La fille aux papillons

This is a film that has a lot going for it:

--a typically excellent, nuanced and three-dimensional performance from Trevor Howard as a forced-into retirement espionage agent encountering a surprising new adventure back home while at times revisiting aspects of his own past.

--Jean Simmons in her radiant younger days in a role of mystery, range and substance.

--a highly intelligent script that expects viewers to think and rewards their patience.

--stylishly and confidently directed, and photographed with great distinction by the later-legendary Geoffrey Unsworth.

--excellent use of locations, well-paced, filled with surprises.

Those who are comparing it to British Hitchcock are partially right, but it also has the erudite touch of a Sir Carol Reed about it. It's visually quite satisfying, naturalistically shot for the most part, but with well-thought-out process shots when necessary. This story eventually covers a lot of ground, and each new location and situation is shot with a real eye for the distinctive look or texture of where they are next. While the visual choices are rarely "flashy," there is a real sense of location and imagery. Outdoors and nature compete with urban or more claustrophobic settings, and all the myriad parts add up to a polished and satisfying whole. It starts a little slowly, but once the wheels begin to turn, it gradually takes you on quite a journey, narratively, emotionally and geographically. I found myself very invested in the main characters.

Another plus is the excellent score by Benjamin Frankel -- it hits its full marks not only in the dramatic or suspenseful passages, but also in some unusual and subtle piano music played by Simmons' character.

No complaints about this movie! It's a gem.

Sort of paint-by-numbers Hitchcock. But still, it probably comes closer to the style of the master than any other pretender with the exception of "Niagara".

Hitch always liked a story with some odd eccentricities to the plot. This story has a butterfly collector, a taxidermist, and some shady Chinese Liverpudlians.

But you can tell it's not Hitch easily enough. I believe it's the pacing, which never reaches a nail-biting pitch of intensity -- more like nail-drumming. I hope someone more astute than I will analyse precisely what marks this film as ultimately un-Hitchcock.

The film's ending is very abrupt and more than a little unsatisfying, with the loose ends being tied up in a slip knot.

An important element in many a great Hitchcock film is the pursuit sequence through imaginative locations. At least we are not disappointed in that respect. Besides Liverpool, our hero and heroine are hunted through night-time Newcastle which is made to resemble Vienna in an earlier Trevor Howard film, "The Third Man". Some of the best chase scenes take place among the hills, lakes, and waterfalls of the English Switzerland -- the Lake District, at that time in Cumberland (hence the name of the bus line) and Westmorland.

Our beautiful English Swiss Miss, Jean Simmons, seems to be more voluptuous here than she would be later in her career, but perhaps I'm mistaken.

The film's mysterious title refers to a variety of butterfly found in a meadow near the collector's house.

The Clouded Yellow is directed by Ralph Thomas and written by Eric Ambler and Janet Green. It stars Trevor Howard, Jean Simmons, Sonia Dresdel, Barry Jones, Kenneth More and Geoffrey Keen.

Taut British spy thriller with Hitchcockian flavours, The Clouded Yellow finds David Somers (Howard) as an ex-secret service operative working as a butterfly cataloguer who finds himself neck deep in a murder plot. Set in the North of England, with some good locations to be spotted by the keen of English eye, the story revolves around the murderous goings on at the stately home where Somers now works. With Sophie Mairaux (Simmons) the chief suspect, Somers comes to believe she is innocent and sets about proving so.

It follows a reliable formula, where the set-up introduces the main players, the hero in waiting takes it upon himself to use his skills to prove he's right, which builds to an odd couple on the lam final quarter of film. The strength is in the characterisations, particularly Somers with his past hanging heavy on his mind, and Mairaux and her current predicaments which involve her being surrounded by vile people. Thomas directs assuredly, mixing the drama with humour and affection, and the suspense and mystery elements are maintained up until the dramatic conclusion. Cast are suitably in good tune with the material, with Howard and Simmons making a compelling and complex coupling. 7/10

Hitchcock was of the opinion that audiences aren't really interested in what puts protagonists into danger - only that they ARE in danger, and need to escape.

This film proves Hitchcock was not 100% correct. Police believe Jean Simmons is guilty of a crime, when she plainly isn't. Trevor Howard decides their best course of action is to run for it. And so, the body of the movie has our charismatic pair dodging on and off trains, buses and coaches - jumping across rocks at the top of a waterfall - scrambling across dockyard roofs.

All good exciting stuff - but I couldn't get out of my mind that it was all unnecessary. They should have stayed put.

In other words, the MacGuffin wasn't strong enough.

If it weren't for good old Trevor Howard, this film would not be nearly so interesting. He is always enjoyable to watch, as he is always convincing and we want to see what he will get up to. Here he is thrown out of MI-6, the foreign secret service, rather unceremoniously after years of brilliant service in the field, and has to find some work. He ends up taking a temporary job cataloguing butterflies, of which the Clouded Yellow is a particularly pretty one which comes across the English Channel in a good summer and flutters around as delightfully as Jean Simmons. And yes, she is living in the rambling country house where the butterfly collection is. She is the psychologically disturbed and mysteriously orphaned niece of a rather creepy aunt and uncle. Or at least they say, rather too often, that Jean is psychologically disturbed. But is she really? Did she witness as a very young child what really happened to her parents? They say she 'found them'. But did she see who killed them? Clearly there is some vintage mystery material here. Jean Simmons at this stage in her career had very bushy eyebrows and looked more like a trapped wild animal than a girl. Alas, she did not have the magically convincing wildness of Jennifer Jones in GONE TO EARTH (1950, see my review), or this film could have become something of a classic. The direction by Ralph Thomas is also rather uninspired and pedestrian. So this film never really rises to the level of a butterfly's flight. Come to that, the story is pretty contrived and corny. The film is a tasty amuse-bouche, but should never be confused with a main course.