FILMS… The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964)

#1960s #AllPosts

 

When the back seat was a hotbed for three passionate love stories…

 

Firstly Rex Harrison is taken for a ride, then Shirley MacLaine puts the brakes on a relationship and finally, it’s driving shotgun with Ingrid Bergman.

 

Trailer Yellow Rolls Royce, 1964, @miRetroTV

 

Flashback with me to a few years ago to the time of my No True Scotsman Blogathon. I had a random discussion with another writer about Klaus Kinski. I learned that this actor with a distinctive German accent had previously channelled an Irish accent as he played Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald in Fitzcarraldo (1982). This film then was added to the watch pile, and it’s now nearer the top after reading more about this film’s behind the scenes stories at the Werner Herzog Exhibition in Berlin. 

So, I’ve still to see who did the Irish accent better, Kinski or Gerry Butler (see my PS I Love You rant HERE). I’m sure Kinski’s attempt can’t be as bad as Butler’s travesty of a try. Realistically, it’s only Sean Connery who uses his Scottish accent effectively in all his screen time and uses it even as an international character. But then Connery has much more presence and gravitas,  even compared to Gerry, who as our homeboy will readily – or try to –  trade in his perfectly good accent for a B movie.

In the movie, The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964), there is more of the same. As head to foot (?) in Ompa Loompa orange – unless my telly screen going wonky – is a French actor who usually looks a lot more peely wally (Scottish for pale) here playing an Italian gigolo. This actor’s accent wavers from good to bad like a Star Wars fan’s liking for the prequels. Not that I am complaining, as the regular reader will have spotted, this role is played by my no 1 crush – after Darlin Husband – and is the dreamy, Alain Delon. 

In addition, old spaniel eyes himself – and granny’s favourite – Egyptian Omar Sharif plays a Yugoslavian…  Here he’s using the same dulcet tones he used as a Russian character in The Tamarind Seed (1974). However, these are the only faults in this immersive movie with an international star cast, who for the most part in the infancy of their careers and don’t detract from their splendid performance and presence.

The film tells of a trio of tales about the titular yellow Rolls Royce. Each self contained story has this same car but tells of three different tragic and international love stories set between 1931 and 1941. These three hopelessly romantic stories had me nearly sobbing telling of a clandestine love, the cost of true love and ending on a hopeful, romantic note respectively. 

 

Where it all begins, England, 1931 in the time of George V…

It all begins with a bombastic opening track with a pompous British feel, and shots of this Rolls Royce in all her majesty. This story is initially set in London, with shots setting this ambience with landmarks and naturally, these include obligatory stock footage of Trooping of the Colour.

We meet Charles, Marquess of Frinton (Rex Harrison). After he spots the titular motor car, Charles decides to buy it for his very young and beautiful French wife, Eloise (Jeanne Moreau). This is as a belated wedding anniversary present. After buying the car, Charles goes back to his work at the Foreign Office.

Charles is due to go away for the weekend to his country retreat (read stately home) with some guests (read enough for a huge dinner party). His loyal and indispensable assistant John Fane (Edmund Purdom) offers to bring some important work papers to him personally. John has a new post, based in Caracas, and is leaving for there soon. This job switch was requested by John’s wife (as alarm bells ring in my head). It seems he’s a bit of a cad and a founder as we see him firmly telling a young lady it’s over…

Charles owns a racehorse, entered into the Ascot Gold Cup – meaning mingling with the Royals (cue two cameos from behind) – and is pretty damn hopeful it will win. In their country home, it seems like Charles and his wife are still madly in love. She claims to have headaches… However, Charles tells her that the doctor says there’s nothing wrong with her. It’s implied heavily in the script that she’s been putting off providing him with an heir and spare. 

After seeing John, she perks up and it’s pretty clear they are having a fling. She is then given another surprise as her anniversary present is delivered… After not getting any time together, she and John decide to meet up in the back seat to say goodbye passionately on the day of the Gold Cup…  Meanwhile at the race, after some not so subtle talk from John’s spurned lover, Charles has a hunch and heads for his yellow car, noticing the back seat blinds are down, as his horse wins the race…

This story was well told with excellent casting, Harrison is convincing as the British diplomat. He gives a convincing poignant performance and you can’t help but feel sorry for the poor man. As the man who is all too aware of his fears in his relationship, he knows his wife is lying to him about her health as he joins the dots as we do that she’s been having a fling. His face filled with pain as John’s ex-lover shares a few snidey comments about his wife’s relationship pulls a punch.

This story also comes with a fine performance by Jeanne Moreau, as she tries to manipulate things to get time with her lover and simultaneously not reveal this relationship to her husband. The remainder of this story and its ending reflect a very British conclusion to those events…

 

20,023 miles later, Genoa, Italy…

Paolo Maltese (George C Scott) is taking his pretty fiance Mae Jenkins (Shirley MacLaine) to meet his Italian parents in Italy. Along for the ride, is his driver and right-hand man, Joey Friedlander (Art Carney). After Maltese receives some money for a payment from a car salesman, Maltese finds out Mae has taken a fancy to the titular yellow Rolls Royce and buys it for her as she squeals with delight.

