YUL BRYNNER: THE INSCRUTABLE KING

YUL BRYNNER: THE INSCRUTABLE KING. Jhan Robbins. Dodd, Mead; 1987.

Yul Brynner was a man who liked to make up stories about his past life, resented reporters digging into his private affairs, and loved creating an air of mystery about himself. So it's no wonder that this biography fails to get that deep inside  the man, although it is also a problem that there seem to be no major interviews with the people who knew him best. In this book Brynner comes off as a talented if childish man who has many admirable qualities -- a distaste for prejudice and a love of children, for instance -- but was also insecure (giving him a superiority complex), boastful, and a bit selfish. He was married four times, apparently discarding each wife as he found a new lover, but the book never really goes behind the scenes in any of these marriages. Brynner's most famous role was as the king in Rodger's and Hammerstein's The King and I, which he played in Broadway, London and touring productions as well as in the motion picture adaptation. He himself felt that Hollywood did not make the best of his abilities, although he gave excellent performances in such films as Anastasia in which he was "dynamic and sexy." The book is entertaining and provides an overview of Brynner's career, but it is rather superficial all told.

Verdict: Hopefully not the last word on Brynner. **1/2. 

THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN

Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr

THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN  (1969). Director: Joseph McGrath.

Wealthy Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) has no son and heir, so he picks up a tramp he calls Youngman (Ringo Starr) and adopts him. Grand and son enjoy seeing how much people will do for money, and it turns out to be quite a lot. The last third of the film takes place on the title ocean liner, where there are riotous -- but, unfortunately, not very funny -- proceedings on board. The climax has Guy putting cash in a pool of literal crap and watching men dive for the loot while Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" plays over the action. Meant to tackle sacred cows of the period, The Magic Christian is merely awful and tedious, although there are times when you just can't turn your eyes away. The picture has the distinction of being the one Peter Sellers movie in which he clowns around but just isn't funny, and Starr, while adequate, is just along for the ride. There's a lot of homo-eroticism in the picture -- such as two dancing gay bodybuilders, and two boxers who begin making out instead of punching one another (for such a "daring" movie it's strange the way the camera cuts away before they actually kiss) -- and, alas, Leonard Frey of The Boys in the Band is forced to play a character named Laurence Faggot (pronounced Fag- go). What's meant to be shocking and sarcastic is just silly and asinine. Wilfrid Hyde-White [The Browning Version] is fine as the captain of the Magic Christian; Laurence Harvey [Life at the Top] seems to be having fun doing what might be called a Shakespearean striptease; Raquel Welch wields a mean whip in a galley scene; and Patrick Cargill and John Cleese are somewhat amusing as discombobulated employees of Sotheby's. Christopher Lee even shows up wearing his Dracula teeth and threatening to put the bite on a lady passenger. But the best cameo hands-down goes to Yul Brynner [Westworld], who is frankly astonishing as a somewhat odd-looking songstress warbling Noel Coward's "Mad About the Boy" in a cocktail lounge. Otherwise, this is a criminal waste of time! The whole film looks as if everyone involved was completely stoned all during filming.

Verdict: One of the worst movies ever made -- aside from a "fabulous" Brynner. *.

WESTWORLD

Mr. Intense: Yul Brynner

WESTWORLD (1973). Written and directed by Michael Crichton.

The amusement park Delos, primarily for the very wealthy, offers something that even Disneyworld can't provide: incredibly lifelike robots who can interact -- and even have intercourse -- with the guests. Delos is divided into sections where guests can live out their fantasies: Westworld, Roman World, and Medieval World. Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and John Blane (James Brolin of The Car) check into the wild west and tangle with an intense, unfriendly gunslinger (Yul Brynner), who has little to say and seems to die quite easily -- at first. Things start going wrong at Delos and suddenly the robots aren't so compliant ... Westworld has a terrific (if probably not very original) idea, but its execution is hit or miss. There isn't much internal logic for one thing: why do the robots' guns have real bullets in them, and since you generally can't tell a human from a robot, can't a guest accidentally wind up injuring or killing another guest? There is some mild suspense at the climax, but this never really develops into much of anything. It certainly could have used a better script and a bigger budget. Yul Brynner has little dialogue but he easily walks off with the movie with his trademark intensity; Brolin is satisfactory; but Benjamin -- admittedly this material is not exactly Diary of a Mad Housewife -- mostly walks through the movie, but in the wrong way.  Jared Martin is a technician; Dick Van Patten a horny guest; and Majel Barrett [As Young As We Are] a madame. Followed by the film Futureworld, the TV series Beyond Westworld, and a 2016 HBO series.

Verdict: Somewhat entertaining but basically disappointing. **.

