The Singer Not the Song (1961)
Country: GB
Technical: col/Cinemascope 132m
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, Mylène Demongeot
Synopsis:
An Irish priest in Mexico insists on performing his offices in defiance of the atheistic bandit who terrorizes the town.
Review:
Shot at Pinewood and near Málaga, Spain, this borderline camp, modern western from the Rank Organisation of all outfits could have been another Johnny Guitar if it had gone the whole way, but it isn't quite 'out there' enough. It is all quite plushly made, with Philip Green providing a Morricone soundtrack 'avant la lettre' (mixed with a touch of Rodrigo), but with casting like this all the accents are off, none more noticeably than Mills's faltering brogue. Nevertheless, as in The Spanish Gardener, Bogarde defies appearances and vamps it up something shocking, his black leather matched by the priestly robes of his adversary, and forever clutching his riding crop. They should have had Anthony Quinn and Richard Harris, but the film remains one of those curios worth watching for their sheer uniqueness.
Country: GB
Technical: col/Cinemascope 132m
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, Mylène Demongeot
Synopsis:
An Irish priest in Mexico insists on performing his offices in defiance of the atheistic bandit who terrorizes the town.
Review:
Shot at Pinewood and near Málaga, Spain, this borderline camp, modern western from the Rank Organisation of all outfits could have been another Johnny Guitar if it had gone the whole way, but it isn't quite 'out there' enough. It is all quite plushly made, with Philip Green providing a Morricone soundtrack 'avant la lettre' (mixed with a touch of Rodrigo), but with casting like this all the accents are off, none more noticeably than Mills's faltering brogue. Nevertheless, as in The Spanish Gardener, Bogarde defies appearances and vamps it up something shocking, his black leather matched by the priestly robes of his adversary, and forever clutching his riding crop. They should have had Anthony Quinn and Richard Harris, but the film remains one of those curios worth watching for their sheer uniqueness.
Country: GB
Technical: col/Cinemascope 132m
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, Mylène Demongeot
Synopsis:
An Irish priest in Mexico insists on performing his offices in defiance of the atheistic bandit who terrorizes the town.
Review:
Shot at Pinewood and near Málaga, Spain, this borderline camp, modern western from the Rank Organisation of all outfits could have been another Johnny Guitar if it had gone the whole way, but it isn't quite 'out there' enough. It is all quite plushly made, with Philip Green providing a Morricone soundtrack 'avant la lettre' (mixed with a touch of Rodrigo), but with casting like this all the accents are off, none more noticeably than Mills's faltering brogue. Nevertheless, as in The Spanish Gardener, Bogarde defies appearances and vamps it up something shocking, his black leather matched by the priestly robes of his adversary, and forever clutching his riding crop. They should have had Anthony Quinn and Richard Harris, but the film remains one of those curios worth watching for their sheer uniqueness.