Darling Lili

By 1970 Blake Edwards was in a creative crisis that would last until 1975 when he turned again to Inspector Closeau in "The Return of the Pink Panther". He was able to still make a couple of good films before he died (including one I am very fond of, "That's Life! "). His leading lady Julie Andrews and composer Henry Mancini would still have to wait until 1982 for "Victor/Victoria" to have a great success, and by then the superstar status of Rock Hudson (with a haircut too snobbish for his standardized screen persona) was non-existent. Shot in 1968 when students and workers were protesting everywhere around the globe (riots affected production, and it was moved from Paris to Brussels), the events unfortunately did not hint Edwards that the world was changing fast. By 1970, when it was released, nobody could care less for a spy comedy set during I World War, while the rubbing lips routine passing for kissing was not convincing in the days of "free love". Worse is that there was no chemistry between the two leading actors, and they were not even convincing: Andrews as a Mata-Hari type spy called Lili Schmidt, and Hudson as a don Juan and star pilot who fights Von Richtofen in the skies. Hudson even seems tired and bored, specially when he tells her that she is the most sensual and exciting woman he has ever met (with all respect to Miss Andrews, one cannot help but think of Gina Lollobrigida, Paula Prentiss, Claudia Cardinale, Leslie Caron, Cyd Charisse, Angie Dickinson, and other very attractive ladies who were paired with Hudson). It is a very sad affair because it seems everybody tried hard, but Edwards and his co-scriptwriter William Peter Blatty mixed too many elements, from slapstick to aerial battles and all kinds of film homages: Edward's own "The Pink Panther" (with two Clouseau's clones), Wise's "The Sound of Music" (an aerial shot of Andrews running through a field, a group of children chanting in the countryside... not even "Do-Re-Mi", but a forgettable song), or Donner's "What's New, Pussycat?" (the final sequence at the Château Chantel hotel), among others. As for Mancini, he tried the same strategy of another 1970 film he scored, Vittorio de Sica's "I girasoli", for which he overused his main theme: here Mancini took the beautiful song "Whistling Away the Dark" (which also sounds very good with French lyrics) as the leitmotiv, and it is insistently heard throughout, while the other songs he penned with Johnny Mercer are weak. Perhaps if all of them (Mancini, Mercer, Blatty and Edwards) had concocted a typical Edwardian sophisticated comedy, it would have worked. It did not, but at least eleven years later the whole mess inspired Edwards' very funny "S.O.B."

Warning, this may contain spoilers. DARLING LILI, writer/director Blake Edwards' megamillion dollar epic production valentine to his superstar wife Julie Andrews has gone down in Hollywood history as one of its biggest flops. (History would repeat itself a quarter-century later when director Renny Harlin did the same thing for his wife Geena Davis in the multimillion dollar dud CUTTHROAT ISLAND). Its not difficult to understand LILI's initial box office failure. It's difficult to classify what genre DARLING LILI belongs in. Most often it gets labeled a musical but the songs take place in the context of someone(mostly Miss Andrews) performing. Never do they just "happen" with the background music coming from nowhere as in THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Not helping matters is the fact that the script by Edwards and Wm. Peter Blatty(A SHOT IN THE DARK) seems to keep changing its focus on exactly which film genre LILI belongs in. In fact, LILI often seems like a pastiche of other Edwards films. As with THE GREAT RACE, LILI is a big-budget lengthy, epic period piece set early in the 20th Century. It starts out as a very serious spy drama(like THE TAMARIND SEED). When Rock Hudson shows up, the film then turns into a gooey romance like BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S with the song "Whistling in the Dark" becoming LILI's "Moon River" equivalent. Then two bumbling French detectives appear a la Inspector Clouseau from THE PINK PANTHER series bringing in a dose of slapstick. Then with the arrival of the "Operation Crepe Suzette" issue, LILI becomes a bedroom farce in the VICTOR/VICTORIA mode. It all finishes with an exciting chase involving period cars, a train and WWI era airplanes making for the most entertaining sequence in the film. Despite the rather odd jumbling of elements and moods(which reminds me of Leo McCarey's underrated 1942 WWII romantic comedy drama spy adventure film ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON), LILI has its redeeming features. The music score which features WWI favorites as well as an original score by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer is quite pleasant and humable. Russell Harlan's Panavision/Technicolor photography beautifully captures picture postcard views of France, Belgium and Ireland. Mr. Hudson and Miss Andrews both perform as well as the script allows them to although the chemistry that he shared with previous leading ladies Doris Day and Gina Lollobrigida and that she shared with previous leading men Dick Van Dyke and James Garner is conspicuously absent between the two leads. Jeremy Kemp(as he did in THE BLUE MAX and would again in THE WINDS OF WAR) embodies the old Hollywood adage that British actors make the best World War movie Germans. In 1991, Edwards made a "director's cut" of DARLING LILI and that's the version broadcasted on television today. As of this date, the film has yet to be released on home video. I saw the original, longer version of LILI on television back in 1984 and I have to say this is one case where the director's cut(which is tighter, moves faster and has a shorter running time that suits its slight story better) is undoubtedly an improvement. Rating: For the original version, ** out of ****. For the director's cut, **1/2 out of ****. Bottom line: Uneven but pleasant and worth seeing if one is a Julie Andrews fan. Just don't expect anything remotely reaching the quality of THE SOUND OF MUSIC or even THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE.

