Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

"The V.I.P.s" GiaUeM Rati*? © © ® Plus TaylorBurton duo give this smash b.o. potential. Story elements will hold all types of audience engrossed. Strong campaign assures its vast success. There can be no question that the "V.I.P.s" has smash, built-in boxoffice values in the much-heralded names of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. And, as pure escapist entertainment, this M-G-M production is first-rate. It bas nearly everything that mass audiences clamor for and too seldom get from the celluloid dream merchants — rich, warm humor, hearttugging drama, suspense, and that sophisticated and near-magic elan at which Hollywood once excelled, and, of course, that most glamorous cast. Backed by one of the most intensive promotion campaigns of recent years, "The V.I.P.s" is certain to rank with the big atractions of the year. Exhibitors are going to need augmented staffs to handle the crowds. The screenplay by Terence Rattigan, fashioned in the episodic vein of "Grand Hotel", deals primarily with the conflict between Miss Taylor, who is about to run off with handsome playboy Louis Jourdan, and her big business executive husband, Burton, who is determined to hold on to her. In the fogbound London airport, the plot picks up the varied personal problems of several other V.I.P.s awaiting the plane's take-off. Director Anthony Asquith manuevers his large cast with dexterity and keeps the action flowing at a fast pace from start to finish. Producer Anatole de Grunwald has provided a colorful production setting in Metrocolor and Panavision. Miklos Rozsa's background score is lush and romantic. Miss Taylor, while still a most striking beauty, shows some tell-tale signs of personal neglect. In some scenes she looks a bit plump and dissipated. Burton displays his strong talent to good advantage as the distraught husband, and Jourdan is effective as the suave lover. One of the major sub-plots concerns the efforts of nearbankrupt industrialist Rod Taylor and his loyal secretary, Maggie Smith, to cover a bad check. Margaret Rutherford, as an impoverished duchess, is given her best material to date and may well be heard from at Academy Awards time for this scene-stealing portrayal. Orson Welles, in a boisterous caricature of a movie tycoon, and Elsa Martinelli, his "protege", supply some broad humor, and Linda Christian appears in a bit role. Rattigan's story is remindful, in its wit, of vintage Nole Coward. Taylor fears that her multi-millionaire husband, Burton, will kill her when he learns that she has left him for playboy Jourdan. Most of the other passengers also have valid reasons for wanting to leave England in a hurry, but all find solutions to their problems when they are forced to spend the night at the airport's International Hotel. Burton accosts Miss Taylor at the hotel, but she repels his advances. The next morning, as she is about to board the plane, she decides to return to Burton because she knows he will destroy himself without her. He will find strength in her strength, and she will find fulfillment in knowing that she is needed. M-G-M. 119 minutes. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burtort, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, Margaret Rutherford, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, Orson Welles. Produced by Anatole De Grunwald. Directed by Anthony Asquith. "The Caretakers" Sutitew &<ztt*v O O Plus Interesting treatment of mental therapy depicted against melodramatic background of conflict in hospital. Crawford, Stack provide name values, OK grosser. Mental illness, its causes and cures, is the theme of this strong emotional melodrama. Producer-director Hall Bartlett focuses this screen version of Daniel Telfer's best-selling novel to good effect on the the conflict between psychiatrist Robert Stack and director of nurses Joan Crawford. In the presence of these two principals — Stack, famed for his long-run role in TV's "The Untouchables", and Miss Crawford, whose popularity has surged up again as a result of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" — should give "The Caretakers" an added boxoffice zip. In his practice of modern methods of treating "borderline" mental cases, Stack is opposed by the Crawford insistence that the old rules of force and confinement should prevail. Bartlett's direction is straightforward, urgent and, at times, almost documentary in approach. Nonetheless, he develops full-dimensioned characters in all the key roles. Stack makes the most of his steely-eyed, single-minded doctor who advocates group and at-home therapy. Miss Crawford, while some may find her too sophisticated and mannered for the role of the old-fashioned, strong-armed nurse, still projects a fascinating characterization. Polly Bergen gives a flamboyantly striking portrayal of the young woman who cannot adjust to the accidental death (for which she was responsible) of her young son. Janis Paige and Barbara Barrie lend force to their roles as other "borderline" cases undergoing treatment at the hospital. The screnplay by Henry F. Greenberg, from a screen story by Bartlett and Jerry Paris, concentrates alternately on the problems of the patients and on Stack's fight to introduce modern clinical methods to a backward state hospital. Among his projects is the establishment of a day clinic so that "borderline" cases may live at home. Miss Crawford fights him every step of the way, and Herbert Marshall, as the hospital director, tries unsuccessfully to compromise the two viewpoints. Before Stack wins out, he has sent Miss Bergen and the others well on the road to recovery, and has found time to fall in love with Diane McBain, an understanding nurse. United Artists. 97 minutes. Robert Stack, Polly Bergen, Joan Crawford. Janis Paige, Diane McBain. Produced and directed by Hall Bartlett. "Run With the Devil" Minor Italian import has some sequences to please art film fans. Mild grosser. Bohemians, as seen by film makers, are pretty much the same whether they "pad out" in Greenwich Village, North Beach, or, as in "Run with the Devil", Rome's Via Margutta. They're all here — the bearded sculptor, the dedicated artist with no talent, the messy-haired girls, assorted homosexuals and lesbians. The best this subtitled Italian-made production, which Richard L. Rosenfeld is presenting here, can hope for is a fair return at second-rate art houses. Director Mario Camerini has included some wryly humorous vignettes, but the main story, another variation on "La Boheme", has just about had it with audiences. The screenplay by Camerini, Franco Brusati, and Ennio De Concini tends toward the episodic and varies from the trite, which it is most often, to the imaginative. Antonella Lualdi and Gerard Blain have the major roles and are attractive performers, but the only unexpected twist in their bitter-sweet romance comes at the end when it is the boy, rather than the girl, who dies. Levity is furnished, sporadically, by Franco Fabrizi, a callow gigolo who takes up with an aging, but wealthy, fraulein, and by Yvonne Furneaux, the over-sexed, overly-romantic girl next door. The brightest moments, however, feature Cristina Gaioni and Spiros Focas in a satiric episode about a simple-minded house maid who unwittingly becomes the rage of the art world after she signs her name to her boyfriend's mediocre paintings. None of the art critics will admit to being deceived by the works, so the couple continues to prosper. Alex Nicol and Claudio Gora, in minor roles, round out the cast. Jillo Films. 93 minutes. Antonella Lualdi. Gerard Blain, Franco Fabrizi, Yvonne Furneaux, Alex Nicol. Directed by Mario Camerini. Film BULLETIN August 19, 1963 Page 19