La grande Catherine

This is a masterpiece of a film filled with masterful performances. Zero Mostel is utterly outrageous, fearless, daredevil, astonishingly clever and versatile. You never know what Peter O'Toole will do next. The only actor underused is Jack Hawkins. Jeanne Moreau is magnificent, fully equal to Sophia Loren, and perhaps much better than she would have been in this role.

The dialogue is brilliant and stimulating, as one would hope for from George Bernard Shaw. But just as fine are the musical score by the Great Dmitri Tiomkin, and the ever-surprising choreography by Paddy Stone. The extended dance scene is monumental in scope and achievement. It is the centerpiece of the entire movie. This movie is simply stunning.

English Captain Charles Edstaston (Peter O'Toole) and his fiancée Claire arrive in St. Petersburg to meet Catherine the Great (Jeanne Moreau). First, the British Ambassador leads him to Prince Potemkin (Zero Mostel). He has been instructed by the English Queen to recount their side of the American Revolution to Catherine.

It is a historical spoof based on a 1913 George Bernard Shaw play. I don't know anything about that. I am reminded of the recently canceled The Great except more rambling. Mostel is let loose for good and for ill. I would like the movie to go full sex romp. That route has more room to go. This is fun at times. I like O'Toole and Moreau. They have fun with the miniatures.

This is an off beat movie against which you can measure all others my little cherubs, my little angels, my little white ducks. Yes this one is Zanny, Odd, Wild and, quite well done. The Music is so awesome to it I'd love to have a soundtrack. The sets are lavish and, the people wild. Unlike the Soviet era russians these guys and, ladies could rock they knew how to throw a party.

This is another of the movies I love that has no moral at the end its just fun to watch. But unlike other mindless movies this movie does at least engage you on a few different levels of throught. Potemkin is the best act in the whole movie as he stays politically drunk through the whole picture. If it were available on video or DVD I would say its a must have but alas the folk that make these decisions has not released it on DVD / video yet.... When they do you should order yours right away so you can be in line right after me.

One of those movies that I saw ages ago, want to see again, to see if it has the same effect. Trying to capture Peter O'Toole's Whats New Pussycat flavor (although more buffoonish)& including a great array of character actors, Mostel, Hawkins, Tamiroff & Griffith the critics probably wanted this to be better than it is. But it is French legend Jeanne Moreau that is so wonderful. It was one of the first times I had seen her, actually probably the first, & she is not afraid to mix her sexiness with slapstick. With such a male cast it would have been easy for her to be just be scenery but she accepts her pratfalls brilliantly eg getting shot in the seat of her dress by clumsy O'Toole. if anyone has a copy of this gem please post this info

Great Catherine is the last Shaw play to have been made into a movie. And no wonder considering the slaughter these people made of this one. Not only is this the worst filming of a Shaw play ever created (though Sophia Loren's and Peter Sellers' The Millionairess gives it a good run in the awful department) it is for me one of the worst films of any kind that I've ever seen. If you think that people falling down drunk throughout a film (Zero Mostel's Potemkin) is amusing this film is for you. I however think this sort of baloney action is tedious and very unfunny. The only redeeming feature in this film is the Tiomkin score and the Russian peasants' greatly choreographed free for all at the ball. I used to think that what killed this film was the director's slowing down the action of the repartee from trippingly fast to turgidly slow but now having seen the film all the way through on TCM recently I've decided that every other part of the project likewise contributes to its stinkeroo lack of quality. Moreau and O'Toole swimming around fully clothed in the water of the destroyed model Bunker Hill battle---give me a break! To think of O'Toole participating in such a fiasco after Lawrence of Arabia, The Ruling Class, My Favorite Year, and countless other films in which he acts up a storm leaves me very unhappy and disappointed. I agree with another of your reviewers: if you want to see a film of a Shaw play this one should not be the one you see first! Both thumbs as far down as they can get.