David Bryce's comments nearby are exceptionally well written and informative as almost say everything I feel about DARLING LILI. This massive musical is so peculiar and over blown, over produced and must have caused ruptures at Paramount in 1970. It cost 22 million dollars! That is simply irresponsible. DARLING LILI must have been greenlit from a board meeting that said "hey we got that Pink Panther guy and that Sound Of Music gal... lets get this too" and handed over a blank cheque. The result is a hybrid of GIGI, ZEPPELIN, HALF A SIXPENCE, some MGM 40s song and dance numbers of a style (daisies and boaters!) so hopelessly old fashioned as to be like musical porridge, and MATA HARI dramatics. The production is colossal, lush, breathtaking to view, but the rest: the ridiculous romance, Julie looking befuddled, Hudson already dead, the mistimed comedy, and the astoundingly boring songs deaden this spectacular film into being irritating. LILI is like a twee 1940s mega musical with some vulgar bits to spice it up. STAR! released the year before sadly crashed and now is being finally appreciated for the excellent film is genuinely is... and Andrews looks sublime, mature, especially in the last half hour......but LILI is POPPINS and DOLLY frilly and I believe really killed off the mega musical binge of the 60s..... and made Andrews look like Poppins again... which I believe was not Edwards intention. Paramount must have collectively fainted when they saw this: and with another $20 million festering in CATCH 22, and $12 million in ON A CLEAR DAY and $25 million in PAINT YOUR WAGON....they had a financial abyss of CLEOPATRA proportions with $77 million tied into 4 films with very uncertain futures. Maybe they should have asked seer Daisy Gamble from ON A CLEAR DAY ......LILI was very popular on immediate first release in Australia and ran in 70mm cinemas for months but it failed once out in the subs and the sticks and only ever surfaced after that on one night stands with ON A CLEAR DAY as a Sunday night double. Thank god Paramount had their simple $1million (yes, ONE MILLION DOLLAR) film LOVE STORY and that $4 million dollar gangster pic THE GODFATHER also ready to recover all the $77 million in just the next two years....for just $5m.... incredible!

Julie Andrews satirically prods her own goody-two-shoes image in this overproduced, uneven musical comedy-drama; but, if Andrews approaches her role with aplomb, she's nearly alone in doing so. Blake Edwards' film about a woman who is both music-hall entertainer and German spy during WWI doesn't know what tone to aim for, and Rock Hudson has the thankless task of playing romantic second-fiddle. Musicals had grown out of favor by 1970, and elephantine productions like "Star!" and this film really tarnished Andrews' reputation, leaving a lot of dead space in her catalogue until "The Tamarind Seed" came along. I've always thought Julie Andrews would've made a great villain or shady lady; her strong voice could really command attention, and she hits some low notes that can either be imposing or seductive. Husband/director Edwards seems to realize this, but neither he nor Julie can work up much energy within this scenario. Screenwriter William Peter Blatty isn't a good partner for Edwards, and neither man has his heart in this material. Beatty's script offers Andrews just one fabulous sequence: a raucous striptease--though this is done in nudging satire, so we in the audience will understand it's all a put-on. A cop-out is more like it. ** from ****

Blake Edwards tried very hard to change Julie Andrews image in this film. He tried to make her sexy not realizing she already was. I think they were both still a bit irked that Julie had not been chosen to film her Broadway success of Camelot and was passed over as not being sexy enough. Unfortunately, they chose this vehicle to try and assuage this belief. It gets to the point where it is almost funny seeing Rock Hudson, who we all know now was gay, kissing Julie every 2 minutes throughout this movie. It seems now that they were not only trying to make you believe that Julie was a femme fatale but that Rock was straight. Sadly, they have absolutely no chemistry together and the unending kissing scenes start grossing one out. The other error they made with this picture was not knowing what kind of movie they were making. It is almost three separate movies. There is the drama of Julie as the German spy trying to get military secrets from Rock. There is an air war movie with lots of footage of WWI vintage planes swooping about and there is the stupid attempts at humor that Blake Edwards seems to think he has to insert in every one of his pictures whether it is appropriate or not, In this case, it was not. The only truly redeeming qualities in this film are looking at the always lovely Dame Julie and hearing her sing in that crystal clear bell-like soprano. Of course if you love her, you may overlook the weaknesses of this film just because of her. You can always tell yourself, afterward, that it was a hell of a lot better than sitting through STAR!

