The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965)

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!

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.

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.

"The Yellow Rolls-Royce" is a good "B" movie with "A" performances. The story is a piece of fluff but it is interesting. It is about a yellow rolls-royce that is owned by three different wealthy owners over a period of 20 years. My favorite story is the first. Marquess of Frinton (Rex Harrison) buys a new yellow rolls-royce for his French wife (Jeanne Moreau) as a belated anniversary gift. He supplies his wife with gifts and love but realizes she is not happy. Mr. Harrison was given a few good roles after "My Fair Lady": "The Yellow Rolls-Royce", "The Agony and the Ecstasy", "The Honey Pot", and "Doctor Dolittle." It is nice to see Mr. Harrison play a nice husband in "The Yellow Rolls-Royce."The last two movies the director, Anthony Asquith, directed were very good ensemble movies: ""The VIP's" and "The Yellow Rolls-Royce." Every actor in both movies was superb.