Caprice: A Bad Day for Doris

The 1960s was an uneven decade for Doris Day, beginning with some of her best films and ending with some of her worst. The former include Lover Come Back, That Touch of Mink, and The Thrill of It All. The worst include Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? and the subject of today's review: Caprice (1967).

Set near the height of the 1960s spy craze, Caprice casts Doris as Patricia Foster, an industrial designer for a cosmetics company sent on a mission to infiltrate another cosmetic company to steal a secret formula for a water-repellent hair spray. At least, that's what the plot initially appears to be. It turns out that Patricia's real name is Felippa Fowler and her goal is to discover who killed her father, an Interpol agent on the trail of a narcotics ring.

Co-star Richard Harris.

Richard Harris is on hand as Christopher White, a suave ladies man who appears to be a double agent working for both cosmetics companies. He spends most of his time, though, wooing and rescuing Patricia.

One suspects that the makers of Caprice were going for a Charade vibe, with Doris Day playing the innocent opposite Richard Harris's handsome rake, whose true intentions are nebulous. The comparison with Charade, though, serves only to highlight that Caprice is a dud in every way. The script seems to have been written on the fly. The on-location filming clashes with the cheesy rear screen close-ups of the stars. Scenes end abruptly, especially a ski chase in which Harris nabs Doris as she sails over a snow-covered cliff. And Doris wears one of the worst wigs of her career. However, its greatest offense may be that it wastes a good supporting cast in Ray Walston, Edward Mulhare, and Lilia Skala.

Michael J. Pollard.

There is one amusing scene in Caprice, which finds Doris's industrial espionage agent following a model and her boyfriend into a movie theater. The film playing is Caprice, only the opening credits now feature Doris singing the title song. As Doris tries to cut a lock of the model's hair, the boyfriend (Michael J. Pollard) assumes that Doris is interested in him. So, he starts flirting with Doris as he makes out with his girl. It's the kind of broad humor that Ms. Day plays well and Pollard is quite amusing.

After reading the screenplay to Caprice, Doris Day stated she did not want to make the movie. She then learned that her then-husband and agent, Martin Melcher, had already signed a contractual obligation on her behalf. Always the professional, Doris Day gives an energetic performance in Caprice, but that can't disguise the fact that it's awful movie. She appeared in three more movies before retiring from the big screen at age 46.

The Wild Geese: Action in Africa

Richard Burton as Faulkner.

When an African dictator's actions threaten to lower British copper prices, influential banker Sir Miles Matheson seeks to discredit the man. Matheson (Stewart Granger) knows that the dictator kidnapped the country's popular president and then spread rumors of his death. So, Matheson contracts with a former Army colonel, Allen Faulkner, to form a mercenary force to rescue the hostage president. 

Faulkner (Richard Burton) reunites with two trusted subordinates: a former captain (Richard Harris), who is an expert at planning complex missions, and an ex-lieutenant (Roger Moore), a highly skilled as a field commander. Their rescue mission goes off without a hitch--until their escape plane lands, turn arounds, and departs without them.

Hardy Kruger.

Made and set in 1978, The Wild Geese is a military action picture along the lines of the superior Where Eagles Dare--which also starred Burton. To his credit, veteran screenwriter Reginald Rose (12 Angry Men) tries to inject some gravitas into the proceedings. For much of the mission, the frail President Limbani (Winston Ntshona) is carried by a prejudiced South African officer (the late Hardy Krüger). Their dialogue inspires the latter to at least reconsider his views. It also elevates The Wild Geese from more conventional run-of-the-mill action pictures.

Roger Moore.

The biggest names in the cast at the time were Burton and Moore (The Spy Who Loved Me came out the previous year). Alas, they're saddled with stereotypical roles: Burton is the crusty leader who inspires loyalty and loves his soldiers; Moore plays the cigar-chewing, devil-may-care adventurer swooned over by the opposite sex. That leaves the juicy roles to Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger.

Harris was the second choice to play Captain Rafer Janders after Burt Lancaster turned down the role. As Janders, a single father devoted to his young son, Harris shows his character's sensitive side--a effective contrast to his military bearing in the field. His nuanced acting reminds one that Harris could be a fine performer when he wasn't slumming in movies beneath him. As for the always reliable Krüger, he creates a believable, interesting character in just a few scenes. It's a model of concise acting. (Incidentally, Krüger and another co-star, Ronald Fraser, appeared together in the earlier classic Flight of the Phoenix).

Richard Harris as Janders.

Andrew V. McLaglen directs with a sure hand, which is unsurprising since he follows a formula similar to his earlier World War II effort The Devil's Brigade (1968). He reteamed with Roger Moore, playing against type this time, in the following year's action picture ffolkes (aka North Sea Hijack).

Although The Wild Geese flopped in the U.S., it was a big hit in Great Britain and easily recouped its cost. A sequel, Wild Geese II, came out in 1985. Burton had agreed to star as Colonel Faulkner again, but died shortly before production began. Edward Fox came on board and played the lead role (but as Faulkner's brother). Roger Moore declined to appear in the follow-up.

Juggernaut Narrowly Avoids Submersion

Richard Harris as Fallon.

Made during the 1970s disaster movie craze, Juggernaut (1974) replicates the ocean liner setting from the earlier Poseidon Adventure, but adds a twist. What if there was a bomb on board--seven of them, to be precise--and a limited amount of time to defuse them?

The premise unfolds slowly with the opening scenes devoted to the passengers and staff of the Britannic. Captain Brunel (Omar Sharif) pilots the ship with detached authority and has a dalliance with a married passenger (Shirley Knight). The overenthusiastic social director (Roy Kinnear) tries to entertain shipboard guests with bingo games and shuffleboard. A woman gets seasick and tries to find ways to amuse her children.

