Hotel Paradiso ** (1966, Gina Lollobrigida, Alec Guinness, Robert Morley, Peggy Mount) – Classic Movie Review 8219

Alec Guinness stars in director Peter Glenville’s 1966 British comedy Hotel Paradiso as mild Benedict Boniface, who wants to have a fling with his lovely neighbour Marcelle Cot (Gina Lollobrigida). She is being neglected by her husband Henri Cot (Robert Morley). But Benedict’s battleaxe wife Angelique Boniface (Peggy Mount) must not find out. Henri plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso, the assignation place of Marcelle and Benedict.

Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières’s stage play farce about the romantic goings-on at a tatty hotel is a very mild affair as a film, despite the obvious efforts of a disparate bunch of players.

Director Peter Glenville does not seem to know how to bring it all together or keep it frenzied, and on the boil, but it is hard not to like all of the players and at least some of the comedic shenanigans. The four stars prove very amusing people and good company.

Guinness had a hit with it on stage in London in 1956.

Also in the cast are Peggy Mount, Douglas Byng, Akim Tamiroff, Robertson Hare, Marie Bell, Ann Beach, Leonard Rossiter, David Battley, Eddra Gale, Darío Moreno and Derek Fowlds as Maxime.

Peter Glenville and Jean-Claude Carrière provide the screenplay, adapting the play.

Derek Fowlds (1937 – 2020).

From the 1960s, Derek Fowlds (1937 – 2020) moved into movies, appearing in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, We Joined the Navy, Tamahine, Doctor in Distress, Hot Enough for June [Agent 8 3/4], East of Sudan, Hotel Paradiso in 1966 and Tower of Evil in 1972.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8219

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