REVIEWED BY DAVID VINEYARD:
HOLIDAY IN SPAIN. Michael Todd Co., 1960. Denholm Elliott, Peter Lorre, Beverly Bentley, Paul Lukas, Liam Redmond, Leo McKern, Peter Arne. Screenplay by Audrey and William Roos, primarily based on their novel Ghost of a Probability as by Kelly Roos (novelized as Scent of Thriller). Directed by Jack Cardiff.
As soon as upon a time Mike Todd married Elizabeth Taylor and needed to make a film of Jules Verne’s Across the World in Eighty Days, an enormous film, and in that film he needed to make use of his new large display screen Todd-Ao course of and new know-how in sound, and customarily revolutionize movie typically as a result of it was getting more durable and more durable to compete with tv. And associated to that he made a form of experimental movie referred to as Scent of Thriller.
As a part of this he got here up with a course of referred to as Odor-O-Imaginative and prescient the place scenes within the movie might be accompanied by scents that have been sprayed onto viewers within the theater, and to greatest make the most of this know-how, he got here up with a thriller the place the scents could be clues to the thriller.
For this venture he bought the rights to a guide by Audrey and William Roos, who wrote as Kelly Roos, a couple of younger man speeding round New York to stop an harmless whose title he didn’t know and who didn’t know they have been in peril from being murdered.
As a result of the movie was designed to point out off Todd-Ao and Todd’s new sound system in addition to Odor-O-Imaginative and prescient, he shot it in Spain, higher surroundings and extra unique scents, and being too intelligent for his personal good referred to as it Scent of Thriller.
It was a fairly dismal failure. All of the scents smelled the identical and none of them any too good, and albeit the 2 hour and 5 minute operating time was far an excessive amount of for the slim plot, and regardless of a tremendous solid and a droll teaming of Denholm Elliott and Peter Lorre because the hero, thriller author Oliver Larker on vacation, and a considerably rascally taxi driver accompanying him on his Prepare dinner’s Tour of Spain, it was all slightly a lot. Even an intermission that included a literal cliffhanger couldn’t assist.
It will definitely performed on tv with scratch and sniff playing cards and in a extra truncated kind, but it surely didn’t actually fare any higher there.
There may be an unwritten rule that every one movies have to be lavishly restored, so Scent of Thriller was lavishly restored as Vacation in Spain, and the excellent news is that it’s beautiful to take a look at. The dangerous information is that it’s nonetheless a somewhat diffuse plot, and the experimental multi channel sound system doesn’t work in any respect on tv and makes for complicated viewing as one observe is dialogue and the opposite imagined to be the characters ideas (effectively, Elliott the narrator and Lorre anyway). It’s tough at occasions to know if they’re really speaking to one another or pondering and if the opposite characters can hear them or ought to reply.
The plot, as such is completely good, and the unique Roos novel (Ghost of a Probability) handles it fairly effectively. Right here Oliver Larker and taxi driver/information Lorre see a lady (Beverly Bentley) almost run over. They assume nothing of it at first till an unsavory character (Liam Redmond) says it was deliberate. Oliver dismisses that however then feels responsible and decides to search out the girl and warn her, nonetheless feeling a little bit of a idiot till the unsavory sort is murdered by Baron Paul Lukas, and Larker and his companion start a scenic tour of Spain attempting to achieve the younger lady earlier than she may be killed.
Is it her half brother, bullfighting aficionado Leo McKern who owns a resort the place she seems to be hiding out at attempting to kill her and who’s the mysterious man in glasses (Peter Arne)? Who’s the Baron, and why is he so pleasant with McKern, and why are he and his henchmen attempting to kill her and taking pictures at Larker? Even whenever you assume you recognize, you don’t, and if they’d minimize this by forty minutes, neglected the narration, and forgotten concerning the Odor-O-Imaginative and prescient it may have been a captivating romantic suspense movie.
It’s nonetheless beautiful to take a look at and slightly contact on the finish with Todd’s un-billed spouse Elizabeth Taylor is nice, however for essentially the most half this movie is a chore. It’s a stunning chore, however clearly a chore.
Travelogues actually shouldn’t have plots and plots actually shouldn’t be travelogues, and when a film stinks, it doesn’t assist if that can also be an precise bodily reality. These are the teachings from Vacation in Spain.
Critics as you may think had a subject day with Scent of Thriller and Odor-O-Imaginative and prescient. It deserved it. Vacation in Spain is a greater title, however the movie is not any vacation in Spain or wherever else. One solely hopes Elliott, Lorre, Lukas, McKern, and Arne loved the paid trip and wonders that it didn’t destroy any careers.
