Lady L (1965)

An 80 year old dowager (Sophia Loren) relates her rise from a laundress in a French brothel to the respected Lady Lendale of the British aristocracy to her biographer (Cecil Parker). Based on the novel by Romain Gary and written and directed by Peter Ustinov, who also plays Prince Otto of Bavaria in the film. It's a total misfire. What should have been a sumptuous and elegant farce ends up a dull leaden lump of a movie. Loren and Paul Newman (who plays her anarchist lover) have zero on screen chemistry and poor Newman doesn't have a farcical bone in his handsome body. The film had been planned several years earlier with George Cukor at the helm and Gina Lollobrigida and Tony Curtis in the Loren/Newman roles with Ralph Richardson as the impotent Lord Lendale, a role played by David Niven here. I don't know that it would have been a better film but it certainly couldn't be any worse.  Totally lacking in wit and charm, at least it looks good with Henri Alekan's (ROMAN HOLIDAY) cinematography and the lush art direction and costumes. With Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Claude Dauphin, John Wood and Marcel Dalio.