See Venice - and inherit ...
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | See Venice - and inherit ... |
| Original title | The Honey Pot |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1967 |
| length | 131 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| script | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| production | Charles K. Feldman |
| music | John Addison |
| camera |
Gianni di Venanzo Pasqualino De Santis |
| cut | David Bretherton |
| occupation | |
| |
See Venice - and inherit ... is an American comedy film on the subject of appearance and reality, made in Venice in 1965/1966 . Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed and starred Rex Harrison, an aging bon vivant with a sense of macabre jokes. He is surrounded by female co-stars Susan Hayward and Capucine . The film is based on Frederick Knott's Mr. Fox of Venice , Thomas Sterling's The Evil of the Day and Ben Jonsons Volpone as literary models.
action
Notoriously underemployed actor and dropped out law student William McFly is hired by the bon vivant Cecil Fox, who lives in a feudal palace in Venice, as his secretary in order to play a prank, as he is told, on someone. In his Venetian palazzo, Fox goes to bed, plays a terminally ill patient, and lets his ex-lover tell him that they may visit him one last time. All three women who are supposed to say goodbye to Cecil are happy to come, they believe there is something to inherit soon. These are the financially burned Princess Dominique, the former movie star Merle McGill, who has also seen better times, and a certain Mrs. Lone Star Crockett Sheridan, a spoiled millionaire from Texas. The somewhat old-young looking nurse Sarah Watkins appears as Sheridan's Lone Star. Upon arrival, the three women watch each other suspiciously and avoid each other as best they can. Lone Star Sheridan takes things into her own hands at an early age and announces to the other ladies that they could actually return home straight away, because she is the legally wedded wife of the moribund, bedridden Casanova. As a result, there is nothing to get here for Dominique and Merle.
McFly and Mrs. Sheridan's supervisor Sarah make friends a little and go out together one evening. When both return to the Venetian palace, Sarah sees her employer lying dead on the ground. Apparently she took her own life with a sleeping pill overdose. The local police are notified and appear in the form of the beefy Ispettore Rizzi. Sarah is the only one who knows that the deadly pills Mrs. Sheridan allegedly took were just placebos . McFly, in turn, tells Sarah that he was hired by Cecil Fox for a lively charade game and that it was planned that at the end of this somewhat peculiar menage-à-quatre he would read out his own will as a final joke on the “deathbed” . William McFly would then select the heiress in his presence. Endowed with so much power, Sarah begins to suspect that William McFly may have hatched a diabolical plan: to get hold of the inheritance, he first kills the women in question, and then kills old Fox to make himself the universal heir. She says this to McFly on the head, whereupon he unceremoniously locks her in her room. Supposedly this is for their own good. But Sarah escapes her prison via the dumbbell and goes to Mr. Fox to warn him about his own secretary. But the old man reacts incomprehensibly in Sarah's eyes. He seems quite upset about her intervention in his master plan and sends Sarah back to her room.
The next morning, Cecil Fox is also found dead. It is now up to William McFly to solve the puzzle. He says his boss, Mr. Fox, killed Mrs. Sheridan to get her sizable fortune as her husband. In truth, his lordly residency in this palace was just a big staging, because in fact Sheridan Fox was as good as broke. After his faded boss found out that he, McFly, knew about the real motivations and financial situation of his employer, Fox killed himself. Sarah asks McFly to put her name in Fox's will, more out of a funny mood, because now that there is nothing left to inherit, one can also finish the Fox game and her name put in the will. This no longer has any real meaning anyway. McFly is having fun, and the Italian police inspector generally counters arrogance as a witness. Both underestimated Sarah's cleverness, because as poor as Cecil Sheridan Fox may have been, in the end he was also the heir to Lone Star Crockett Sheridan's great estates and thus a very wealthy man. Sarah tells William McFly that she now wants to marry him and that she will use the money she now has to finance his law degree so that he can finally become a lawyer, as he has always wanted.
Production notes
See Venice - and inherit ... was made between the end of 1965 and spring 1966 in Venice (exterior shots) and the Roman Cinecittà studios (interior shots). The premiere took place on March 21, 1967, the US premiere on May 22 of the same year. The German and Italian premieres were on September 29, 1967.
A serious incident occurred during filming. Only 45 years old, head cameraman Gianni di Venanzo died completely unexpectedly at the beginning of 1966 and had to be replaced almost overnight by his long-time assistant and collaborator Pasqualino De Santis , who finished shooting the film.
The film structures were designed by John DeCuir , and the German-born Rolf Gérard was responsible for the costume designs.
The scenes with well-known actors such as Massimo Serato , Herschel Bernardi and Frank Latimore were cut out of the finished film.
Reviews
"Never as amusing as you would like it to be."
“Based on Johnson's play by the deceived fraudster, elegantly staged, excellently played crime comedy. Ingenious and exciting entertainment of subtle depth. "
"... despite the brilliant moments, the mood is fatally inconsistent, and over everything lies a cloud of pseudo-subtle dialogues like a shroud."
Web links
- See Venice - and inherit ... in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 8: T - Z. David Tomlinson - Theo Zwierski. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 153.
- ↑ See Venice - and inherit ... in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on November 15, 2018