

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tomwatson 2 years ago 1 point
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I was 5 and the venue was a drive-in - I enjoyed it, save the songs.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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Just to get things started with a bang, here's Richard Burton after a fun filled evening with Rex Harrison and his wife, Rachel Roberts:

During one long evening at the Burtons', Roberts sent their guests Tennesse Williams and director Joseph Losey running for the door when, in Burton's words, "she insulted Rex sexually, morally, physically...lay on the floor in the bar and barked like a dog...started to masturbate her bassett hound."

This was the part that had me shrieking on the subway, it will surprise no one to hear.

Harrison was a supremely unpleasant man and yet he took all this insanity from Roberts for years...

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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Ok, I'll start. Anthony Newley's pants. What was up with that?

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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um, which aspect of his pants? given my starter post below this is an unfortunate juxtaposition. Children's film, remember Lance.

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Mannion 2 years ago 1 point
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The window pane plaid.

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Campaspe 2 years ago 1 point
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His whole vibe was very music-hall to me and I think maybe that was supposed to be part of it. Re-watching the first half today I was struck by how sexy Newley was, compared to the icy Harrison, but how awful all that phony stage-Oirishy stuff was. "He understands the Irish, and any man that can understand the Irish ..." oh barf. Plenty of people understand the Irish. Joyce comes to mind.

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