Part of Bryan Forbes' slate at EMI Films and I can see the appeal of it in the animal loving British film industry - a man spends six months in Antarctica among the penguins. And they stumped up for location filming on Antarctica and the penguins are cute.
But there's no story. He's on his own so there's no one to talk to. He gets a visit from some random dude on a sled and some pilots but it's not that exciting. They don't make any characters out of penguins. There's a blizzard but big deal. He plods around penguins but the footage of John Hurt in studio clearly didn't match that well with location stuff so they cut back on that.
No suspense or laughs. He sends back taped letters to Hayley Mills, a waitress he was sexually harassing before he went.
I think they film is meant to be about Frobush's journey from shallow pants man to caring person by hanging out with penguins but they couldn't find a way to dramatise it (even though Anthony Schaffer wrote the script). The opening scenes in London are dull - try hard funny dialogue, Sally Gleeson pops up as a conquest, uncomfortable scenes of Hurt trying to pick up Mills. Surely this sort of stuff is easy to do? Have him as cocky and spoilt and have Mills actually be interested but worried he's shallow... but she looks keen to avoid him.
Part of it is Hurt, a very fine character actor but not a leading man. It's fun to see Tom Cruise as a womaniser getting redemption but not Hurt. (British cinema produced heaps of leading men in the 60s - Caine, Connery, Harris - but seemed to struggle in the 70s - Hurt, Jon Finch). The film would have been better had Hayley Mills played Hurt's role. Hayley Mills among the penguins... I mean, that would be gold. Great fun. More successful too.
Mind you, Mills was admittedly a last minute addition - Susan Fleetwood was originally cast then sacked as Forbes brought in Boulting (original director Al Viola was making his feature debut... a mad idea on such an ambitious project). The end result is still rough - for instance the final reunion between Hurt and Mills is in long shot with what looks to be doubles.
The idea was interesting but they didn't get the story right and they stuffed the execution of what they did have.
No comments:
Post a Comment