Darling Lili

Blake Edwards' "Darling Lili" is not a great film, but it is better than most people give it credit for. One of the most maligned productions in history (the aerial sequences took 2 years to film, the budget swelled to 3 times the original budget, various cuts of the film only add to the muddle), my final analysis is this: an underrated film whose reputation should soar once it's more widely seen.

This film exists in three versions: the original roadshow version (190 minutes)which Edwards disowned, the general release version (136 minutes)and Edwards' personal director's cut (113 minutes).

Tones shift between versions. The roadshow version had more talky sequences and was a numbing bore. The general release version deleted these sequences and was an improvement, but was still missing something. Edwards' cut was a great improvement. It is more serious in tone than the previous cuts, but the story concucted by Edwards and William Peter Blatty benefits from that approach. Julie Andrews is simply great as Lili, the singer/spy and her singing is at an all time high. Rock Hudson is excellent as her American pilot lover. Only after his inclination was exposed, did people take him seriously as an actor. But he was great all along. The songs by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer are strong as is the cinematography (by Russell Harlan, in Panavision)

Sadly, "Darling Lili" is not available on tape or DVD. But luckily for us, AMC shows this very often.

Roadshow version: 1/2* General Release: ** 1/2 Director's Cut: ***1/2

Recognized with three Oscar nominations Darling Lili was a big flop at the time and helped seal the fate of big budget musicals and Julie Andrews's career in them. They were getting just too expensive to make with all the talent that used to be under contract to a studio now charging full market value for services. Whatever else Darling Lili is it's a full market value musical film.

Set in the era of World War I, Darling Lili's best asset is its music. Two of the three nominations were in the music field for best overall score and to Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer for the song Whistling In The Dark. That one is an incredibly beautiful number that Julie Andrews sings perfectly. The original songs are integrated so well into the film that they fit perfectly in the era. More traditional World War I era songs are also used, no doubt all in the public domain by 1970.

Would that the score was attached to a better story. Wholesome Julie Andrews is a popular entertainer of the era, singing for the troops on the western front. She also doubles as a German spy. Her assignment which she accepts with gusto is to get involved with American air ace Rock Hudson and learn some military secrets. I think you can guess the rest.

Darling Lili lurches back and forth from cloak and dagger espionage to slapstick comedy in the extreme and it's an uncomfortable ride in the process. One of the characters is Lance Percival playing a drunken pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. I mean really, this guy should never have been in the RFC, the comedy which is good is severely out of place.

Film buffs will recognize some similarity to The Firefly and the British classic Dark Journey so if you know those films you know how this one ends. Fans of Rock Hudson and of Julie Andrews will like this and her singing is divine. The rest of Darling Lili is on a lesser plain.

Julie and Blake deliver a real bomb {no pun intended}of a World War 1 musical with this sloppily made mega budget mess. Julie's voice is always a joy, but the music here is of the "in one ear, out the other" variety. Hudson shows all the romantic magnetism of a buttered scone and his scenes with Julie hold about as much spark as my 1987 Yugo. The comic relief is painfully unfunny, the flying scenes ho hum {with most of the aircraft and even one of the stars, Jeremy Kemp, rehashed from "The Blue Max"}and the whole experience just makes me glad that I saw this on free TV. Its a long way to Tipperary alright, this movie is closer to Verdun....

Darling Lili may have been a major flop at the time, but to me it is not a bad film. Not great, uneven is a good way to describe it, but it is much better than its reputation. It is overlong, the comedy/slapstick scenes at times feel out of place and compared to the other themes that make up the film at odds with the rest of the film, the film can get muddled, the film can drag and Rock Hudson while likable is rather stiff- compared to his usual performances- and doesn't have the strongest of chemistrys with Julie Andrews(though not without its moments). Julie Andrews though is great though, her acting and presence are charming and she as ever sings like an angel. Lance Percival shines also in possibly his best film role and one of his best performances. The film looks gorgeous, the highlights being the marvellously shot aerial dogfight sequences and the visuals that accompany the song Whistling Away the Dark. The music is distinctive Henry Mancini, it fits the film adeptly and is a very memorable score and one you can re-visit more than once. Much has been said about the hauntingly beautiful Whistling Away the Dark, how Andrews sings it(like an angel and with so much nuance and emotion) and how it's staged and for good reason, simply put it's a beautiful song that is beautifully sung and beautifully staged. The script and the story aren't great but they're not disastrous either. The script is intelligent with some snappy moments, it didn't feel that talky, and the story at least has some entertainment value despite moments being muddled and the spy thriller, drama and musical themes being far more convincing than the comedy and romance ones. Overall, uneven but Darling Lili a decent film and is much better than it's made out to be, though it's somewhat easy to see why it was a flop. 6/10 Bethany Cox

It was 1970. Julie Andrews had hit her highs onscreen, and her star was starting to fade, at least in the public's eye. "Lili" represented another opportunity for Julie to change her image, coming right after the megamusical "STAR!" which didn't deserve the drubbing *it* received either.

Audiences didn't seem to care for this WWI musical drama. In fact, they were staying away in droves from ANY musical--drama or not.

The shame of it all is that this film, with its many classic moments, was stigmatized by the press who were gunning for Our Fair Julie and her new beau, writer/director/producer Blake Edwards.

But "Lili" really *is* worth seeking out. Julie sings beautifully, especially the haunting "Whistling Away the Dark," a lovely Henri Mancini tune that opens and closes the film. Her performance is nuanced and quite affecting--just watch her as a fat tear silently slides down her cheek after a tumultuous argument with Major Larabee.

Edwards has staged some stunning flight sequences, but the suffer somewhat, in 1990s sensibilities, from the blue-screen process shots needed to get Rock "into" midair. Edwards also can't seem to help himself from sliding into formulaic comedy bits (he apparently thinks a bumbling Frenchman with an umbrella on a roof in a rainstorm is hilarious--it shows up in film after film of his).

The reason to watch "Lili" is for its interesting spin on the Mata Hari legend and the performance of Miss Andrews, who certainly didn't deserve the brickbats that came her way following its release.