Shave 20-30 minutes from this and you would have had a taut thriller. You could start with the number of clever dicks who happen to notice that what’s going on bears a close resemblance to a play Volpone by Shakespeare contemporary Ben Johnson, even down to the anglicizing of the names of those fictional characters. And prune the number of detectives, three is two too many especially when there’s an actual genuine detective in the mix. And the shock ending is just…well…mince.
Otherwise, quite fun in a way. Wealthy Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) hires sometime actor, sometime factotum, law graduate Marty McFly – oops William McFly – to help him pull off an elaborate joke, “people-baiting”, a modern version of “bear-beating” apparently. Fox pretends to be dying in order to bring three former lovers, all he presumes desperate to be named in his will, to his bedside in a grand palazzo in Venice. Upfront reason, some kind of revenge. Hidden reason, something darker obviously.
The trio are Texan Mrs Sheridan (Susan Hayward), movie star Merle (Edie Adams) and Princess Dominique (Capucine). Sheridan is accompanied by a nurse Sarah (Maggie Smith), the “voice of morality.” They all certainly seem to have a sense of humor. Two presenting Fox with gifts of clocks, the princess with an hour-glass filled with gold dust instead of sand, presumably with the notion that he can watch his life ticking away. Needless to say, this is like an reality TV show, Fox not having named an heir in his will, so they are all battling to be the heir, and as he points out, even the rich will succumb because there is no such thing as “enough money.”
Things do not go according to plan when Sheridan unexpectedly dies. Enter Inspector Rizzo (Adolfo Celi). Sarah suspects McFly because he used her as an alibi but disappeared for a time when she (for unexplained reasons) fell asleep in a posh restaurant (and nobody tried to wake her). Turning detective herself, she comes up with “proof positive.” Turns out the two remaining suspects had conspired to also give themselves an alibi, easily demolished by the kindly inspector. McFly, too, has been doing some digging.
But then comes another twist and everything you thought you knew flies out the window. Cue more investigation, more alibis and finally an Agatha Christie pay-off when the two amateur detectives and the real one confront everyone in the drawing room. By which time the twists are coming thick and fast.
Best thing about this is the playing. Although decidedly stagey, very little in the way of visual audacity, that works to the movie’s benefit, and not a bad choice to rely so heavily on the acting given the cast. With the exception of Edie Adams, Capucine and Celi, all were Oscar anointed. Two winners – Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady (1964) and Susan Hayward for I Want to Live (1958) – and between them another five nominations – and two future winners in Cliff Robertson for Charly (1968) and Maggie Smith for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). The others were not out of their depth, Edie Adams (Made in Paris, 1966) clocking up Emmy nominations. Adolfo Celi (In Search of Gregory, 1969) a deuce of nominations from the Cannes Film Festival while even Capucine (The 7th Dawn, 1964) had been nominated for a Golden Globe.
So director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Cleopatra, 1964) makes the right decision to let his actors get on with. Rex Harrison is at his suave best, but with a malevolent undercurrent, and has most of the best – and zestiest – lines. Robertson, usually the hero, is sly and duplicitous. Susan Hayward was in her comfort zone, forthright and taking no prisoners, Capucine at her cold and haughty best. Smith and Celi were the revelations, the former losing the trademark drawl and the nurse’s mousiness as to some extent she exerts control, and Celi departing from the bombast and delivering a lower-keyed performance.
Doing double duty, Mankiewicz worked up the script from three sources: the original Volpone, the play Mr Fox of Venice by Frederick Knott (Dial M for Murder) and a novel The Evil of the Day by Thomas Sterling. Next time the director went to the stage for inspiration he chose a better source for a mystery – Sleuth (1972).
The Magnificent 60s 
Quite a cast; I’ve heard rumours of Capucine being Epsteined, but they may just be idle gossip…
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Didn’t know that. It was rumoured though she got most of her parts by being a Hollywood mistress.
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Here is something:
“On 15 Mar 1964, NYT announced that filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz had begun working on his first film since the troubled production of Cleopatra (1963, see entry). The project, then untitled, was based on the 1955 Thomas L. Sterling novel, The Evil of the Day, and its 1959 stage adaptation by Frederick Knott, which debuted in London, England, as Mr. Fox of Venice. In addition to writing the screenplay, Mankiewicz would also produce and direct for United Artists. Later that year, several DV items indicated that development continued as Mr. Fox of Venice, and that Maniewicz had recruited actor Rex Harrison for their fourth screen collaboration.
According to a 1 Oct 1965 DV production chart, principal photography began 20 Sep 1965 under the new working title, Anyone for Venice?” The 29 Sep 1965 Var indicated that Mankiewicz chose to return to Cinecitta Studios in Rome, Italy, where he shot Cleopatra. After three weeks on the studio lot, the 11 Oct 1965 Var reported that the unit had relocated for a week of filming in Venice, Italy, before returning to Cinecitta at the end of the month. It was around this time that Mankiewicz fired the original director of photography, Piero Portalupi, and replaced him with Gianni Di Venanzo. A 5 Dec 1965 NYT article noted that Di Venanzo opted to use “diffused lighting” that broke from the bright lighting schemes traditionally used in comedies. As a result, the 10 Nov 1965 DV reported that Harrison and co-star Cliff Robertson were forced to reshoot the first two weeks of footage. Writing about his experience on the set for the 29 May 1966 LAT, Robertson recounted how Mankiewicz refused to dub the actors’ lines when they made mistakes, therefore requiring certain scenes to be repeated dozens of times from the beginning.
Mankiewicz’s perfectionism also extended to the art direction, as the 5 Dec 1965 NYT claimed he made $20,000 in last minute additions to the furnishings of “Cecil Fox’s” bedroom set. To prepare for the role of Fox, Harrison studied card games with a professional magician, and took ballet lessons. However, much of the critical dance scene was shot using a double.
According to the 26 Jan 1966 DV, post-production was completed in London. Despite a 7 Mar 1966 DV report that Andre Previn had been hired to score the soundtrack, he was replaced by John Addison later that summer. On 3 May 1966, LAT announced that the title had once again been changed to The Honey Pot.
The film opened in London the week of 22 Mar 1967, as a Var brief reported that Mankiewicz hosted a midnight preview screening at the Prince Charles Theatre the previous evening. The New York City debut was scheduled for exactly two months later, 22 May 1967. The 20 May 1967 NYT noted that the event was the first feature film screening to be held at the Trans-Lux West Theatre after a $150,000 renovation. Previously, the venue had been known as the Broadway Trans-Lux, and operated as a newsreel theater. An advertisement in the 28 Jun 1967 LAT announced the picture’s exclusive West Coast engagement at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA.
The LAT review, published that same day, criticized the “unattractive” title, which made no reference to the plot or source material. An 11 Oct 1967 LAT article reported that United Artists later rebranded it as It Comes Up Murder. That change was reflected in all print advertisements, which called the picture “The Year’s Top Suspense-Murder Thriller.”
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Many thanks for this. Didn’t know it had a title change.
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