This film is an unstructured ragbag which is not a musical, nor a romantic comedy, nor a spy thriller, nor a war movie, nor a spoof, nor a slapstick comedy, although it does try to be all of these, mostly sequentially but sometimes, Lord help us, simultaneously. Miss Andrews' acting abilities are untaxed by the weak script, and she spends much of the overlong time of the film singing songs which would not be out of place in "Mary Poppins." The aerial sequences are obviously expensive but unexciting. The film is a work which shrieks self-indulgence and lack of discipline, which, alas, is so often the case when the credits read "Produced, written, AND directed by . . ."

Blake Edwards' legendary fiasco, begins to seem pointless after just 10 minutes. A combination of The Eagle Has Landed, Star!, Oh! What a Lovely War!, and Edwards' Pink Panther films, Darling Lili never engages the viewer; the aerial sequences, the musical numbers, the romance, the comedy, and the espionage are all ho hum. At what point is the viewer supposed to give a damn? This disaster wavers in tone, never decides what it wants to be, and apparently thinks it's a spoof, but it's pathetically and grindingly square. Old fashioned in the worst sense, audiences understandably stayed away in droves. It's awful. James Garner would have been a vast improvement over Hudson who is just cardboard, and he doesn't connect with Andrews and vice versa. And both Andrews and Hudson don't seem to have been let in on the joke and perform with a miscalculated earnestness. Blake Edwards' SOB, apparently inspired by Edwards' experience with Darling Lili, isn't much more than OK, but it's the only good that ever came out of Darling Lili. The expensive and professional look of much of Darling Lili, only make what it's all lavished on even more difficult to bear. To quote Paramount chief Robert Evans, "24 million dollars worth of film and no picture".

An obvious vanity press for Julie in her first movie with Blake. Let's see. Where do we begin. She is a traitor during a world war; she redeems that by falling in love; her friends (who are presumably patriots because they are German citizens) are expendable and must die; and she winds up as a heroine. OK. The scenes with the drunken pilot and the buffoons who work for French intelligence can't even be described, and we won't even mention Rock's romantic scenes with a female. (By the way, when they visit a museum, look at his gaze - I reran it on video and it's priceless). Is it a farce or is it a romantic classic or is it a war movie? I don't know and you won't either.

This often maligned movie is a must for fans of Blake Edwards, Julie Andrews, Henry Mancini, or Hollywood musicals. Other writers have commented on the shifts in tone, the confusion of plot, etc., but the film has many things to recommend it. The score is one of Henry Mancini's best (and he has written many wonderful ones), several songs are sung to perfection by Andrews, Julie's performance is nuanced and she is decked out in some beautiful clothes, (she is at her absolutely loveliest here), the on-location shots are breath-taking, and there are some funny Inspector Clouseau-type sight gags to boot. Rock Hudson basically phoned in his performance, but he is passably good. A real curiosity item in that it was the last major film Julie did for about 10 years and, in many ways, is a precursor to Victor/Victoria. It is lovely to look at and listen to. When will it be available on DVD??? When it is, I for one would like both versions--the longer and shorter, director's cut. Since it was lampooned in S.O.B., they would make a great two-pack!

I'm not a big fan of musicals, although this technically might not qualify as a musical. But I thought I would give it a chance as I love war movies. It was mediocre at best. Hudson seems totally out of kilter in this role. It just didn't work for me. Julie Andrews probably played her part as best as she could, but I just find it hard to buy her as a conniving, deceptive spy. Sorry, I know that is classic stereotyping on my part. But I have to say I think this is Julie at her most beautiful and feminine looking. I always thought of her as more matronly, but then surely that's a result of her roles in Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. No doubt they were desperately trying to get her out of that typecasting in this role. She was quite beguiling in appearance here, but I still didn't buy her as a spy. I couldn't keep my focus through the whole movie and found myself tuning in and out - and having conversations with those in my room (which I usually never do - I'm always shushing everybody). So that tells you how little it held my attention. Don't waste your time!