Endless Night (1972) Once again, time for a wistful sigh at what might have been.......
So much promise in the main title credits.........pounding, crashing waves, a full bodied ominously romantic score by no less than Bernard Herrmann, serving out his British exile after Hitchcock bounced him from 'Torn Curtain.......
And based on an Agatha Christie novel, with the promise of dark deeds and a twist that no one would ever see coming......
Okay, some of what the film portends does actually show up.......but with none of the sweeping style that the main titles prepare you for.......
Still, we wouldn't have wanted to miss this. It features that beautiful Herrmann score, and an equally beautiful young Hayley Mills, in the prime of her ingenue-hood.......
Plus there's a powerhouse supporting cast of George Sanders, Leo Genn, Swedish bombshell Britt Ekland and whole host of folks we recognized from their stints in Bond films and British TV.....(Lois Maxwell, Walter Gotell, David Bauer, Peter Bowles, etc)
So what's not to like?
Here's the thing........Sidney Gilliat, veteran writer-director of many classic comedies was certainly no visual stylist. And while the storyline dabbles in romantic obsession and vaguely supernatural doings, the filmmaking here remains clunky and flat.......like a TV episode shot in 4 days or less.......
And other than in the main titles, nobody gets anywhere near those pounding, crashing waves........
As we watched this, we could only imagine what a freewheeling visualist like Nicholas Roeg could have done with this material.......or even an all-out madman like Ken Russell. Ah well......
Oh right, the plot.
A hard scrabbling, lower class striver (Hywell Bennett) dreams of fabulous wealth and especially building his own custom made mansion on a patch of sprawling countryside that's entranced him.
As fate (and Dame Aggie) would have it, his job as a chauffer to the Upper-crusters puts him in the path of the 'world's 6th richest heiress' (Mills).....and a whirlwind romance and wedding ensue in record time.
So Bennett, now flush with Hayley's cash, collects his countryside dream home and Hayley too, along with a collection of her family members who instantly suspect and despise him as a gold-digging Gigolo including Mills' official BFF, the vivacious Ekland..
What's a poor nouveau riche boy to do? And what about that weird old crone lurking in the shrubbery?
That's all the plot you'll get from us, other than to mention this film is the third romantic pairing of Bennett and Mills (after the working class dramedy "The Family Way" and the psycho-thriller "Twisted Nerve", which also featured another creepy Bernard Herrmann score)
We never quite understood this pairing ourselves.......in all these films, the two displayed zero chemistry with each other, with the sweetly innocent Mills always showing monumental patience with the ever scowling Bennett.
We think she shoulda sent this his scrunchy little toad on his way from the first scene on, but that's just us........somebody must have thought these two struck sparks.....not us..
You can decide for yourselves if you think Agatha Christie's BIG REVEAL was worth sitting through. As we mentioned earlier, we loved the supporting cast, the score and yes, one of the crushes our youth, Hayley Mills.
A sense of style and real romantic abandon would've earned this film far more than the mere 2 &1/2 stars (**1/2) we're giving it. A single viewing's more than enough.........
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