CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

writers_reign There have, of course, been many writer-director teams in cinema, some - Jacques Prevert-Marcel-Carne - verging on the immortal, some Robert Riskin-Frank Capra - honorable mentions, and some - Dudley Nichols-John Ford - ho hum but among the most distinguished were Terence Rattigan and Puffin Asquith who peaked with one of the finest British films ever made, The Browning Version which Rattigan adapted from his own one-act play; their partnership was also punctuated by the superb The Way To The Stars, The Winslow Boy, and culminated with two Original Screenplays by Rattigan both, as it happened, our old friend the portmanteau movie, first spotted in the 30s (Duvivier's Un Carnet de bal) and enjoying a vogue in the 40s (Quartet, Trio, Encore, Easy Money). First up was The V.I.Ps. and then, in 1964 what was to become Puffin's swansong, The Yellow Rolls Royce. Fittingly the first of the three episodes featured Rex Harrison who enjoyed his first major success on stage in Rattigan's French Without Tears in 1936. Alas, his wife was the badly miscast Jeanne Moreau then flavour-of-the-month and she herself saddled with the wooden Edmund Purdom as her love interest. Even more bizarre casting followed in the second segment in which four distinct acting styles - Alain Delon, Art Carney, George C. Scott and Shirley MacLaine clashed resoundingly. The class was reserved for the final segment in the form of the luminescent Ingrid Bergman offset by a cameo by Joyce Grenfell. Despite these caveats there is much to enjoy here and a reminded of two of the finest filmmakers in England.

blanche-2 The Yellow Rolls Royce was one of French film star Alain Delon's American films. Unfortunately, like Dirk Bogarde, Horst Buchholtz, Jean Gabin, and other foreign threats to the U.S. stars, American success would not be his. Only the rest of the world, where he remains one cinema's greatest icons. Dirk Bogarde turned down Gigi to do a biopic about Liszt; Hollywood just did not put Delon in films that were directed at his audience (fainting women) or that showcased him.A huge cast stars in The Yellow Rolls Royce, a 1964 film, and the production is truly sumptuous, with glorious European scenery. It is a series of three vignettes about people who have owned the car.The first is set in England, and stars Rex Harrison, Jeanne Moreau, and Edmund Purdom. Harrison buys the car for his wife's (Moreau's) birthday; little does he know that she has a lover (Purdom). Frantic for a place to make love before Purdom leaves the country, they choose the car.The second is set in Italy, and stars George C. Scott, Shirley Maclaine, Art Carney, and Alain Delon. Scott is an American mobster who brings his girlfriend (Maclaine) to Italy to introduce her to his family. She falls for an Italian photographer (Delon) while Scott is away taking care of some business in America. She and Delon's first tryst is in the yellow Rolls Royce. Delon is better-looking than the scenery despite a heavy coat of tan makeup, which was also done to him in Texas Across the River.The third is set in Yugoslavia (actually filmed in Austria), where one Mrs. Millet (Ingrid Bergman) finds herself sneaking a rebel (Omar Shariff) into his country to fight the Germans. She takes him to the village where the rebels are gathering and sleeps in her car...until she is joined by a grateful Shariff.The third episode of this film is the best and the most fun, with Bergman a determined woman who will stop at nothing to do just as she pleases, including pouring wine while the restaurant is being bombed around her. Bergman is truly wonderful in an exciting, warm, and moving story.The other two parts of the film for me moved somewhat slowly, though they were well acted.This is a good film. When you see the scenery, you'll wish you were there. And the exterior of the house where Rex Harrison and Jeanne Moreau live - unbelievable!

bkoganbing 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.

didi-5 This movie presents three stories one after the other, as we follow the fortunes of the first and subsequent owners of the yellow Rolls of the title. First, Rex Harrison buys it as a present for his erring wife, Jeanne Moreau. She uses an anniversary party to flaunt her boyfriend, Edmund Purdom. The car then makes its way into the hands of Mafiosi George C Scott and his moll Shirley MacLaine. She falls for French photographer Alain Delon (and who can blame her?). Finally, the car plays its part in international politics when Ingrid Bergman and Omar Sharif take it on a rescue mission.Anthony Asquith's film survives because of its construction, using the car as a lynchpin for three very different stories, character combinations, and situations. The car remains the star (perhaps because of its colour) but there are enjoyable performances here too. It isn't a challenging or particularly exciting film, but helps to pass the time. Personally I find it a better British film centring on a car than the earlier Genevieve, but that might just be my own taste.