Copyright 31 December 1964 by Anatole De Grunwald Productions—Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 13 May 1965. London opening at the Empire, Leicester Square: 31 December 1964. Australian release: 18 March 1965. 122 minutes.

SYNOPSES: (1) Unaware that his wife is conducting an affair with his assistant (Edmund Purdom),an aristocrat (Rex Harrison) buys a Rolls Royce as a present for his wife (Jeanne Moreau) on their wedding anniversary. (2) An Italian photographer (Alain Delon) has an affair with a mobster's moll (Shirley MacLaine),who is forced to send him packing when the mobster (George C. Scott) returns from a business trip to the USA. (3) A rich widow in Trieste (Ingrid Bergman) hides a patriotic Yugoslav (Omar Sharif) from the Nazis.

NOTES: Filming commenced in London on 6 April 1964. Locations were photographed in England, Italy and Austria… Film debut of Art Carney… Last film of director Anthony Asquith, who died in February 1968.

COMMENT: Disappointing. Considering the amount of talent both in front of and behind the camera, I would have expected a far livelier, far more entertaining film than this languidly handled, tedious and simple-minded affair. Although Asquith's direction remains stolidly heavy-handed throughout, the main fault, of course, lies in the writing. The idea had great possibilities. Look what Julien Duvivier and company did with a simple tail-coat in Tales of Manhattan (1942)!

The First Episode is undoubtedly the most interesting and amusing by far. A sly comedy of manners, it features the debonair Rex Harrison, ideally cast and in great form. Rex can make even the dullest lines seem moderately witty. Moreau and Purdom adequately hold up the other corners of the romantic triangle. More importantly, there are some great supporting cameos, including Gregoire Aslan's flustered ambassador, Michael Hordern's confident car salesman and Lance Percival's bit as his disappointed assistant. Roland Culver and Moira Lister are also on hand (you have to be quick to glimpse her),plus cult favorite, Isa Miranda. This great line-up helps disguise some rather thin material, as well as Rattigan's consistently stodgy direction.

With the Second Episode, Rattigan's writing becomes more shallow, its deficiencies emphasized by the inane miscasting of George C. Scott as an Al Capone-type gangster. Fortunately Alain Delon's charming photographer and the fascinating Italian location scenery help make this segment reasonably watchable. Carney is okay and Miss MacLaine tries hard.

The Bergman piece comes across as a pretty poor misjudgment that wastes her talents. Fortunately, magnificent scenery comes to the rescue once again, this time aided by lively special effects. Plus Joyce Grenfell (employing her deliciously comic American accent) at the beginning and end of the episode. Riz Ortolani's melodic score also rates as a major asset.

The idea of a film made up of three short films that are all connected through the ownership of a car sounds interesting and because of the great cast I gave the movie a look. However, despite sounding wonderful, the final product is a lot like a meal made up entirely of toast. Sure, it's filling but also very bland and unsatisfying. It just should have been a lot better.

The first segment is extremely maudlin. Rex Harrison plays a rather out of touch but decent guy who buys the car for his wife (Jeanne Moreau). However, though he loves her dearly, she is having an affair. When he eventually discovers this, the segment soon ends--and ends amazingly abruptly. Too bad, as this segment alone could have made for a decent film had it been hashed out more.

The second was intended as a comedic and romantic piece and it starred George C. Scott as a gangster, Art Carney as his sidekick, Shirley MacLaine as Scott's fiancé and Alain Delon as an Italian photographer (why they chose a French guy for this role is odd). It's a rather disjointed segment because it appears like two different films merged together. While occasionally a tad funny, the romance later in the film seemed forced and unrealistic. Not a bad effort, but rather forgettable.

As for the final segment which starred Ingrid Bergman and Omar Sharif, it was very odd. Bergman played one of the most annoying and selfish characters I have ever seen. Yet, midway through this segment, she has a HUGE turnabout and shows herself to be brave and kind--a complete 180 degree shift. Such changes are seen in film but never in real life, so it was rather fun to see but also pretty vapid and silly.

Overall, it's a time-passer and not much more. None of the three segments were especially compelling and I was left wanting so much more.

I never got to see this original Terrence Rattigan film directed by Anthony Asquith the first time in theater. But I certainly remembered the song Forget Domani. Frank Sinatra had a huge selling record of it and you could hear it back in 1964 about as often as you could hear the Beatles on the radio.

The creative well ran a little dry for Terrence Rattigan in The Yellow Rolls Royce, a film of three separate stories involving the owners of a really flashy Yellow Rolls Royce. Rattigan's first two stories are essentially the same story with different characters. In the first diplomat Rex Harrison buys the car spanking new out of the show room for his wife Jeanne Moreau. She uses it of course to meet boyfriend Edmond Purdom who works under Harrison in the Foreign Office and is about to be transfered to South America.

The second story has the car pass to George C. Scott who is an American gangster with moll Shirley MacLaine. She falls for fellow gangster Alain Delon. Both the first two stories resolve themselves in the same way.

The third story is the charm and the original one. By now visiting American dowager Ingrid Bergman has the car and has the charming Omar Sharif talk his way into hitching a ride from Trieste to Belgrade on the eve of the invasion of Yugoslavia by Hitler. That offer of help leads Bergman on an odyssey into how the other half lives she never bargained for. I do so love the scene where just as she's ordering a fine meal in an expensive restaurant in Belgrade, the air attack starts and the disruption of service upsets her so.

If Rattigan had done something a little more original for the second story The Yellow Rolls Royce might truly be a classic. As it is it's not bad. Asquith certainly captured the ambiance of the Thirties and antique car lovers will love this film.