Guilty Pleasures: The Honey Pot

1967 Mystery Comedy

From United Artists

Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz

Starring

Rex Harrison

Susan Hayward

Cliff Robertson

Capucine

Edie Adams

Maggie Smith

Adolfo Celi

This movie suffered from the moment the first grip turned on the big lights on the soundstage in Rome.  Nothing, it seems, was ever simple filming The Honey Pot.  There were too many changes which resulted in confusion, insecurity, tension and short tempers.  Everyone said its leader, the great Joe Mankiewicz, was not himself.

It is based on the play Mr. Fox of Venice by Frederick Knott (whose pedigree produced Dial M for Murder and Wait Until Dark) and a novel by Thomas Sterling, The Evil of the Day.  Both, in turn, are loosely based on the 1606 play Volpone by Ben Jonson.  Volpone, in fact, is mentioned a couple of times in Mankiewicz's screenplay.

The film was first called The Tale of the Fox and then It Comes Up Murder and then to the amusing Venice, Anyone? and finally The Honey Pot.  Let confusion reign.

This a satirical look at greed.  Lots of greed.  Five of the six main characters have a bad case of it.  At the center of the tale is Cecil Fox (Harrison), an assumed wealthy man, who lives in a beautiful palazzo in Venice.  He wants to play a joke, an elaborate scheme, on three ex-girlfriends (Hayward, Capucine, Adams) and needs the help of another person to pull it off.

Answering Fox's ad is William McFly (Robertson), a failed law student, a sometime actor and occasional hustler, who also happens to be in need of some cash.  Despite not being able to type or take shorthand (as he says), McFly is technically hired as a secretary but Fox says he will be a stage manager for what is being planned.  He wants to see how much his ex-loves still care about him.

Oh I guess I failed to mention one little thing.  Along with greed, this is a tale of murder... and even suicide.  To lure the ladies to Venice he tells them that he is very ill and wants to see them for a final visit.  He also says that he plans to leave his fortune to one of them but the visit will determine who that is.  Fox tells McFly that all of them are greedy but sharp and on their toes and careful planning is in order.

Princess Dominique (Capucine) is penniless but eager to restore her former fortunes.   Merle McGill (Adams) is an ordinary Brooklynite turned into a movie star via Fox's connections but whose star has faded.  Finally there's Lone Star Crockett Sheridan (Hayward) a millionairess from Texas.  Accompanying the hypochondriacal Mrs. Sheridan is her nurse-companion, Sarah Watkins (Smith), who takes her employer's public humiliation better than I might.

With the initial gathering of McFly and the three ex-lovers in one of the mansion's main salons, Mrs. Sheridan takes over as the trio warily checks out one another.  She walks by the princess and snarls hold onto your crown, Highness and then to tipsy Merle and your bottle, Lowness.  Mrs. Sheridan then spits out that she is Cecil Fox's longtime common-law wife and all the coins and furnishings are going to her.  We'll agree Highness and Lowness are not happy.

The cast gathers as Harrison plays dead

One of the truly funny scenes takes place in Fox's bedroom where he is not only faking his death but rigor mortis as well.  McFly is amused watching his employer carry on but the ladies are flummoxed.  Mrs. Sheridan, in checking him out, causes the corpse to fall to the floor.  When the ambulance folks arrive, the hilarity continues until Fox reveals he's pulled a prank.

Before long there really is a death... a murder, in fact.  The obedient and ever-efficient Sarah gets up at 3 a.m. to give Mrs. Sheridan a placebo and finds her dead.  She immediately suspects McFly with whom she had been to dinner the night before and who excused himself to make a long distance phone call and was gone for some time.

Despite the fact that Sarah and McFly are falling for one another, she tells him she thinks he is the murderer.  He tells her she's being too dramatic but she continues to believe she's right and we kinda think so, too.  We have been made aware that McFly wants Fox's money as much as the women do.

Robertson & Smith and a little oneupmanship

There's a funny scene in the garden.  Fox, who's always wanted to be a ballet dancer, is flying through the air, pointing his toes, mishandling a few pirouettes and then dashing across the courtyard, swishing from side to side and throwing his hands in the air, stop, breathe and repeat.  He is jolted out of his haze when he spots Sarah amusingly watching him.  Who did you think it was, he gasps, the Fairy Queen?  Well, yeah.

