The Kingfisher

The best thing about The Kingfisher is that like Long Day's Journey Into Night it was made cinematically viable by taking the action outdoors in and around Rex Harrison's country estate. But The Kingfisher is hardly in the same league as Eugene O'Neill's classic.

Rex Harrison repeats the role he had on Broadway opposite Claudette Colbert. Although I would like to have seen Colbert on the screen, I've got no complaints about Wendy Hiller. Who in the English speaking world would have?

Harrison is a novelist who in his day was quite the lady's man and one of those ladies was Hiller. She's the one who got away and married another. Now she's coming to see him after burying her husband. Of course Harrison is almost giddy with anticipation or as giddy as one gets at his age having seen and done one and all.

The third part here is Cyril Cusack who is one delightful old butler who has been carrying on a decades old gay crush on his boss. Devotion doesn't quite describe what Cusack has done for Harrison although Rex can't quite recognize it.

The players are as classy a group as you can get and they help the film over the rough spots. After all it really is almost plot less and actionless, just a group of old codgers sitting around and talking.

But what talk.

How many of us remember the great love of our youth. And for some reason or other the one that got away. Where is he/she now and is it possible for providence to give us the last opportunity to correct this?

Three great actors play out the scenario. Cecil (Rex Harrison) discovers that his love Evelyn (Wendy Hiller) that gotaway 50 years ago has been recently widowed and is passing by his home on the way from the funeral.

For 50 years Evelyn was married to an avid golfer who died on the seventeenth hole. Why did they get married? For 50 years Cecil decided never to marry and lived with his servant Hawkins (Cyril Cusack) who is not looking forward to the impending meeting.

This film is based on "The Kingfisher: A comedy in two acts" by William Douglas Home and we are voyeurs watching these people and of course the kingfisher. You will have to watch again for all the nuances'. Also, notice the extras on the DVD.

Be sure to watch Rex playing a character named Cecil in Guêpier pour trois abeilles (1967).

This is a beautiful short story of Cecil and Evelyn, played by Rex Harrison and Wendy Hiller, who almost became engaged to each other 50 years before their present reunion. Cecil had remained unmarried, literally "playing the field" throughout Europe, while never forgetting his love for Evelyn. But, still, he managed to acquire wealth and a country mansion and is now awaiting the arrival of Evelyn, hours after the funeral of the husband she married instead of Cecil - who never asked for her hand. He now passionately welcomes her chauffeured arrival - with her original "corn-colored hair", with only a bit of gray added; a slim, attractive body and a frank but pleasing personality and voice. Their conversation quickly turns to their prior love and its frustration, followed quickly by Cecil's curiosity about Evelyn's 50 year, "on the rebound", marriage. Cecil's inquiries are almost as aggressive and arrogant as Harrison's "Professor Henry Higgins" in "My Fair Lady". Of course, every viewer is "rooting" for the return of their love and the marriage they had missed. Yet, there is a human problem, uncontrolled by either. I will buy this DVD tomorrow - so that it will be available for my personal re-viewing and for my many friends who will enjoy it as much as I. John E. McDonald - Santa Rosa, California, USA

This film is a treat to watch as Rex Harrison, Wendy Hiller and Cyril Cusack are in top form. The dialog is surprisingly quick and at times delightfully risqué, as the former lovers frankly recall what might have been fifty years ago.

Dame Wendy is wonderful in a change of pace role, quite different from the formidable old ladies she was known for. As Lady Evelyn, she is still attractive, sparkling and sensuous, game for anything Sir Cecil has in mind. Their drunken evening is very witty.

Cyril Cusack steals the show as Rex Harrison's devoted butler. His little chat with Lady Evelyn in the summer house is absolutely hilarious.

A must see for all who love seeing bygone stars and the sheer range and unpredictability of their talents. A treat!