ryancm A very enjoyable vintage film which the likes are not made anymore. Usually these all star cast epics are not too good, but this on and THE V I P's are well worth seeing. Three stories revolve around a yellow Rolls Royce with a common thread of back-seat "goings on". All three episodes are well done and photographed. The scenery is magnificent as is the music score. While all the actors are perfect in their roles, INGRID BERGMAN is the stand-out. This lady could do no wrong. SHIRLEY MACLAINE does her Shirley Maclaine to the hilt. A character very much like her earlier work in SOME CAME RUNNING. Since movies like these are no longer made, this is a must see for those enthusiasts who love old fashion movie making. Just out on DVD the transfer is wonderful. Too mad no extras as this one cries out for a commentary by at least one of the surviving stars.

theowinthrop Somewhere among my books is a paperback novelization of this film, which I read in public school when I was having lunch. I had seen the film and I did so enjoy looking at that car. There is nothing so pleasing as to see a classic limousine automobile of the 1920s to early 1940s, particularly a Rolls-Royce. This one came complete with French telephone connection between the driver and the people in the sedan coach of the car.Basically the plot of this film (particularly in the opening sequence with Rex Harrison, Jeanne Moreau, and Edmund Purdom) is an extension (if you will) of a brief scene in the film NOW VOYAGER, where Bette Davis and a young actor playing the wireless officer on a P.& O. Steamer meet in the cab of an automobile that is in the cargo bay of the ship. The Rolls Royce, always a symbol of opulence, is used for lovers' trysts. First between Moreau and Purdom (her aristocratic husband's secretary); second between gangster's moll Shirley Maclaine and photographer Alain Delon); and last between right wing millionaire socialite Ingrid Bergman and Yugoslav partisan leader Omar Shariff.The stories are separated from each other by two to three years so we are aware as we watch the tales of the coming of the Second World War (although the middle episode deals with American gangster George C. Scott taking care of a rival back home)*. Harrison's Marquis is reminiscent of Lord Halifax and other too accommodating diplomats at Whitehall who were unwilling to counsel a firm, even warlike stand against the Nazis and Fascists. Bergman is like so many upper crust Americans who saw the war as a foreign matter...not for American concerns. She even (like Charles Foster Kane in the newsreel at the start of that film) has met the leaders in Italy and Germany and been reassure by them. It is only after she witnesses an unprovoked bombing on Belgrade where children are wounded that she begins to realize just who the monsters were she was relying on the words of.(*Interestingly enough there is an episode in the novelization that is just mentioned in passing about an Indian Prince who owns the car after Harrison's Marquis. The Prince spends money quite freely until caught short...and forced to sell the car in Italy. It might have been an interesting episode too if it had been in the film.) The stories are pretty well told, but it is of three impossible love stories. Moreau may be fooling with Purdom but she has no intention of leaving Harrison (but he is terribly hurt at the end, and even hates the sight of the car at the conclusion of that episode). Maclaine dumps Delon (on the advice of her "chaperone" Art Carney) to save him from Scott (who is aware of what happened, but remains quiet because Maclaine came back in line). Bergman (unlike the other two) would have stayed with Sharif, but he realizes that she is more useful warning her fellow plutocrats of what is really going on...and getting the U.S. ready to help the Europeans end these evil invaders. She and he hope to reunite, but it's a war and they don't know.The result is a good film, a historic soap opera of the 1930s-1941. The leads are good as are supporting players Carney, Joyce Grenville, and even Wally Cox in a brief scene as a helpless American diplomat trying to get Bergman to return to the U.S. It is a good film (as was said elsewhere) for a rainy afternoon. A film for the ages? Hardly, but it is entertaining enough.

Poseidon-3 An impressive line up of noted international actors was accrued for this three part film, with the title car serving as the connective tissue between episodes (which occur several years apart.) Harrison leads with a tale involving the purchase of the vehicle for his wife as a belated anniversary gift. His character could almost be a cousin to Henry Higgins and is played in much the same manner, though with a slightly more serious and sentimental edge. The wife (Moreau, in a pretty wooden portrayal) turns out not to be so deserving of the Rolls. This sequence is lavishly appointed with impressive sets and costumes and that "veddy" British air, but winds up being pretty uneventful. Next up is Scott as a gangster touring Italy with his sidekick Carney and his moll MacLaine (who, in a blonde wig looks and acts alarmingly similar to Renee Zellweger in "Chicago"!) They purchase the car to get them to his home town. However, when Scott has to return to the U.S. to take out an enemy, MacLaine becomes enamored of a local gigolo (Delon) and pursues a tentative romance with him. Miscast Scott is aloof and hammy at the same time, but wears some nice suits. Carney does some nice, low key work. MacLaine (with her chewing gum, which should have gotten billing!) wears a bit thin with all the schtick and overacting, but she pulls off a few decent moments. The real highlight of this section (and of the entire film!) is the jaw-droppingly beautiful sight of the impossibly beautiful Alain Delon. Slathered in tan body make-up, his light blue eyes stand out like pools of spring water. His charm and lean good looks overwhelm even the striking location scenery. Finally, Bergman purchases the car to get her into Yugoslavia during WWII. Sharif bums a ride and eventually involves her in the transport of resistance fighters across rugged terrain. Bergman looks terrific in the early part of this story and creates an unusual and intriguing character, complete with a yapping Pekinese and a hilarious cohort (Grenhall, in a hilarious performance that is way too brief.) She and Sharif make an odd, but attractive pair. The film is beautiful to look at (even if the fabled title car looks like a rather unattractive taxi!) However, the stories just aren't memorable enough to make this film really matter. Very little occurs in them and there is precious little dramatic payoff in each one. The director had previously done the stiflingly static "The V.I.P.'s" and, though this film is far more opened up and varied, the overall layer of reserve is still in place. Still, it's great to see the various actors doing their thing, especially Delon and Bergman, and there are several beautiful scenic shots. In the end, it's a classy, sometimes stagnant, but always elegant film.

tripledeepmom Talk about movies with an all-star cast! This is one of the best comprising the best; Rex Harrison, Shirley Maclaine, George C. Scott, Ingrid Bergman, Omar Shariff and the list goes on. What more can you ask to keep your heart from beating a mile a minute while Rex who is so happy and in love with his unfaithful wife catches her in the act with his confidant inside the yellow rolls royce. The 2nd segment of the film is the one that cannot make you stop laughing from start to finish. George (Al Capone's cohort) leaves his trusted henchman in Italy to babysit for his "fidenzata" (his engaged soon to be married) Shirley. She's escorted around Italy by henchman Art Carney who takes a backseat to a handsome Gigolo who falls madly for her and seduces her in the yellow rolls. Shirley comes to her senses and Gigolo learns who her "fidenzato" and his accomplice Art Carney is. After trying to lure her away from going back to America, she makes the decision to marry George (Paulo) and stay alive as Paolo has come back to Italy to resume his romantic pursuits. In the 3rd and final film, the car now is shipped to war torn Germany, where partisans need the car to take food, equipment and men fighting to stay alive and free in Yugoslavia. The Partisan Omar Shariff will use and deceive Ingrid to his advantage and for freedom, but finding her to be vulnerable and very rich, he now befriends her while she partakes to help in the war effort to help his family and comrades in the mountainous countryside, where she in turn falls deeply in love with him and he with her having found quiet solitude and love within the confines of the yellow rolls royce. I love this movie and so wish that it were available on DVD or video cassette. I have been unable to locate it, but each time it appears on AMC, I don't miss it if I can help it. I'd watch it again and again. It's GREAT!