Friedlander then drives the soon to be married pair to see the sights. Mae gets fed up and is bored and fed up with Maltese’s stories of Italian history and about the sights of Florence and Pisa. The party bumps into a charming Italian photographer Stefano (Alain Delon). The four idly chat as Stefano tries to charm Mae while he takes some photos of her for Maltese.

After they leave Stefano, we note that Stefano also uses his charms with the ladies as he doesn’t just flatter them for photos, he will sleep with them too the trio later come across a pair of feet at the bottom of a hedge facing a villa. Friedlander and Maltese take out some guns to shoot at the villa owner, as their role as gangsters is revealed. We learn the feet belong to Stefano taking a photo. Maltese constantly puts Mae down behind her back, as she and Stefano talk to each other. The three move onto a hotel.

After Maltese leaves to take care of some “business” back home in Miami he leaves Mae with Friedlander. Mae insists on visiting Stefano’s home town where Stefano is more than happy to see them. She fends him off for a wee while when they go dancing accompanied by Friedlander. As the trio go swimming, Stefano tells Mae about the history of the area and they swim to a crystal filled grotto. Alone inside, they kiss passionately, start a relationship and appear to fall in love… Friedlander is happy that she’s found a genuine love and lets her be happy. Meanwhile unbeknownst to the three of them, Maltese has returned to Italy.

This was my favourite of the three stories and with a fantastic cast. Shirley McClaine and Alain Delon had a sweet and convincing romantic chemistry. You empathised with her character when she had to choose in which direction to show her love. It’s another poignant performance from this actress and she shines with those actors in the cast. As her character arc blossoms in her relationship with Delon, you hope for true love to find a way yet feel an impending sense of doom as Maltese reappears on the scene…

 

The final tale takes part in Trieste at the Yugoslav Border in 1941…

This tale is set just before the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Nazis in World War II. A rich American socialite widow, Mrs Gerda Millett (Ingrid Bergman) and her personal secretary (Joyce Grenfell) have come to visit King Peter (of Yugoslavia). However, their visit is cancelled and this conversation is overheard by an anti-royalist Davich, (Omar Sharif). He uses the content of their conversation to charm Gerda and gets a lift into Yugoslavia in her yellow Rolls Royce. Gerda’s secretary remains behind.

After hiding Davich in the boot of her car, they successfully get Davich across the border undetected. Once in Yugoslavia, their hotel is bombed and she helps him collect tablecloths for bandages as Nazi planes fly overhead, and bombs are dropped. Gerda drives him to a mountain village and assists in saving the villagers, as she makes many trips to take them to safety in her car. That night, it appears she and Davich have a strong attraction as they kiss and fall in love. It implies they make love in this car. However, Davich insists Gerda returns home to America, to share the Yugoslavian war troubles with her connections back home…

In this final tale, we see this rich widow – with the right connections fall in love – with a Yugoslavian rebel. It’s a sweet love story, which is steeped in real life history with those loved up fictional characters falling in love as their journey continues. At first, you worry Davich is using her for the cause, as they slowly connect with each other. However, Gerda shows a true, genuinely wonderful and giving person in contrast to your first impressions where she seems more impressed by meeting a King. It’s a lovely role for Bergman and she has a wonderful chemistry with Sharif, and you hope one day they’ll meet again, and continue their blossoming love story.

As an incurable romantic, wouldn’t it be lovely if those on-screen lovers, Alain Delon and Shirley MacLaine could now reunite for a newly added after-credits scene made this year?  Just imagine that if Mae, now a rich widow had bought the yellow Rolls Royce from Gerda. Also Mae had never really stopped her love for Stefano.

The still love lorn Stefano serendipitously applies for a job as Mae’s chauffeur. They reunite as lovers and then drive to Italy for their honeymoon in the yellow Rolls Royce. This new ending then gives sweet and caring Mae and the then jilted Stefano a happy ending. But til then we’ll never forget those three love stories, as the years speed away for this timeless movie where you hope that these three lovers find “When you’re in love, tomorrow never comes”.

 

Weeper Rating: 😦 😦  😦  😦  😦 😦  😦 /10

Handsqueeze Rating:  🙂  🙂   🙂 🙂  🙂 🙂  /10

Hulk Rating: ‎   0 ‎/10

 

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Sixth Ingrid Bergman Blogathon No 17 

This post was added to The Wonderful  World of Cinema‘s Sixth Ingrid Bergman Blogathon. Reviews with this cast include Rex Harrison in Ashanti and  My Fair Lady. Ingrid Bergman in From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, Indiscreet and Murder on the Orient Express. Shirley MacLaine stars in The Evening Star, Sweet Magnolias, The Apartment, Terms of Endearment and I cast her alongside Alain Delon in  Dark Excursions: The Complete Set (2015) by John L Harmon. Omar Sharif stars in Doctor Zhivago, Juggernaut, The Tamarind Seed and Top Secret. Alain Delon also starred in Purple Noon / Plein soleil / Talented Mr Ripley and in The Concorde: Airport 1979 / Airport ’80: The Concorde. 

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