gleong-1

Honestly, I do not see why this film is so highly rated.

Apart from "The Best Things in Life Are Free" and the final Varsity ensemble number, the songs are real duds. The singers are not great either. There is one guy who croons rather well, but he is only a minor character. The two leads are not the greatest singers in the world. June Allyson sings in tune but her voice is so metallic, you rush for your ear muffs each time she opened her mouth to "sing".

Peter Lawford is appalling. He looks OK, but he can neither really sing or dance. In fact most of the big song and dance production numbers are embarrassingly sub-standard for screen musicals of the time, especially the opening number. The last number, choreographed and danced well, is not enough to redeem the rest of the rubbish one has to endure to get to this point.

PS. at one point when June Allyson is giving Lawford his first French Lesson (actually one of the clever moments in an otherwise BORING musical) she mispronounces the word "BAISER" pretty badly. No wonder we worry for the hero who later on in the film has to pass a French Exam.

Peter Lawford's character is such a DUMB CAD that any self-respecting intelligent female college student would NEVER bother with anyone so stupid.

My only experience of the great American coloratura soprano, Beverly Sills has been through records, now CDs and this filmed performance of one of her great roles. So compelling is her Elizabeth that I have ordered online her other two films (La Traviata and The Daughter of the Regiment).

I have to admit however that my response to her very unique sound has not always been positive. I remember her records so well - her brilliant Elvira (I Puritani partnered by a disappointing Nicolai Gedda), her other worldly Lucia (mad scene with glass harmonica as in the original score!), her wicked Rosina (Barbiere), her Zerbinetta (a recording of Strauss arias) and of course her signature roles, the Three Donizetti Queens. In all these roles I was stunned by her technical perfection and the amount of emotional energy and intelligence she brought to them. The one thing that I found difficult was the shrillness of her voice and occasional uncontrolled, quick vibrato.

I stopped listening to her recordings in my collection for twenty or more years. Then they were re-issued on CD and somehow the shrillness stopped bothering me, and curiosity led me to the purchase of this film. I am so glad I did as the production, though not particularly innovative, is of a high traditional standard, and its centrepiece - Ms. Sills is flawless - ultra high voice and all. Costumed fabulously, she sails through rough emotional waters, as though born to play this troubled but great Queen.

In a word, her assumption of one of the most charismatic women in history is totally convincing. This is a woman who has everything and yet has nothing if she does not have the undivided affection of her court favourite, Robert Devereux. She is a woman of extreme passions - Donizetti was good at creating such portraits (both Elizabeth and Mary, the rival queens in Maria Stuarda are such women). Elizabeth's clearly aging face (marvellous make up) is set in contrast against the younger woman (Sara, sung competently by Susanne Marsee) who has stolen Robert's affections.

Unfortunately, so outstanding is Ms Sills that John Alexander (in the title role) seems unable to compete on an even playing field in either the acting or vocal departments. In fact nobody else quite measures up to her. A more balanced cast is to be found in a later film of a Munich Opera production, with Edita Gruberova (still wonderful in 2005) as the tragic queen.

Someone decided to make a thriller and had no money for a decent set, so they probably drove into an overnight car park and made up the story to go with it. It was such a cheap movie that they did could not fill up the car park with more than two or three cars on each level - and the hero (who is not even hunky) manages to dodge his pursuers for the best part of an hour hiding behind and under cars. They obviously had no lighting rig of any sort either.

Just to pad it out, the director keeps repeating the same old flashbacks, some times it is just the sound track. This is so irritating that after the sixth repeat of any particular flashback, you feel like throwing any handy projectile at your TV screen.

The principal villain turns in a really disinterested performance. Well, what do you expect, when the script is so lame. The stupid young man who opens the parcel he is paid to deliver, and decides he must "save the world" has absolutely no survival skills - twice he could have turned the tables but lamely does not take advantage of the opportunity. His girl friend is no less idiotic.

The worst atrocity is the beautiful and talented Sean Young accepting this acting assignment. She must be desperate. Her presence is never explained and her lines are appalling.

What a waste of time. Take heed of this and other warnings on these pages. You will regret it if you don't and be angry enough to spend another fifteen minutes complaining in a review the film does not deserve.