In the Cool of the Day ** (1963, Peter Finch, Jane Fonda, Angela Lansbury, Arthur Hill) – Classic Movie Review 9738

Peter Finch and Jane Fonda star as a married publisher and a young married woman who have an illicit affair, in MGM’s coolly received 1963 romantic drama In the Cool of the Day.

‘WHY DID SHE GIVE HER LOVE TO A STRANGER…?’

Peter Finch and Jane Fonda star as publisher Murray Logan and young Christine Bonner, who have an illicit affair but are not supposed to love because he is married to Sybil Logan (Angela Lansbury) and she is equally hitched to Murray’s friend, older Sam Bonner (Arthur Hill).

Director Robert Stevens’s 1963 romantic drama In the Cool of the Day was understandably coolly received despite the quality of the production, direction and the acting, with a standout turn from Lansbury, and some great, characterful British actor support performance work.

It is a plush and good-looking, though too sentimental, slow and stodgy film, with some rough edges that needed ironing out, attractively made at MGM’s British studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, and on location in Greece, where the couple run off to pursue their romance. The fine collection of high-calibre performers would certainly have the talent to make it work if only the material were better.

Meade Roberts’s screenplay is based on a 1960 source novel by Susan Ertz, which MGM bought to film before publication.

Also in the cast are Constance Cummings, Alexander Knox, Nigel Davenport, John le Mesurier, Alec McCowen, Valerie Taylor, Andreas Markos, Thomas Baptiste, and Madeleine Sherwood.

George Coulouris had his scenes deleted.

In the Cool of the Day is directed by Robert Stevens, runs 91 minutes, is made by John Houseman Productions, is released by MGM, is written by Meade Roberts, based on a novel by Susan Ertz, is shot in Metrocolor and Panavision widescreen by Peter Newbrook, is produced by John Houseman, is scored by Francis Chagrin and is designed by Ken Adam.

Fonda recalled In the Cool of the Day as the worst movie of her career, though she had been eager to star in it.

Finch expressed deep regret at having agreed to be in it, adding that John Houseman had admitted producing the film only reluctantly to complete his contractual obligations to MGM.

Lansbury recalled: ‘I went to Jane Fonda’s room while we were on location and attempted a friendship. But Jane at that time was into the Method. She wasn’t friendly with me on camera so she wasn’t going to be friendly with me off. There’s a time for that, I think, and there’s a time to just let acting be acting.’ It is the London-born star’s first British film.

The title comes from Genesis 3:8, in which Adam and Eve have consumed the forbidden fruit: ‘They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.’

The title song ‘In the Cool of the Day’ (music by Manos Hatzidakis, English lyrics by Liam Sullivan) is performed by Nat ‘King’ Cole over the opening credits.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9738

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