FUTUREWORLD

Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner

FUTUREWORLD (1976). Director: Richard T. Heffron.

Some years after a disaster in the amusement world of Delos (detailed in Westworld), the park reopens with a new attraction: Futureworld, where you can take a simulated flight into space. Newspaper reporter Chuck Browning (Peter Fonda) and TV journalist Tracy Ballard (Blythe Danner), who have a more or less friendly rivalry, are invited to be the first to visit the reopened Delos and file stories about it. Tracy thinks it's all marvelous, but Chuck got reports of something rotten going on from a former employee who was later murdered. As the two experience all the wonders of Delos, things happen that make them wonder if something much more sinister is going on. Then the reporters discover that they have been duplicated ... Futureworld is superior to Westworld, with a better plot that goes in interesting directions, and a certain degree of suspense. Fonda [Ghost Rider] and Danner are odd choices to play the main characters, but both do a good job, and Danner, an excellent actress, adds some heft to the proceedings -- she is particularly good in a scene where she is dangerously confronted by the Tracy-clone. Arthur Hill [The Andromeda Strain] is solid as the executive in charge of Delos, and John Ryan [It's Alive] is suitably grim as the head technician in the conspiracy. Stuart Margolin scores in the smaller role of Harry Kroft, a tech worker who helps Chuck and Tracy get into a certain room where there are secrets to be revealed. Yul Brynner appears as the gunslinger from Westworld, but only in a very bad dream sequence that is the worst thing in the movie, although Danner may have been happy that she got to make out with "the King." Futureworld is "soft" science fiction in that it doesn't explore its premise with any special depth. Fred Karlin's score is effective.

Verdict: For once, a superior sequel. ***.

ANASTASIA

Helen Hayes, Yul Brynner, Ingrid Bergman

ANASTASIA (1956). Director: Anatole Litvak. Screenplay by Arthur Laurents.

In Europe in the 1920's rumors are circulating that Anastasia (Ingrid Bergman), the youngest daughter of the Tsar Nicholas, may have survived the purge that killed the rest of her family. General Bounine (Yul Brynner) finds a woman, fresh out of mental hospitals and contemplating suicide, whom he thinks resembles Anastasia, and guides her -- like Henry Higgins -- to act more like royalty. But as she is about to meet the Dowager Empress (Helen Hayes) and seal her fate, she wonders if she could really be who everyone says she is. Anastasia is a wonderful, absorbing film that is not true to historical facts but to their spirit, and works beautifully as a kind of fairy tale. Bergman deservedly won a Best Actress Oscar for this, and she is matched in excellence by a powerful Hayes, and a rather sexy and dynamic Brynner. There is also fine work from Martita Hunt [Becket] as the Empress' peppery lady-in-waiting [to whom the Empress says "to a woman of your age, sex should mean nothing but gender"]; Ivan Desny as her nephew, Paul; Akim Tamiroff [The Vulture] as Boris Chernov, one of the co-conspirators in this matter of the "phony" Anastasia; and Natalie Schafer [The Other Love] as one of the group of Russian exiles who embraces Anastasia as their own; among others. The ending is contrived but effective, and the movie still manages to maintain an air of ambiguity. In real life, the Empress completely rejected "Anastasia's" claim, and the woman lived her life as Ana Anderson, protesting all along that she was the real daughter of the Tsar. Decades later, DNA proved conclusively that Anderson was lying. Filmed in stunning DeLuxe color and with a nice score by Alfred Newman.

Verdict: A true classic with superb performances. ****.

GERTRUDE LAWRENCE

GERTRUDE LAWRENCE. Sheridan Morley. McGraw-Hill; 1981.

This entertaining biography, written by the son of Robert Morley, looks at the life of stage star Gertrude Lawrence, who also appeared in a few movies, such as Rembrandt and The Glass Menagerie. The book delves into her early life and career appearing in traveling revues, her friendship with Noel Coward, her marriages, her London and Broadway triumphs, and the incredible amount of debts she amassed during her lifetime, until her friends and the tax people on two continents had to take matters into their hands. She starred in the unusual musical Lady in the Dark (Ginger Rogers did the film version), Tonight at 8:30, and finally in Rodgers and Hammerstein's spectacular The King and I with co-star Yul Brynner. During the run of the show she grew ill, never received proper treatment for hepatitis, and died suddenly in the hospital at only 54. Talented Lawrence lived primarily for her work and never made the best mother, attested to by quotes from her daughter, Pamela. The book is also bolstered by interviews with others who knew and worked with her. Julie Andrews played Lawrence in the film Star!

Verdict: Morley is perhaps not always as admiring of his subject's talent as he should have been, but otherwise this is a fine look at a fascinating artist. ***1/2.