FILM SCREENINGS

The Honey Pot

1966. USA/Italy. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. With Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson, Capucine, Maggie Smith. The final Harrison-Mankiewicz pairing is a lavishly photographed update of Ben Jonson's 360-year-old Volpone. It had previously been filmed just prior to World War II by Maurice Tourneur, whose Hollywood period was long behind him, and who wound up working under the Vichy government; his star, Harry Baur, was apparently murdered at the hands of the same regime four years later. The Honey Pot attempts to be frothy and Felliniesque, and Harrison is in his beguiling element as a great, if not totally reliable, lover. 131 min.