Harrison's Reports (1961)

22 HARRISON'S REPORTS February 11, 1961 "The Millionairess" with Sophia Loren, Peter Sellers, Alastair Sim, Vittorio de Sica (20th Century-Fox, February; time, 90 mm.) Very good. The George Bernard Shaw romantic comedy, lavishly filmed in London, in CinemaScope, with Color by DeLuxe, is about an immensely wealthy young beauty who falls in love with an indifferent, selfless doctor from India, who runs a clinic in the British capital. The male patron will find the inadequacy of Miss Loren's acting more than compensated for her generously displayed pulchritude. Peter Sellers, with clipped Indian accent, is brilliant as the humanitarian physician. Outstanding in supporting roles are Alastair Sim as a crafty counsel; Dennis Price as a society psychiatrist; and Vittorio De Sica as a spaghetti-factory proprietor. At times highly sophisticated, at other instances full of slapstick, the picture provides many good laughs, while noting that money can't buy everything. Unfortunately it fails to maintain its opening quality and rapid pace. Women will want to see Miss Loren's many dresses by the noted Pierre Balmain. Production values are fine; photography, top-notch : — Sophia Loren, heiress to a huge industrial empire left by her domineering Italian father, Bernardo Ognisanti di Parerga, wants to be happily married. According to her late father's will, any husband of hers must be able to turn 500 pounds into 15,000 within three months. After an unfortunate adventure into matrimony with a slight young sporting character, she seeks aid in London from the wily family solicitor, Alastair Sim, who turns her from taking poison to visiting a society psychiatrist, Dennis Price, who soon gains Sophia's confidence. He almost wins her hand, but is beaten up by Sophia when he criticizes her late father. Next she is incensed by Peter Sellers, a poor, socialist physician from India who operates a clinic in London. Despite her wiles, he is completely indifferent to her beauty and wealth. She builds an immense clinic near his, but the cold method in which it is operated makes Sellers' patients rush back to his sympathetic care. Against Sellers' will he is attracted to the persistant Sophia. She agrees to undergo what he says is a test of his mother's for the girl he should marry: with just 35 shillings and the clothes on her back, she is to go out into the world and earn her living for three months. He agrees to her test, but tries to give away the 500 pounds, has a great deal of trouble getting people to take the money. Meanwhile, Sophia invades Vittorio de Sica's noodle factory. She swiftly turns it from a sweatshop, filled with pretty workers — whom Vittorio chases while his wife gramaces — to a large, fully automatic plant. De Sica asks to buy out out of his own business so he can start a little subterranean noodle bakery again —with pretty workers. Seeing Sellers has failed the test, a sad Sophia decides to bequeath her wealth to an Order named after her, and retire to a life of solitude in Tibet. Sims quickly contacts Sellers, who thinks Sophia is going to kill herself, stops what he believes is her death leap. The two embrace and start to dance, with a future together indicated. Produced by Pierre Rouve; directed by Anthony Asquith from a screenplay by Wolf Mankowitz based on the George Bernard Shaw play, "The Millionairess." A Dimitri de Grunwald Production. Adults. "Tess of the Storm Country" with Diane Baker Jack Ging and Wallace Ford (20th Century-Fox, current; time, 84 min.) Good. Filmed in enhancing Color by DeLuxe, and in CinemaScope, this charming, absorbing screen version of the popular literary romantic classic should prove interesting to all kinds of audiences everywhere. The tale of farm life retains the flavor of yesteryear by the introduction of the Mennonite religious sect, to which a number of the principal characters belong. It also contains the complexities of modern times when a chemical plant and its operators interfere with the area's farmers. The desires and romances of the younger people aid the picture's construction. Diane Baker, as Tess, the Scotch lass who comes to America to marry, and Jack Ging, as the Mennonite boy, who is "human," render competent characterizations. The supporting cast is satisfactory. Direction is smart; photography, very good: — Church-bound in a buggy is a family of a Mennonite-type sect who wear black clothes, use no modern machinery and are very strict. The family comprises the father, stern Robert Simon; his quiet wife, his 28-year-old daughter, Nancy Valentine; and Jack Ging, a good looking boy in his early twenties. At the nearby Foley Chemical plant young Bert Remsen and Wallace Ford, a local farmer, are arguing. The fracas is broken up by Lee Philips, a young veternarian. Simon innocently sold to young Remsen's father land on which the plant was built. It is polluting the farmers' stream. Local feeling runs high against Simon, who holds that a bargain is a bargain. At church, Ging tells his sister that he isn't going in. Instead he meets beautiful Diane Baker and her jovial uncle, Archie Duncan, who have come from Scotland so that Diane can marry a local farmer named Faulkner. Ging feels it is his duty to tell them that Faulkner was killed in a row over the chemical plant, and takes Diane and her uncle to Faulkner's farm. The two find Ging's ways quaint, but are not happy with him when they learn of Faulkner's death and the reason for it. At the farm they meet the young veterinarian, who has been looking after the place. They persuade him to stay on after learning Faulkner left Diane the farm. Nancy, meanwhile, has been meeting young Remsen, becomes pregnant, and goes to Diane for help. Diane finds herself torn between Philips and Ging. Although she spats with Ging, she comes to find him preferable. When Ford's bull dies from the polluted water, he and Duncan throw an explosive into the plant. Ging sees the act and is arrested for it. To protect Diane he keeps silent and is finally released when Remsen's father is told that Ging is Nancy's brother. Diane now makes up her mind, marries Ging. It was produced by Everett Chambers and directed by Paul Guilfoyle from Charles Lang's screenplay based on the novel by Grace Miller White. Family.