Lady L

I had stayed away from this film because the critics panned it so viciously. Serves me right, because it was absolutely wonderful from beginning to end. Ustinov punctuates the rich satire in the script just perfectly with his grandiose direction. The cinematography is lush, and Sophia is outrageously good, as the strongly principled woman ahead of her time, who sees and is amused by all the rich ironies of life. Cecil Parker gives the movie it's opening tone and it never misses a best. But the writing is the strongest single aspect of the work, always remaining true to its characters, while making pungent observations on UK moral codes, class struggles, the battle of the sexes, the institution of marriage, and many others. Enjoy! 10/10

Shortly after winning her 1961 Oscar for her harrowing portrayal of a woman struggling to protect her daughter from the ravages of war-torn occupied Italy during the Second World War (some closest to Loren insist the film is semi-autobiographical) in "Two Women", Loren ably demonstrated to the critics of the world that she could not only handsomely dress a set but could be a force to reckon with as a serious actress. That being said, she was off to the races, figuratively speaking, selecting her next projects, again, "ably" assisted by her producer husband Carlo Ponti ("Doctor Zhivago"). It's not too surprising that she would choose a film in a lighter more comedic vein, for, just as every comic longs to play Shakespeare, every serious actor enjoys slipping on a banana peel every now and then. The ever versatile Peter Ustinov (two time Oscar winner, "Spartacus", "Topkapi") wrote and directed, adapting Romain Gary's novel to the screen with characteristic flare and panache, and, has a minor stint in the film as a befuddled crowned head of some remote principality or other, the target of a would-be assassin's bullet that of her anarchist husband Paul Newman (also, an Oscar winner, "The Color of Money"), and, wooed and romanced by her all too understanding entitled affluent husband (yep, you guessed it, yet another Oscar winner, "Separate Tables") David Niven. Personally, I'm a sucker for sumptuous elegant films and "Lady L" is mounted on fairly lavish scale, albeit, those exteriors and interiors which were obviously filmed on locations elsewhere, as well as, period costumes which are both stunning and ravishing to gawk at especially as worn by the curvaceous Loren.

This movie is a "bit of fluff" but a very lovely "bit of fluff". The costumes are wonderful and Sophia Loren makes them look even better. Entertaining story told in vignettes about a pretty racy lady who may, or may not, be even racier than intimated. Also, she has a chauffeur to die for. Yum!!!

Viewing this movie after a 30-year gap, I realize I need to appreciate the movie as a Peter Ustinov film rather than as a Sophia Loren film. While Sophia Loren is a delight for the eyes with her hour-glass figure, she proves that she cannot act competently as an elderly lady--her hoarse voice is as phony as phony can be.

Ustinov and Romain Gary carry the film. I have had the good fortune to have met Ustinov as a film critic in 1984 and discussed the few films he had directed. He was delighted as a small boy that someone remembered that he was once a director as most people recall him as actor. Ustinov the director is a superb wit and his visual digs at French and Russian society are hilarious (Romain Gary, I guess, contributed to the verbal digs at the Poles). Ustinov and Gary do not even spare the British. The farcical comedy is at its best in the opening 15 minutes with some good camerawork and some fine, witty dialogues.

Ustinov is not a top notch director but he can provide sufficient material for the laughs to keep flowing. For instance, he does not show the face of Paul Newman as the car driver, but the audience can guess that the director is hiding a crucial fact. The brothel scenes, the escape in the balloon, the actions of the police, are orchestrated with admirable finesse for a director who is detailing a farce.

That Carlo Ponti allowed Ustinov to direct this venture is a credit to Ponti as the outcome was more rewarding for Ponti's wife Loren than for Ustinov for the average viewer. The French actors were superb: Phillipe Noiret, Michel Picolli, Claude Dauphin, Jacques Dufilho, and Marcel Dalio. Claude Dauphin stood out as the best among the range of French talent.

The images of a prince playing with a bomb as though it were a plaything reduces the farce to absurdist black humour as is the choice of the assassin's dress (a priest's cassock!). So is the coughing signals alerting members of the police force during a concert. It is fun that can be enjoyed at all levels--thanks to Ustinov and Gary more than due to the contributions of the formidable line-up of actors.

Blake Edwards' THE PINK PANTHER (1963) not only made an international film superstar of Peter Sellers and created a popular cartoon character but also made star-studded comedy extravaganzas a fashionable commodity in the film industry for the rest of the decade. In retrospect only a handful of these proved to be as successful and as durable and, alas, the film under review here is definitely not one of the lucky few. Frankly, LADY L has been shown so incredibly often on TV in my neck of the woods in the last 20 years or so that I can't believe I had never watched it from beginning to end until now! The credentials were unquestionably promising, even mouth-watering: Sophia Loren and Paul Newman in a Peter Ustinov-directed comedy epic (who even has a cameo as a Bavarian prince) also featuring David Niven, Claude Dauphin, Philippe Noiret, Michel Piccoli, Marcel Dalio and Cecil Parker; indeed, how could it possibly miss? Well, a lame misfire it most certainly turned out to be with only the occasional bright spot provided by (surprisingly enough) Dauphin - as a befuddled but dogged Police Inspector on the trail of anarchist thief Newman (who was never comfortable with comedy and this is no exception) - and, even less frequently, by Noiret as a lecherous Minister of the Interior. Both Piccoli and especially Dalio are criminally underused and even the usually reliable Niven looks bored in his rather thankless role as a dying aristocrat who takes Loren under his wing.

Which brings me to Lady L herself: beautiful as she is, I've never been particularly impressed with Loren's acting capabilities (particularly in her international ventures) and since Sophia is the whole show here - metamorphosing from a timid Italian laundress to a ravishing British lady to a cantankerous 80-year old celebrity - the film's success (or lack thereof) is clearly subject to one's impressions of her. Even so, its real death-knell is the sheer fact that, for such a conglomeration of talent, big-budget and comic potential, LADY L is a witless and distinctly unmemorable enterprise. Apparently, the film was originally to be helmed by director George Cukor and was intended for Gina Lollobrigida, Tony Curtis and Sir Ralph Richardson...which I don't think would have improved matters all that much!