The Madwoman of Chaillot *** (1969, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Oskar Homolka, Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain, Edith Evans, Donald Pleasence) – Classic Movie Review 2431

Director Bryan Forbes’s civilised 1969 satirical comedy drama turns Jean Giraudoux’s celebrated play La Folle de Chaillot into an offbeat vehicle for Katharine Hepburn, who plays an eccentric and idealistic French countess trying to stop the plan of corrupt powerful capitalists to turn Paris into an oilfield.

Forbes took over from John Huston as director when he left the production 17 days before shooting was due to begin. Forbes agreed to direct particularly to have the experience of directing Hepburn, who became a friend. 

Considering the circumstances, Forbes makes a good job of sorting out the situation and the oddball whimsical allegorical material, theatrical stuff that isn’t really well suited to film. However, it is extremely well crafted by Forbes and his team, and the extraordinary cast is certainly worth checking out and they help to make it at least intriguing, possibly a bit more.

Paul Henreid, Yul Brynner, Danny Kaye (in his last cinema appearance), Edith Evans, Charles Boyer, Claude Dauphin, Nanette Newman, Oscar Homolka, Margaret Leighton, Donald Pleasence, Richard Chamberlain, Giulietta Masina, Fernand Gravey, Gilles Ségal and John Gavin all give engrossing performances. The film is long (132 minutes) and talky, but patient audiences will find it worthwhile, particularly for the grand Hepburn turn, the cement holding it all together

The General (Henreid), The Commissar (Homolka), The Chairman (Brynner) and The Prospector (Pleasence) discuss how to increase their fortunes. Mad Countess Aurelia (Hepburn) learns of their plan to drill for oil under the streets of her Paris district from activist Roderick (Chamberlain) and The Ragpicker (Kaye). Then a trial takes place in the Countess’s cellar presided over by her friend Josephine (Evans).

Forbes insisted on hiring his regular collaborator Ray Simm as set designer and several last-minute alterations were made to already built settings. Forbes gave Michael J Lewis his first job as a film composer. It’s certainly an elaborate and beautiful production.

Martita Hunt starred in the original 1948 Broadway stage version by Jean Giraudoux, which is adapted for the screen here by Edward Anhalt. It opened at the Belasco Theatre in New York on December 27 1948 and ran for 368 performances. A musical version of the play entitled Dear World, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, and starring Angela Lansbury, opened on Broadway in 1969.

François Truffaut reused The Place de Chaillot set, still standing at Studio la Victorine, for the one on which Meet Pamela, the film-within-a-film in Day for Night (1973), was being shot.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2431

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