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THE PROS AND THE MOXIE Peter O’Toole and Siân Phillips (the ex-Mrs. O’Toole) are consummate pros in the atrociously scored Goodbye, Mr. Chips. You know going in not to worry—they’re not going to embarrass themselves or us. Transcending the James Hilton school days material, O’Toole gets better and more moving by the minute, and Siân went on to win the National Society of Film Critics honor as best supporting actress for a flawless delivery of a British Auntie Mame type. It’s Petula Clark who is a super-pleasant surprise. When we hear her singing for the first time, in a London musical comedy, our fears aren’t yet calmed. Her voice is unmistakably 60s British pop—what we’re listening to is Vaudeville with shades of “Downtown.” However, in the pitifully few numbers in which she actually vocalizes in front of us (instead of offscreen), she’s got real moxie. Taking a while before we get passed the discomfort she’s a cross between Julie Andrews out of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Millicent Martin, she becomes immensely appealing and we like how she sizes up how far she can go to breach the rules of English formality. Unfortunately, the musical’s love theme—“You and I”—is the only decent song from Leslie Bricusse she’s given and wouldn’t you know it, the damned director Herbert Ross traps her on a confining stairwell to warble it. She’s not even permitted to give the song’s hook a deserving encore. (Click at the left to hear Shirley Bassey’s version to feel the number’s possibilities.) In order to justify a roadshow presentation, the movie’s been elongated—primarily by way of picturesque walks among ruins, though Oswald Morris’s camera makes them pleasing enough. The most regrettable mistake is Siân’s Ursula, a character neither in the original story nor the 1939 movie version with Robert Donat, not expanded to give the audience not only an antidote to withstand the rotting score but also as chief commiserator when O’Toole’s Chips suffers the story’s sacrifice. Not much of major significance has come from Petula after this picture—she played Norma Desmond in the pop opera Sunset Boulevard on stage for a while—but Siân went on to make television history as one of its greatest murderous mothers in I, Claudius. Panavision, with 70mm blow up. (Opened 11/13/1969 at the Michael Todd, running 15 weeks.) Oscar nominations: best actor, best musical score original or adaptation. ROLL OVER IMAGE (Title from trailer.)
Text COPYRIGHT © 2002 RALPH BENNER All Rights Reserved. |
