La Grande Cuisine

"Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?" offers up a tasty recipe, combining mystery with laughs. This movie is peppered with colorful characters, such as Max, the snobbish English gourmand magazine editor, Robbie, the brash American fast food magnate, and a host of eccentric chefs. And you also get a feast for the eyes, with colorful views of London, Paris and Venice, and lush images of haute cuisine. This movie is satisfying, and perhaps will leave you hungry for more!

I dimly remembered this culinary comedy from the late 70s without

much affection, until a friend decided to bring along a video to be

shown after a Thanksgiving dinner last year. It's a great idea. Stuff

yourself and then take a movie break before dessert. Nothing too

heavy--preferably something light and frothy. I'm glad we did. This

is an adorable movie, and I don't know why it didn't strike me that

way the first time around.

Maybe it was the horrible and dated costumes designed for

Jacqueline Bissett. How does one take one of the most beautiful

women in the world, and tart her up in the most ridiculous

fur/leather thingies. She looks like a cheap Vegas dancer here.

George Segal doesn't escape either, wearing jeans looking like he

was poured into them and cowboy hats, he looks like the sweet

Jewish boy he is, playing in Daddy's clothing.

The heart of the movie is the wonderful Robert Morely, who plays a

gleefully glutinous gourmand and food editor who between bites

insults just about anyone coming towards him. Only Jacqueline

Bissett manages to escape his wrathful tongue. I'm not

complaining. Morely is a total delight as the misanthropic

epicurian monster.

The mystery isn't much of a mystery, and the chemistry between

Bissett and Segal doesn't appear to be setting off many sparks.

But you can waste your time on far worse things than this modest

delight, filmed all over Europe. The food looks great, and oh that

nasty Morely!

A witty script and great performances help turn Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? into a very satisfying meal. There are moments when the back and forth dialogue between the characters resembles something out of Neil Simon's wheelhouse and Robert Morley, especially, makes great use of this delicious dialogue.

The plot revolves around a competitive ex-husband and wife (George Segal and Jacqueline Bisset) who become the focus of a murder mystery when someone, as the title suggests, is killing all the great chefs in Europe. Since Bisset is considered one of them, it's only a matter of time before the killer gets to her as well.

It might not sound like the makings of comedy gold, but it hits more than it misses, especially towards the end when tons of European chefs come out of the woodwork, certain that they'll be the next victim due to their own egos.

This one is going to make it to the roster of all-time great comedies. Its sheer classiness and the elegant level of its wit on both the verbal and visual level - so different from the crassness and vulgarity of much American comedy (the more so in recent years) - made me suspect an English touch, and sure enough, the Canadian-born director, Ted Kotcheff, made his career in the UK. Jacqueline Bissett is a delight to the eye and George Segal makes a charmingly roguish screen presence; they work wonderfully off each other. But Robert Morley - perfectly cast - runs away with the whole movie with his acerbically comic portrayal of the gourmet-cum-gourmand Max. The wonderfully funny food references throughout, and the gorgeous cinematography of European locales put the icing on this comic eclair. And, just for good measure, first-time viewers will have a devil of a time trying to decide just who is killing the great chefs of Europe. This ranks right up there with the best of the Ealing Studios work. A must-see for connoisseurs of literate comedy.

I once had a friend argue that a mystery was only good the first time, but a comedy was always funny. While I don't completely agree with this line of thinking-Rene Clair's And Then There Were None, being one of my favorite films that I have returned to many times-I do see the logic in the argument. Fortunately, screenwriter Peter Stone and director Ted Kotcheff apparently felt the same way when adapting Nan and Ivan Lyons novel, Someone Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe, for the screen.

While the mystery angle is played up more in the film than the source novel-where the killer's identity is revealed before the halfway point in the book-it really isn't central to the proceedings, and is mostly there to move the narrative forward by giving the characters someplace to be and something to do. And that is really the strength of this film: the characters. As almost every reviewer has, rightly, pointed out, Robert Morley's Max Vandeveer dominates the film with his acid quips and unapologetic pomposity, but the rest of the supporting cast do not let the production down, delightfully playing up the eccentricities of the inhabitants of the world of haute cuisine. Neither do our two stars, George Segal and Jacqueline Bisset, though the demands of their roles don't really call upon them to stretch much outside of their comfort zones.

Interestingly, director Kotcheff ha sited the screwball comedies of the 1930's as inspiration, specifically name checking Howard Hawks' classic Bringing Up Baby. I would venture that Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? Has much more in common with a later Hawks film, the brilliant His Girl Friday. The character of Segal's Robert Ross is very much akin to Cary Grant's Walter Burns and like Rosalind Russell's Hildy Johnson, Bisset's Natasha O'Brien finds herself being drawn back into the orbit of her somewhat conniving ex-husband, despite herself.

While not likely to have anyone rolling in the aisles, Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? Has wit in abundance, and is a film that can easily, and frequently, bring a smile to the face, and be pulled off the shelf for a rewatching without fear that the proceedings will have gone stale.

As a side note, after years of living with the dull and unremarkable presentation of the more than decade old Warner Archive DVD-R, I was very excited by the film's recent-and much overdue-release on Blu-Ray by Bavaria Media. I am pleased to report that this new version is brighter, cleaner, sharper and altogether a more pleasing viewing experience than the Warner's. Much of the film was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich, and I assume that accounts for Bavaria Media's restored HD release. Oddly, as given the source one would have expected this to come out in European Region B, this Blu-Ray release appears exclusive to Japan. The good news is, for those interested, the Japan BD disc is Region A coded, and available from a number of online sources, including Amazon.jp.