In the Cool of the Day

It "wasn't very good."

Jane Fonda, Peter Finch, Angela Lansbury, Arthur Hill, and Constance Cummings star in "In the Cool of the Day" (1963.

I have no idea what the title means. It's one of those titles like "Fever in the Blood." Actually, "Fever in the Blood" would have been better.

Murray Logan (Finch) plays a publisher who falls in love with his friend Sam's (Arthur Hill) young wife Christine (Jane Fonda). She is a fragile woman both physically and emotionally, suffering from a lung disorder.

Part of her problem is her mother (Constance Cummings); she is afraid of her and hates to be around her. Christine's husband worships the ground she walks on, but at this point, they are separated and she is living with her father (Alexander Bonner), and they meet at his house.

Murray's wife, Sibyl (Angela Lansbury) is a recluse, due to a horrid automobile accident she and Murray were in which killed their little boy. Murray feels responsible so he puts up with her, though she's a nasty woman.

Sam makes certain promises to Christine about the way she can live her life -- he's very suffocating -- and she desperately wants to see Greece. She invites Murray and Sibyl to accompany her and Sam. Surprisingly, Sibyl accepts.

The Grecian scenery is stunning.

The movie overall moves like molasses, and it was difficult to invest in any of the characters.

As far as Fonda's hair - it was distracting. It's also the way women wore their hair in the '60s. I didn't mind her clothes, which some have mentioned. She was still quite beautiful.

The performances were okay - for me, only Lansbury and Cummings provided any spark. Fonda's performance was a little mannered for me. I can never get over the fact that Arthur Hill was the original George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf because he's the same in every single thing I've seen him in. Peter Finch didn't register a ton of emotion.

The ending was very clichéd.

I just found it a waste of good talent and beautiful locations.

The premise of In the Cool of the Day was intriguing: a married man falls for his friend's wife while on vacation in Greece. Since I'd just come back from a vacation in Greece myself, I was looking forward to watching it. Plus, any movie with the insanely beautiful Jane Fonda will be good, right? Not so much. And the hairdresser and makeup artist must have hated their leading lady. Poor Miss Fonda was given a hideous wig and strange eye makeup to distort her features - you can still tell she's a beautiful woman underneath all that, but it's painful to watch such attempts to make her look otherwise. She does get to wear some gorgeous outfits, though.

Peter Finch is the lead, and he's unhappily married to Angela Lansbury. Angela refuses to be seen in public because she doesn't want the "disfiguring" scars on her face to attract attention. But there's nothing wrong with her face at all! Perhaps the makeup artist was too busy with Jane Fonda to remember Angela's scar tissue. Anyway, Peter goes from one sick woman to another: Jane has bad lungs and could die from pneumonia at any time. Then why is she practically chain-smoking throughout the entire movie?

Thankfully, there are other movies you can watch if you want to see the sights of Greece. And even more thankfully, there are other movies you can watch if you're a Jane Fonda fan (and who isn't?). So why watch this one? It's weird, uneven, and disappointing.

If ever there was an underrated film, In the Cool of the Day is it. I am not one to dismiss it as a soaper, nor do I share in the silly fixation on Jane Fonda's period hairstyle, which becomes her to my mind. As I see it, the film not only bears reasonable scrutiny, I would not change a thing about it.

The age-old theme of loyalty clashed with forbidden love never stales so long as it is done right, as is the case here. More than an intelligent study of sexual propriety, the film is an ode to traveling, something I might just do indefinitely if only I could. The four principal characters are well-established. Jane Fonda's Christine Bonner and Peter Finch's Murray Logan share an affinity for Greece that is evinced most compellingly. Greece itself is very well shot by Peter Newbrook, who did second unit photography on David Lean's visually amazing Lawrence of Arabia.

So, it's a match made in Graecophilic heaven. Unfortunately, he is married to the contemptibly cantankerous Sibyl (Angela Lansbury), and she to the doting, tiresomely prudent Sam (Arthur Hill). Christine's overbearing self-indulgent mother is another fly in the ointment. What's more, Christine has a serious lung condition.

All in all, a most satisfying little known film with an average rating of 5.0 on 215 votes. Frightful luck as to the few who have seen it, perhaps. It's a very small sampling, so give it a go.

Oh, and IMDb, a cover picture would be nice. Please and thank you.

If you like Jane Fonda, you will enjoy her acting in this picture and also how very young looking she looked in all her fancy looking clothes. There is also fantastic photography through out Greece and the ancient ruins, also a nice Greek dance with Peter Finch and Jane Fonda. Murray Logan, (Peter Finch) is a successful author married to Sybil Logan, (Angela Lansbury) and they are a very unhappy couple because of a tragic event in their early marriage. Sam Bonner, (Arthur Hill) is a very good friend of Murray and one day he meets his wife, Christine Bonner, (Jane Fonda). As soon as this couple look at each other, you can see in their eyes an outstanding attraction and this is what makes this film a triangle of love and romance and plenty of fights.

Saw this one on Turner today- with a great cast: Peter Finch, Jane Fonda, Angela Lansbury- all Oscar people (I think)- it was TERRIBLE ! First off, the title seems to mean nothing whatsoever... Angela carps, Jane flirts... they are off to Greece on the flimsiest of pretenses (how dumb can Angela be ?)-- then the same cat/mouse game continues-- lots of good shots of Grecian ruins, but a travelogue would have been a lot more honest use of celluloid !