Os Farsantes

The Comedians one of the many films that starred that legendary screen team of the 60s, husband and wife Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor is set in that troubled stepchild of the western hemisphere Haiti. At the time Haiti was mired in the worst poverty on this side of the globe with the overwhelmingly brutal dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier. Duvalier and his family are gone now, but the brutality and poverty remain.

The title from the original Graham Greene novel refers to the various white people here who are very different, but who handle what they see in Haiti by making a lot of bad jokes. Whatever else this is, The Comedians is not a comedy.

Burton and Taylor play the owner of a hotel in Port-Au-Prince and she is the wife of an ambassador from some foreign country unnamed. They're having an affair, she's married to Peter Ustinov. Paul Ford and Lillian Gish are a husband and wife and he once ran for president on the Vegetarian Party ticket. He wants to start a business, a vegetarian resort of sorts. These two are totally clueless, but so are the Haitians they deal with, they actually treat Ford like a big deal.

Alec Guinness plays a part similar to the part David Niven had in Separate Tables, he's an arms dealer who's been dealing with someone now out of favor with the regime. But while at first he's clapped in prison Guinness makes a deal with another faction who think he's a big deal with his heralded background of being a war hero in the Burmese campaign in World War II. If you've seen Separate Tables than you can equate Guinness with Niven.

These name players however take a back seat to some of the black performers in The Comedians. Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, Gloria Foster, Georg Stanford Brown all are different types of Haitians from different levels of society there. But the guy to really watch is Raymond St. Jacques. As a captain in Duvalier's police he is one truly malevolent being. St. Jacques steals all the scenes he's in.

Of course Papa Doc didn't allow The Comedians to be shot in Haiti, but the country of Dahomey one of the new African Republics served well as a place with a poverty level similar to Papa Doc's little satrapy. The Comedians which was not a big hit at the time is maybe more relevant today as we can see things there without the filter of the Cold War between two superpowers.

Liz and Dick did a good one here, one for the ages.

A ship of fools docks in Port-au-Prince, and the disembarking passengers include a local businessman, an idealistic former U.S. presidential candidate and his wife, and a self-confident British major. The film's credentials are incredible; the cast includes Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guiness, Peter Ustinov, Lillian Gish, and James Earl Jones; Graham Greene wrote the script from his own novel; and Peter Glenville provided the taut direction. Given the talent involved, perhaps expectations raised the bar for "The Comedians" too high for any film to reach. Although the results do not represent a pinnacle for any of these artists, "The Comedians" is an engrossing tale set against the nightmarish backdrop of Papa "Doc" Duvalier's repressive regime in Haiti. A thick tense atmosphere envelops the film from the outset. Arrests, beatings, corpses, intimidation, bribes, murders, and threats paint Duvalier's Haiti in shades of blood and terror. In 1967, the Taylor-Burton romance was still in the tabloids, and the film's illicit romance depicted by the world-famous pair was still titillating. However, time has dimmed the scandal, and the film has benefited. Greene's story and the acting talent are no longer over-shadowed.

The still ravishing Taylor, who affects a German-accent as the wife of Ustinov, a cuckolded foreign ambassador, is involved with Burton, a local hotel owner. While arguably the least-interesting aspect of the film, their liaison is integral to the story. Meanwhile, Paul Ford and his wife, Gish, seek to establish a vegetarian center in Duvalierville, a never-will-be Utopian community, and a shady braggart with the wrong connections, Guinness, attempts an arms sale to Duvalier's henchmen. The visitors, the diplomats, and their local connections are embroiled in Haitian political conflicts and dangerous encounters with Duvalier's thugs, the dreaded Tonton Macoute.

Greene's script is literate, and the performances are effective. The bevy of international stars is enhanced and ably supported by such pros as Paul Ford, Cicely Tyson, Raymond St. Jacques, Roscoe Lee Browne, and George Stanford Brown. Although short on action, "The Comedians" is long on suspense and tension. While the film certainly remains a staple for fans of Taylor and Burton, Glenville's fine production deserves to be seen and appreciated, not only for its lustrous stars, but also for throwing a spotlight on Haiti's nightmarish past.