Omar Sharif looks concerned.

The plot finally picks up when one of the cruise line's board members receives a call from a man identifying himself as "Juggernaut." He states that he will blow up the Britannic within 24 hours if he is not paid £500,000. As the police try to track down Juggernaut, the Royal Navy sends explosive ordnance disposal specialist Tony Fallon (Richard Harris) and his crew to the ocean liner to defuse the bombs.

For most of its running time, Juggernaut is a clunky affair in need of better storytelling, tighter editing, and more memorable characters. It finally shifts into high gear during the final half-hour which focuses mostly on Fallon’s desperate attempts to defuse the bombs. The result is that the film ends on a high note, which may account for some of its positive reviews. (Is there such a thing as a false-positive film review?)

Shirley Knight as Mrs. Bannister.

The cast is certainly capable with Sharif, Harris, Knight, Anthony Hopkins, and David Hemmings. None of them are given much to work with, though Harris projects the right amount of swagger as the bomb disposal expert. Shirley Knight also brings conviction to her throwaway role, making her character the only passenger that elicits any concern. It's a far cry from the character-centric, infinitely more suspense-laden Poseidon Adventure.

It's hard to fault director Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, The Three Musketeers) for the film's weaknesses. Two directors, Bryan Forbes and Don Medford, left the production prior to the start of shooting. Lester was a last-minute replacement and he completed Juggernaut with two weeks left on the production schedule. He also re-wrote the script with Alan Plater. The author of the original screenplay, veteran scribe Richard Alan Simmons, was so unhappy with the revised screenplay that he changed his credit to "Richard De Koker." He based his original script on a real-life bomb threat aboard the Queen Elizabeth II in 1972 (in which no bombs were found).

Juggernaut has the pedigree to be a first-rate thriller, but unfortunately nearly sinks under its own weight until the extended climax. Still, those scenes generate enough nail-biting to keep the film from being a total waste of time. Then again, you could just fast-forward until there's only a half-hour left and use the 70 minutes you saved to do something more productive.

Anthony Mann's The Heroes of Telemark

If not for a small band of Norwegian commandos, Adolf Hitler might have had an atomic bomb before the U.S.--leading to a very different outcome for World War II. The Norwegians' exploits form the basis for the fascinating premise of Anthony Mann's The Heroes of Telemark (1965).

The film opens in Oslo, Norway, in 1942 with the Germans manufacturing "heavy water" in a fortified factory surrounded by snow-covered mountains. The lead scientist. who doubles as spy for the Allies, smuggles a microfilm to guerrilla fighter Knut Strand (Richard Harris). Knut convinces a philandering physicist, Dr. Rolf Pedersen (Kirk Douglas), to examine the evidence. 

Richard Harris and Kirk Douglas.

Pedersen has his suspicions immediately, but cannot confirm them until consulting with British and American colleagues (to include Albert Einstein). Still, it's no surprise when they all conclude that the Nazis are producing water with a greater than normal amount of hydrogen isotope--a product that is used in creating atomic energy.

The Allies quickly decide that the factory must be destroyed, but its proximity to a nearby village creates the first challenge for Knut and Pedersen. A British bombing of the production facility could be deadly for the town's 6,000 residents. However, the factory's location and high level of security make it an almost impossible task for a ground attack. What will they decide?

Filmed largely in Norway, The Heroes of Telemark benefits mightily from the snowy vistas that frame the action. The scenes of the commandos trudging through snow drifts, with the wind whistling in the background, is enough to make most viewers reach for a hot beverage regardless of the time of year. One of the film's highlights is an exciting ski chase that pre-dates later skiing sequences in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and Jean Claude-Killy's Snow Job (1972).

Douglas and Harris amid the snow-covered backdrop.

While Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris inject some star power into the proceedings, both are saddled with one-dimensional characters. That's odd considering that Anthony Mann's 1950s Westerns are noted for their emphasis on characterization over action. It's also difficult to buy Kirk's sudden transition from a university professor to a gun-carrying commando who kills bad guys without remorse. On the plus side, Mann packs The Heroes of Telemark with exciting set pieces: the hijacking of a ship; the explosive raid on the factory; and the sinking of a ferry carrying the heavy water.

Ulla Jacobsson.

Although partially based on the real-life Knut's 1954 book Skis Against the Atom, the screenplay takes some liberties with the actual events. Numerous attacks on the water production facility over a period of several years have been condensed into two raids, which makes for a more streamlined plot. However, the inclusion of a renewed romance between Douglas's scientist and his ex-wife (played by Swedish actress Ulla Jacobsson) adds nothing of value of the story.

Stephen Boyd and Elke Sommer were attached as the stars early in the production planning (when the film was to be called The Unknown Battle). Boyd had appeared the previous year in Mann's The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). After several delays, though, Boyd abandoned the project and, according to some sources, he sued Mann for $500,000 because he missed out on other lucrative roles.

There have been other films, books, and documentaries produced about the courageous men who ensured that Nazi Germany never developed an atomic bomb. The Heroes of Telemark may not be the most accurate version, but it's a well-made, atmospheric adventure that serves as a good introduction--and it looks fabulous on Blu-ray. Sadly, it was also Anthony Mann's last completed film. He died while directing the Cold War thriller A Dandy in Aspic in 1967 with star Laurence Harvey completing it.

Allied Vaughn Entertainment provided a review copy of The Heroes of Telemark Blu-ray.