Cerimonia infernale

What no-one seems to have noticed is how utterly in hock to Orson Welles' "The Trial" this film is, with its very elaborate "artistic" direction, brooding atmosphere of menace and general sense of claustrophobic gloom. Harvey, an actor noted more for his vanity than actual ability (other than that of using well-connected older women to further his career) here sets himself up in full Welles mode: star, producer, director.

In the event, his direction is much the most striking thing about the whole film, because it is for the most part terribly acted - Sarah Miles and Harvey himself in particular - loosely constructed and with the same kind of overly-insistent sub-classical musical soundtrack as "The Trial" (Gerard Schurmann - my one-time neighbour - in this Harvey film, Remo Giazotto's egregious fake Albinoni grinding away in the Welles). Poor old Jack MacGowran and Murray Melvin pop up in weird roles doing their usual schtick - pixillated priest, "sensitive" (i.e. Gay) youth - and Robert Rietty does his usual quadruple duty (as in "The Trial") dubbing voices galore.

But it does have a very definite, albeit second-hand from Welles, look about it, with endless bizarre camera angles and suffocating close-ups. You could even make a case for Robert Walker Jr. Giving a very decent impression of Anthony Perkins' befuddled Josef K. So basically the whole thing's a highly derivative mess: but derived from an actual masterpiece, and sometimes therefore oddly effective almost in spite of itself. Worth a squint.

Dismissed by the late David Shipman as "a pretentious plea against capital punishment" and now disinterred by the wonder that is Talking Pictures. Boasting a truly extraordinary international cast, shot in kafkaesque black & white by Ossie Morris and full of ripe one-liners, it's just the film you'd expect Lawrence Harvey to have directed.

I did not hate "The Ceremony" nor did I particularly like it. I think the biggest problem keeping me from really enjoying the films were the characters...I just didn't care about any of them. And, after a while I found my attention wavering.

When the film begins, Sean (Laurence Harvey) is about to be executed. It seems he was part of a robbery gone bad--and someone was killed during the robbery. However, and this makes no sense at all, some of the folks at the prison are lamenting how sad it is that they're going to kill the guy. However, he isn't executed, as hie brother (Robert Walker, Jr.) arranges for him to escape.

The most interesting thing about this movie is that the leading man, Laurence Harvey, not only starred in it but directed and produced it as well. While this wasn't always a bad thing, I do think Harvey overacted a bit when his character was in prison--and a different director might have gotten a different sort of performance. Additionally, the film suffers because I just didn't care on whit about anyone in the film and at times it seemed a bit lifeless, though the twist at the end was pretty interesting.

A real bore-fest, this one, which is a shame as the cast is exceptional, featuring a good mix of big stars and character actors in support. What a shame then that this Spanish production is so unrelentingly boring, with a prisoner on death row involved in a plot to help him achieve freedom. It's arty in the worst kind of way, full of boring dialogue and routine scenarios. No thanks!

This is a timeless drama challenging the matter of justice as it is enforced by law, unavoidably leading to mistakes that can't be corrected and leaving wounds and damages for life. Laurence Harvey is the prisoner convicted and sentenced to execution, while his brother (Robert Walker) and sweetheart (Sarah Miles) with a team of others plan to set him free in order for them all to get at the money obtained in some kind of a robbery that cost someone his life, which Harvey actually tried to prevent while instead he got prosecuted for the manslaughter. They all become victims to the ultimate judicial murder, as finally the wrong man gets executed. This is actually a drama, the stage is almost Shakespearian, and all the characters play vital parts. The most striking thing however is the cinematography, which is almost expressionistic in its consistently intimate approach to the actors' faces, making their expressions a vivid part of the drama. It is claustrophobic and very dark as almost everything happens in the dungeons of a prison, but also all the prison staff and wards play an important part and even the other prisoners by their noise constituting almost a chorus. It is all very much like a Greek drama in its structure, leading all the protagonists hopelessly into an abyss of destiny in which they are all ultimately helpless. The story ends classically in a great question mark, as we never shall know what happened next to all the survivors - there is only death in the whole drama. Regrettably this became the only film that Laurence Harvey ever had the opportunity to direct, and it marks in many ways the epitome of his career. He continued acting in films but constantly on a lesser scale until he ended tragically and abruptly at only 45 from a stomach cancer.