edwagreen Mad and miserable best describe Katharine Hepburn's misadventure and disaster in this 1969. At least, the great Kate, had acted mad in a far better film 10 years before in "Suddenly, Last Summer."She wears that wild hat from out of the middle ages and her clothes were even more gross to behold.She discovers a plot to destroy Paris by digging up the city for oil. She does something about it in a most unconventional way. She calls a meeting of some of her crones, the odd Margaret Leighton, in a similarly outrageous hat, a more docile Giulieta Masina and Dame Edith Evans, a scene stealer, as the judge in a mock trial with that high pitched voice which was so effective 10 years earlier in the memorable "The Nun's Story."Danny Kaye is a real delightful surprise here. He is great as the rag picker chose to play the one of those charged. He goes on and on regarding how money just comes to the rich constantly.Richard Chamberlain co-stars as a young revolutionary but his part along with Donald Pleasence, is never fully developed.

deanmorris_nyc previous reviewers have hinted at the charm that the play must have offered in its limited setting. the director fails to avoid tacky music: brass, harpsichord, and vocals going "oooh oooh oooh", choppy cutting, overacting, bad looping, faded color, freeze-frames/guitar strums to highlight irony, strings and flute for tenderness, awkward movement, and a lot of flesh tone lipstick. it makes you appreciate Hollywood black and white films and quality camera lenses, and also true naturalism rather than this fake naturalism. doesn't age well at all. fascinating only as an example of what stars in a lame vehicle can look like -- sort of like having a hideous room in the house that you keep to look at once in a while to remind you what well-done looks like. these stars aren't that old but are getting past their prime which is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this whole thing. worth a second viewing drunk so it can be laughed at to enrich my own life.

alicecbr Every Civics class (are they still teaching Civics in our increasingly more ignorant society?) should watch this and write an essay on it (if they know what one is, or what a subject and predicate is). What a fantastic analogue to today's insane reality, where the news is owned by the corporate giants: Yul Bryneer does a great turn describing how 'sensible' this arrangement is. To see Yul Bryner laughing is a treat in itself, when you have visions of Yul the Outlaw dancing in your head. Of course his evil in this film is far more insidious than any "The Wild Ones" could have envisioned.The Ragpicker's soliloquy by Danny Kaye is sometimes pointed to as the highlight of his career, when he was trivialized as a song and dance man....much as Einstein's political views on the insanity of war were sublimated to his scientific contributions. To watch Margaret Leighton give way to the Ragpicker's depiction of how easily women can be bought (with 'sable and morals'). As the defense lawyer, he almost gets his clients off by describing how he gave to all tax-exempt charities, and built many hospitals for the children who ate the food he grew in his 234 farms. (This will remind you of George Bernard Shaw's lines in "The Countess", in which the Indian muses on the much overlooked fact that those great givers to charity --whose names are etched on hospital walls-- are the same corporate giants who owned the mills that put the patients IN the hospitals.) Of course, we the people are no longer taught the skill of analytical thinking, so we wave the flag and gladly sacrifice our children to the merchants of death via their minions, the Army recruiters. And of course, it's all about oil, just as this illegal immoral invasion of Iraq is. How timely this movie is. No wonder you can't find it in the video stores. No wonder you can't even find reviews of the movie in Leonard Whoever's Reviews Book or the Time-Out English Review Book but in Variety's 2000 Movie Guide. Too dangerous in a time of McCarthyism, of Salem witch trials, where the 1st Amendment is so easily discarded.Naturally, we have a minister, who admits to being involved in some anti-Semitic activities using an atrocious Southern accent. Each of the plotters-- the commissar, the broker, the doctor, the DeGaulle prime minister...all 'confess' to one another their nefarious doings in order to show their loyalty to one another. The fact that Katherine Hepburn gives each of them an 'exclusive contract' to the oil under her mansion in Paris....soon known by all....indicates (according to Yul) that they are all worthy of being business partners, each one totally derelict of the chains of morality.This is a movie you'll see again and again. See it once for the gorgeous scenes of Paris, a city I love. See it again to remind yourself that once there was a Camelot, once there was a citizenry who cared enough, who knew enough about the danger democracy is in within our country to revolt, courting injury from the police stooges. Of course those police didn't have pepper guns or 'non-lethal' stun guns that kill. (Even at a Red Sox over Yankees celebration, by a direct hit, not the political demonstration the guns were bought for).These great actors are topped by Katherine Hepburn..her welling eyes mirroring her emotions, her concern at killing these monsters, her sadness for her lost love (the ragpicker?) that drove her insane. Here's an example of "If you had fore knowledge of the evil Hitler would do to the world, would you have killed him?".Yul Bryner shows also that he was an actor, not just a movie star...but then what enervated these great actors: Charles Boyer, Dame Evans, Guiletta Massina, Margaret Leighton (Betty Davis' nemesis)? It was a labor of love by an international cast which understood the greed, the amorality, the savagery of our 'leaders'. I note that the previous comments also mirror the reviewers' political outlooks in their thumbs down approach: too much truth for them?If ever such a dramatization of our society's plight (also Britain's, by the way) is needed, it is the year 2005-- with amoral incompetence in the saddle of our Executive Cowboy and mirrored by the insipid cowardice or ineffectiveness of our Democrats in Congress. Although you won't find it for less than $69, it's well worth the money.

Darguz A wonderful fable I happened to stumble across. The inimitable Katharine Hepburn as the title character conspires with other eccentrics to save Paris. Warm, funny, delightfully non-sequitur and deeply poignant, this film has messages about love, greed, happiness, fear, hope, dreams. . .life. Excellent performances by all, including some wonderful dramatic acting by Danny Kaye. I highly recommend this movie.