Surprise Package

I just caught this film while trying out my remote ( a favorite tool of mine lately ) and watched about 15 minutes of it. It was a comedy as far as I could tell and looking and listening to Yul Brenner's character and the way he was dressed, brought to mind another foreign actor, Charles Boyer, in the great movie "Algiers" with Hedy Lamarr. At times I thought I would 'hear' Boyer's voice listening to Yul, and thought it would be a good idea if they ever were going to rehash "Algiers" ( there are certain movies that could not be rehashed and "Algiers" was one them, but if they decided to do it, he would have been perfect as Pepe :a Moko. As for Mitzi, very poor acting the little I saw of her and indeed decorative for musicals only. Noel Coward was wasted.

Stanley Donen may have been the producer and director and the stars might be Yul Brynner and Mitzi Gaynor, as well as Noel Coward, but this comedy is a British production, filmed mostly on the island of Rhodes and shot, not in picture-postcard colour, but in black and white. The thin plot has deported gangster Brynner planning to steal exiled king Noel Coward's crown and the largely British cast includes George Coulouris, Warren Mitchell, Lyndon Brook and Eric Pohlmann as a corrupt police chief. Brynner does his best but he's not a natural comic actor and this is one of his poorest performances and try as he might, even a miscast Coward can do nothing with the mostly limp material, (though at least he does stop the show when he sings the title song). The film's real surprise is Gaynor as Brynner's moll. She's no actress but she sure is sprightly in that perky Mitzi Gaynor way of hers. It's not terrible; in fact, it's quite amusing in its very daft way but it's hardly Donen's finest hour.

You can only wonder why theyou bothered to make such a woefully unfunny film.YulBryner next film would be zThe Magnificent Seven,in the role of Chris.Coward would appear in a few more films.This was to be the end of Gaynors film career.What was Stanley Donenen thinking of.In fact the best part of the film were the opening credit titles which were designed by the great Maurice Binder.

Gangster Brynner is exiled back to a Greek Island where he hatches a plan to steal the crown of the king of Anatolia played by Noel Coward.

Underrated comedy with a sparkling script of witty one liners, delivered really well by Brynner. In support, Coward is well...Coward and there's a nice turn by Guy Deghy as a thief who helps Brynner. Best of all is Mitzi Gaynor, who plays Brynner's moll. Her performance is wonderful as is she, making this all in all a really quite charming film.

The only bum note the Coward / Gaynor title song duet - could have done without that.

I can not understand the negative comments about this film. I think that Yul Brunner is great in this film, mainly because he talks so mauch, which is completely atypical for him. Usually he played rather laconic characters. Noel Coward as ex-king is a perfect choice. Mitzi Gaynor is not the stupid blonde gangster bride, but basically very clever, only she is hardly taken seriously. She is also able to differentiate between good and bad, which the two main male characters, Nico and the ex-king, obviously cannot do. All in all a successful comedy that I can definitely recommend.