It is the epitome of polite, drily funny black comedy, and if you didn't know anyone English you might think from it we are polite, ironic, unemotional, utterly eccentric and somewhat chilly. Did Chabrol see and love this film, because I bet he did both.
It is Dennis Price's best performance and he is perfectly suited to the drily funny dialogue (did I mention the dry humour? It's the Sahara Desert of humour.) For example one of the eight Alec Guinnesses he has to bump off offers him a choice of drinks from his disguised stash in dark room: "I think a small developer". Or this little gem: "It was hard to blame them, for weekends, like life, are short." Or "I must say he portrays the most extraordinary capacity for middle age that I've ever seen."
We all know how good Alec Guinness is but here he actually is all the old men he portrays, my favourite I think being the vicar.
Joan Greenwood is the woman in his life, and so is Valerie Hobson.
Shot by Douglas Slocombe, who in the scene in church featuring many superimposed Guinnesses had to sleep by the camera for fear that it would be moved and ruin the shot.
Ron Horniman wrote the source novel Israel Rank, which was adapted by Hamer and Jon Dighton.
No comments:
Post a Comment