There will be three camps of people who watch this and choose to analyze it. Those who have seen Shakespeare's "Othello" and are curious to see how it has been updated, those who have no interest in seeing "Othello", and those like me who have not yet seen any variation of that play (one of the few Shakespeare's I have not viewed) and plan to. Then there is another camp, students of jazz who find out about this in their research and decide to spend 90 minutes at a London jam session and chill out as the action unfolds in the same setting.
The world of music through an all night party becomes the setting for the scheming of several members of the jazz community who scheme against long time friend Paul Harris and his wife Marti Stevens, a retired band singer they desperately want to go on tour with them, knowing that this would lead to the end of their marriage. Patrick McGoohan and Richard Attenborough bring out their best calculating schemers to make it appear through altered tapes that Stevens is cheating on Harris, and this could easily backfire on them, leading to tragedy.
Don't let the single setting keep you from getting into this combination of classic Shakespeare and gloomy melodrama, greatly enlivened by some terrific music and a few numbers sung by Stevens. The cast also includes "Marty's" Betsy Blair in another terrific characterization as a married woman trapped by unhappiness but in denial of how miserable she is. I know now that I'll be revisiting this as soon as I see Shakespeare's play. This is one of the first variations outside of musical theater to bring the Bard to a modern audience, and it's an instant classic.
The world of music through an all night party becomes the setting for the scheming of several members of the jazz community who scheme against long time friend Paul Harris and his wife Marti Stevens, a retired band singer they desperately want to go on tour with them, knowing that this would lead to the end of their marriage. Patrick McGoohan and Richard Attenborough bring out their best calculating schemers to make it appear through altered tapes that Stevens is cheating on Harris, and this could easily backfire on them, leading to tragedy.
Don't let the single setting keep you from getting into this combination of classic Shakespeare and gloomy melodrama, greatly enlivened by some terrific music and a few numbers sung by Stevens. The cast also includes "Marty's" Betsy Blair in another terrific characterization as a married woman trapped by unhappiness but in denial of how miserable she is. I know now that I'll be revisiting this as soon as I see Shakespeare's play. This is one of the first variations outside of musical theater to bring the Bard to a modern audience, and it's an instant classic.