Man of La Mancha * (1972, Peter O’Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco, Harry Andrews, John Castle, Brian Blessed, Ian Richardson, Julie Gregg, Rosalie Crutchley) – Classic Movie Review 8766

The all-time great hit Broadway musical play by Dale Wasserman about Don Quixote becomes an unhappy film musical in producer-director Arthur Hiller’s 1972 Man of La Mancha because it is miscast and misconceived and the wrong director is at the helm.

Laurence Rosenthal was Oscar nominated for Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation, and Peter O’Toole and James Coco were Golden Globe nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

The Spanish Inquisition has jailed author Miguel de Cervantes, who enacts much of the tale here in his cell. Peter O’Toole plays both Quixote and Cervantes rather well, although he hasn’t a singing voice (he is dubbed by Simon Gilbert), but nobody else makes much of an impression. Sophia Loren (as the lady Dulcinea, aka the prostitute Aldonza) and James Coco (as Sancho Panza and Cervantes’s manservant) aren’t singers either — didn’t they think casting three non-singing stars was pushing their luck?

The costly production certainly looks good through Giuseppe Rotunno’s lens, with Luciano Damiani’s art designs and on Arrigo Breschi’s sets.

Even the showstopper ‘The Impossible Dream’ (music by Mitch Leigh, lyrics by Joe Darion) goes for remarkably little, though it is reprised twice, twice sung by Simon Gilbert and the third time spoken by Sophia Loren and Peter O’Toole. ‘Man of La Mancha’ (music by Mitch Leigh, lyrics by Joe Darion) is also reprised twice, which also takes in Peter O’Toole speaking.

Also in the cast are Harry Andrews, John Castle, Brian Blessed, Ian Richardson, Julie Gregg, Rosalie Crutchley, Gino Conforti, Marne Maitland, Dorothy Sinclair, Miriam Acevedo, Teddy Green, Dominic Barto, Peter Johnston, Roy Jones and Connel Miles.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8766

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