Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures

I really enjoyed this movie. Two disparate people - one, an American art collector (Larry Pine), the other, an elderly but spry British woman (Peggy Ashcroft) who represents a British museum - arrive at a Maharaja's palace in Jodhpur, India and commence a sort of cat-and-mouse competition for the privilege to purchase a large, and apparently quite valuable, collection of old paintings which are in the Maharaja's possession -- a collection which, it seems, the Maharaja may not even be interested in selling.

Apparently it was made for TV, so it wasn't exactly what you would call "big budget," and yet I found it to be a rich feast of images of at least one part of India, both past and present. The scenery in and around the Maharaja's palace (filmed on location at Umaid Bhavan Palace in Jodhpur, India) was quite fascinating. In addition to authentic sets and scenery, there was lots of interesting Indian music, playing not only in the background but also in the "foreground," in the form of a few colorful dance sequences.

For a movie that's scarcely a little more than eighty minutes in length, I thought it held riches galore. The aforementioned scenery and music are only part of the rich tapestry found herein. The plot becomes a bit complex, but in a playful and gently comic manner, so you start to feel good as the story rolls along. The ending has a nice resolution to everything, and leaves you feeling good inside.

The actual paintings, what little we see of them, are quite wondrous, and are probably worth the proverbial price of admission.

Good performances all around, with a very literate script penned by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Of note is the teaming of Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, and Saeed Jaffrey, all of whom would later appear together in 1984's "A Passage to India." Also look for a very compelling performance by Aparna Sen, who plays the Maharaja's intelligent, beautiful - and frustrated - sister, Bonnie.

Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978) (TV) was written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and directed by James Ivory. It was a Merchant Ivory production. The Merchant Ivory movies were extremely popular in the 1970's and 1980's, and for good cause. The films earned six Oscars.

Unfortunately, this particular movie was not among the best Merchant Ivory productions. The basic plot was interesting enough. Two collectors of Indian art miniatures arrive at the castle of a maharaja. The maharaja owns some of the best art in India, but he neither protects the miniature or displays them.

Larry Pine portrays wealthy collector Clark Haven. Dame Peggy Ashcroft plays Lady Gee, who is not wealthy herself, but who collects for "The Museum." I suppose that would be The British Museum, although I don't think the museum name was ever mentioned.

Victor Banerjee plays the Maharaja "Georgie" while Aparna Sen portrays his sister, "Bonnie." (The nicknames were given to them by their English governess.) Saeed Jaffrey is Sri Narain, an art dealer, and Jane Booker is Lady G's young companion.

Everyone performs in a skilled, professional manner. (Well, Jane Booker's role is to have long legs and blonde hair. She doesn't really act.)

The problem is that there's never any real chemistry in the movie. It's as if someone wound up the actors, and then they all just marched through their parts like automatons. This is amazing, when you realize that many in the cast are true superstars. However, even Dame Peggy appears to just go through the motions in a role that was made for her talents.

What saves the movie is the few glimpses we get of the miniature paintings. They truly are exquisite. (We've seen some Indian miniature paintings at the Victoria and Albert museum, and they are wonderful.) Also, the set is a real maharajah's palace, the antique cars are his cars, and the music and dancing add to the exotic (to us) reality of upper class life in India.

We saw this movie when it was released, and I remember liking it. Maybe I've changed, or maybe the movie just didn't stand the test of time. It has a dreadful IMDb rating of 5.9. It's not a great movie, but it's better than that.

Hullabaloo was made for TV, and we saw it on the small screen. Still, I think it would work better in a theater. I can't recommend that you start searching for it today. However, if it comes your way, you might really enjoy it.