I saw this movie many years ago and it left me cold. When it came up again on cable, the combination of the stellar cast - Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Peter Ustinov, Peter Ford, Lillian Gish, James Earl Jones, Liz Taylor - and a script based on a Graham Greene novel, prompted me to give it a second look. Maybe because I'm a lot older now I can appreciate its many qualities. Graham Greene's cynical, post-Catholic sensibility is clearly in evidence here. The production qualities are high, and the story line is engaging. The portrayal of the misery of Haiti and the terror of the Duvalier government with its tontons macoutes secret police, is chilling. It is still true today that if you look up "Third World Hell Hole" in your Funk & Wagnalls, there will be a picture of Haiti. The characters are well-drawn. Burton's character, Brown - who seems to be missing a first name - is a sardonic, cynical and jaded hotel owner who puts one in mind of Rick in Casablanca. His character transformation, involving the shedding of his cynicism, is very effectively portrayed. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Ford / Gish) might have been portrayed to be the slightly silly and naive characters they appear to be, but in the end they demonstrate a touching bravery and idealism. The weak spot here is Elizabeth Taylor's Martha Pineda. Her attempt, as an ambassador's European wife, at an accent is simply ridiculous, ranging from French (sorta), to British, to German (kinda) depending on the scene. In addition, the film makers decided that extra dollops of Rich and Liz's lovemaking scenes would be an added draw; not a good idea, as they slow down the action and force us to endure listening to Taylor. It's a long movie but it keeps us going to its tragic finale.

This had all the making of a first rate political drama. There is an acclaimed novelist whose novel this was adapted from, an exciting premise (British expatriates in Haiti, brutally ruled by the brutal and eccentric "Papa Doc" Duvliar's, get caught up in political oppression and rebellion), an star-studded ensemble cast, and exotic locations. So why does it fall so flat? Part of the problem is that it the film is overlong, lasting for around two and a half hours. The result is a story which moves very slowly with a lot of excess chat. Also, there is too much emphasis on the dreary soap opera love triangle of the three main characters (Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Peter Ustinov). The Burton character, a cynical hotel owner of British decent, is obviously copied on the Humphrey Bogard character in "Cassablanca." The film also fails to take advantage of the official oppression and corruption which is the cause of the country's problems. There is little sense of danger until the last half hour, and even then the action is sporadic. There is also a failure to take advantage of the locations. The film was shot in Benin, an African country which isn't a convincing substitute for Haiti, though there was obviously no way this could have been shot in Haiti itself. But the photography is pretty ordinary. There are a few good scenes, including a voodoo ceremony and a shootout in a cemetery. Also, some supporting characters are actually rather interesting, helped by fine performances by James Earl Jones as a surgeon who supports the rebels and Raymond St. Jacques as a sinister police commander who tortures and murders people as casually as most people would order a take-out lunch. Unfortunately, but most of the film is a case of missed opportunities. It's passable, but overlong and never worthy of the talent that went into it.

When I bought "The Comedians" in DVD, I had never heard before of that movie, although I am a fan of the cinema of the specific era. Moreover, it surprised me I didn't know anything about a film with such an excellent cast: it isn't easy to find Burton, Taylor, Guinness, Ustinov, Gish and Ford in the same movie. And there was something else: it was based on a novel and written for the screen by an author whose work I admire: Graham Greene. Therefore, I was curious to find out why a movie with so many virtues flopped and was so soon forgotten. After watching it, I understood: "The Comedians" is a movie that was made for the general audience, a film that should be fun, fast and easy to digest, a typical Hollywood epic. However, it contains none of the classic ingredients: a) it isn't fun, it is a serious political drama, with a deeply British, cynical and black humour, b) it is not melodramatic enough and the love story between Burton and Taylor evolves quite unorthodoxically, without any clichés, c) it isn't fast at all, it's almost three hours without impressive action scenes and much - quite sophisticated - dialogue, d) it isn't easy to digest, it is a sad and bitter movie with an ambiguous ending. These are the reasons why "The Comedians" flopped, but they are also the reasons that make the film exceptionally interesting. Set in Tahiti during the dictatorship of Francois Duvalier ("Papa Doc"), an ideal location for Graham Greene's stories, it demonstrates the cruelty of the regime, through the story of 6 Westerners and some locals in the background. It is a big, flawless production providing food for thought accompanied by excellent cinematography, professional directing and a slow, but strong and memorable scenario. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the brutal dictatorship is exceptional, the actors give magnificent performances and it is also one of the few films that end without an answer, without a typical happy or tragic ending. I recommend it to viewers that enjoy films that provide more than a pleasant evening.