In the Cool of the Day

No wonder this wasn't even listed in my comprehensive special edition video book covering thousands of movies ~ not even as a dog. Since yesterday, 10/16/06, was Angela Lansbury's 81st birthday they featured her movies on Turner Classics. Evidently Jane Fonda must still have some pull with Ted, because her performance didn't warrant viewing; it made ME uncomfortable watching her. Angela, in a recent interview, mentioned her disappointment with that movie. No surprise! That's 90 minutes I'll never get back. However, I made a lovely cauliflower au gratin and a pumpkin pie while the movie played on our kitchen TV (I kept thinking something would happen or the story would get better; it didn't).

This is a pretty strange little film about an illicit affair between a married man and his best friend's wife. Finch is the man, a publisher, who finds himself drawn to friend Hill's much younger wife. Finch's wife is a virtual shut-in, played by Lansbury. She suffers from the effects of a car wreck (shown in flashback, in which she looks OLDER than present day!) Fonda is the young lady married to Hill who suffers from emotional problems, lung difficulties and the ugliest hair ever to hit the silver screen. She is downright scary in this film! Her make-up is done in such a severe way and her hair (a hideous "fall", actually) is so unflattering and Orry-Kelly decks her out in an increasingly bizarre set of clothes and atrocious hats that the film becomes a sort of fashion horror movie! Fonda, so attractive in the films before and after this one is made to look like a total freak. At least the unflattering, ugly clothes are something to focus on because the story and the romance between her and Finch is deadly dull. The one bright spot is Lansbury. Though her character is foolish and unreal, she steals every scene she's in, looks terrific (though she keeps obsessing about a "scar" which is almost completely impossible to see!) and when she exits the film, she takes the life right out of it. She gets off a few wisecracks and displays a sexier figure than she often got to show. Cummings is wasted in a very small role. Apart from her first scene, she gets virtually nothing to do or say. The film is watchable for it's Grecian scenery and for the camp value of watching the May-December maneuverings of Finch and Fonda. The music score is exceedingly annoying and the short running time often feels like twice that. Sherwood appears very briefly...the film definitely could have used more of her.

Christine Bonner (Jane Fonda) is getting away from her overly-protective husband Sam (Arthur Hill) and dreams of going to Greece. She is counselled by family friend Murray Logan (Peter Finch). He has his own marital issues with wife Sybil (Angela Lansbury).

Everybody is troubled and I like that aspect. I don't buy the romance in any shape or form. I'm more interested in the two characters working out their problems with their individual marriage partners. A better movie would be Murray dealing with his wife and Christine dealing with Sam. They could separate if that's for the best but at least they would be adults about it. They're just running away from their problems. It doesn't seem to matter that it's with each other. She's going to Greece either way. This has some exotic locations but the movie makes them look dour. I don't mind a sad movie but this is a movie about two people running away from their marriages without dealing with the underlying problems. It's not romantic.

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 !

If fashion and Mediterranean scenery tend to dazzle you about a movie then you'll likely be all up in the clouds dancing over this one. For the rest of us who desire somewhat more from our hours invested in a movie, In-the-Cool-of-the-Day falls far short of the mark I'm afraid.

It's your basic "Two people married to other people fall in love on a romantic European trip, having been put together alone due to circumstances and also the situation in each of their marriages." In Fonda's character's case she's simply not in love with her doting and rather 'doormattish' husband. In Finch's character's case his wife (Landsbury) is a miserable joy-killing shrew of a woman who is playing ever the martyr and guilt-tripping him over a past tragedy in their lives. While Fonda's husband can't make the trip, Finch and Landsbury end up fighting and she walking out, leaving he and Fonda to continue on alone.

The back story on Fonda's character is that she has been sickly since early childhood, having had multiple surgeries on her lungs and nearly dying. In any normal family of the time that would mean the only sensible course of action, that being no one smokes near her. But in THIS film the production (writers, director, producer, etc) all thought it was no big deal to just have all involved puffing away like steam engines including Jane's character herself.

While the view on smoking was a little different back in '63 than it is today it is still fairly unthinkable that a physician would raise major concern over a trip by car through the mountains due to a little rain yet have no quarrel whatsoever about a girl with serious respiratory ailments smoking like a chimney.

As for the ending all I'll say is I found it abrupt, unsurprising, and disappointing, Fonda herself is absolutely gorgeous. The vistas and views of the countryside are spectacular. The acting is decent. The story and plot is where this film falls flat.

4/10