Fresh and Exciting

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

After Omar Sharif died a few months ago, I had a jones to see one of his movies and when I looked his name up on Netflix, I decided on this one for the DVD rental. It had three segments-all involving the title vehicle. First one starred Rex Harrison and Jeanne Moreau as a British married couple who rarely saw each other though this particular day was supposed to solve all that. I'll just say one of them is revealed to be a cheater and leave it at that. Second one stars George C. Scott, Art Carney, Shirley MacLaine, and Alain Delon. Shirley's a moll of gangster Scott who temporarily leaves Italy to do some "business" in America leaving her to find her own fun with either Carney or Delon. Third segment has Sharif and Ingrid Bergman encountering each other at the outbreak of World War II. I'll stop there and just say that the first segment was okay for its short length, the second was pretty amusing when MacLaine was being ignorant of culture before growing up a bit. Pretty touching the way it ended if also sad. The last one was the most fun for me especially when Ms. Bergman was driving the title vehicle! Mom and I managed to very much enjoy this movie as it kept going on. So on that note, The Yellow Rolls-Royce is worth a look.

What a visual treat to see the scenery of Europe, along with the acting talents of some of my very favorite performers! Three couples own a fabulous car over a period of years, each with a story worth telling. Rex Harrison presents a touching, surprisingly sympathetic husband who loves his wife too much. Jeanne Moreau is the cheating wife, probably the weakest female of the three. In act two, Shirley MacLaine shines as the gangster moll with a heart, who falls in love with the impossibly gorgeous Alain Delon. George C. Scott plays a part totally unlike any of his others, and Art Carney is a sweet cameo.I especially loved the final act of the trio, when aristocratic Ingrid Bergman, in a multi-layered performance, helps resistance fighter Omar Sharif (I could watch him brush his teeth for two hours!) transport his colleagues to safety in Yugoslavia during WWII. The car is almost a character in itself, as is Bergman's little dog, who plays her part with gusto. I especially loved the comedic moments so beautifully played by Ms. Bergman. She and Sharif make a gorgeous, sensitive couple, and are eye candy for those of us who love fanciful, impossible love affairs. A wonderful film for a rainy afternoon.

After the success of "The V.I.P.s" the year before, Anthony Asquith and Terence Rattigan are at it again with uneven results. The excuse this time is a Rolls Royce that passes hands from star to star. It is a formula used before many times, most successfully in Julian Duvivier's "Tales of Manhattan" in which a dinner jacket plays an important part in the destinies of Edward G Robinson, Charles Laughton, Henry Fonda and Paul Robson among others. More recently the formula was used by John Badham in his "The Gun" and then Martin Donovan in the lyrically powerful "Seeds of Tragedy" in which the Rolls Royce there is cocaine. Terence Rattigan was master at dialogue and his characters tended to move in confined spaces, take "Separated Tables" for instance. In "The Yellow Rolls Royce" we travel from England to Italy to Eastern Europe and the only confinement Rattigan finds for his characters is the interior of the luxury car. On the first segment, Rex Harrison and Jeanne Moreau show Rattigan at his best, they are great fun to watch. Harrison, playing a big shot at the foreign office, does wonderful things with Rattigan's words. On the second episode Shirley MacLaine and Art Cartney are lovely as a gangster's moll and her minder but the Italo-American gangster, as played by George C Scott, is so over the top that, practically, sinks the whole little segment. French star Alain Delon plays an Italian gigolo of sorts. He is beautiful to look at but hopeless at delivering Rattigan's lines. On the third episode Ingrid Bergman plays Ingrid Bergman, beautifully and Omar Shariff plays Omar Shariff, just as beautifully. Joyce Grenfell plays a cameo as Bergman's companion, as usually, when she's on, she steals the scene. As you may have gathered, this is the kind of picture that one would enjoy the most on a rainy Sunday afternoon. That in itself is a recommendation.

This movie presents three stories one after the other, as we follow the fortunes of the first and subsequent owners of the yellow Rolls of the title. First, Rex Harrison buys it as a present for his erring wife, Jeanne Moreau. She uses an anniversary party to flaunt her boyfriend, Edmund Purdom. The car then makes its way into the hands of Mafiosi George C Scott and his moll Shirley MacLaine. She falls for French photographer Alain Delon (and who can blame her?). Finally, the car plays its part in international politics when Ingrid Bergman and Omar Sharif take it on a rescue mission.Anthony Asquith's film survives because of its construction, using the car as a lynchpin for three very different stories, character combinations, and situations. The car remains the star (perhaps because of its colour) but there are enjoyable performances here too. It isn't a challenging or particularly exciting film, but helps to pass the time. Personally I find it a better British film centring on a car than the earlier Genevieve, but that might just be my own taste.