Hotel Paradiso (1966)

In 1900 Paris, a married gentleman (Alec Guinness) is attracted to his neighbor's beautiful wife (Gina Lollobrigida). When his own wife (Peggy Mount) is out of town, he arranges for a rendezvous at the notorious Hotel Paradiso with the lovely woman. But when the woman's husband (Robert Morley) turns up at the hotel, along with an assortment of friends, servants and relatives, things get complicated. Based on the classic farce L'HOTEL DU LIBRE ECHANGE by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallieres and directed by Peter Glenville (SUMMER AND SMOKE). I'm quite fond of farces especially the French variety but it's a genre that requires crack comedic timing for it to play. The pacing must be just right and the actors must be expert farceurs. Glenville's screen adaptation gets it right in a lot of ways but it is also lacking in many respects. Alas, while Gina Lollobrigida can do light comedy (like COME SEPTEMBER), she doesn't have a farcical bone in her body. Alec Guinness (reprising his stage role from ten years earlier) is okay but it's the supporting players who carry the laughs. In addition to Morley and Mount, there's Akim Tamiroff, Douglas Byng, Leonard Rossiter, Derek Fowlds, Ann Beach and David Battley. Laurence Rosenthal's underscore gets it right, too.