The best scene of the film also involves Fox and Sarah.  McFly has locked all the women in their rooms, telling them to stay there because he fears for their safety.  Something is coming down.  Still not trusting him, Sarah squeezes into the dumbwaiter and pulls herself up to Fox's room.  What happens is that we are witnessing in Smith and Harrison two English masters of high comedy technique.  Knowing that and knowing that she would be telling him that she's figured it all out, knows who the murderer is and knows how to prove it... and him telling her that she is missing many clues and that she doesn't know what she's talking about... must have excited Mankiewicz hearing his clever words being spoken.  Are we hearing the truth?  Is this just gamesmanship?  Are we simply talking of two crafty people who are out to pull the wool over each other's eyes... and ours as well?

The good news is that it's all cleared up at the end... back in that garden area.  I cannot tell you who's all involved... or rather who's not... and there is that police inspector (Celi) who's figured out quite a lot.  If you want to know the rest, you must see the film.  It is involved, complicated, confusing, mainly satisfying.  I don't think I should give endings away on murder mysteries.  And let's remember, I call this a guilty pleasure.  Actually, it was never more of a pleasure to me than it was this time during this latest viewing but there is no denying I would feel a little guilty about not mentioning its shortcomings.  

I read some unpleasant ramblings about The Honey Pot before I ever saw it.  I didn't even particularly care for Harrison or Robertson or Adams.  So why did I see it... and in later years buy the DVD?  Well, I do love murder mysteries and my adoration of Hayward and Capucine knew no bounds.  I barely knew Smith at the time but my adoration of her would grow and grow over the years.

We'll stay with personalities for a bit.  Despite working together three times before (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, '47, Escape, '48 and Cleopatra, '63), Mankiewicz and Harrison did not get along.  It was the worst on The Honey Pot when Mankiewicz said he hated the actor.  He couldn't abide the actor's haughty ways and resistance to taking direction..  Harrison thought Mankiewicz was out of his element in high comedy.  For certain Mankiewicz was never on sure footing as a director after Cleopatra.

Rex Harrison

Additionally Harrison, who was married to actress Rachel Roberts at the time, was distressed when she attempted suicide because she did not get the role that ultimately went to Smith.  Harrison, no doubt, found fault with the director if not the whole experience of making the film after that.

I thought Harrison's talent was quite limited but this drawing room comedy stuff... raised eyebrows, fancy duds, dickeys, all-knowing, snotty attitude, indignant manner with a large dose of entitlement ... well, let's just agree the gentleman found his métier.   

Mankiewicz had also worked with Hayward before on 1949's House of Strangers and executive produced her Oscar-winning turn in I Want to Live (1958).  He knew that she was highly temperamental and often agitated but he had no problems with her in any of their films together.  Here, she still flew to her dressing room after hearing cut and did not have casual dealings with her coworkers.  Adams, who was looking so forward to working with Hayward, was sorely disappointed and felt the actress's reclusiveness cast a pall over the entire production.

Susan Hayward

It was a sad time for Hayward.  Her mega-wattage star had dimmed in the 60s and had all but extinguished by her death in 1975 at age 57.  She didn't photograph well here (and not the only one) and it lessened my interest for this film when she was killed off so quickly.

At the same time her husband had been very ill throughout the filming.  It got so bad that he had to return to the states while she stayed behind to finish her small role.  But it didn't work out and he passed away.  She left for the states and by the time she returned she was a very sad lady.

Her Highness... Capucine

Capucine was also a sad lady.   A former French model, she came to American movies when producer Charles K. Feldman put her under a personal contract and she moved in with him.  People were often wary of her on their film sets because she was the boss's girlfriend.  Their movies together were North to Alaska, Walk on the Wild Side, The 7th Dawn, What's New, Pussycat and this one.  Although I was crazy about her patrician beauty, she wasn't much of an actress and was stony cold in this one.  She was photographed most unflatteringly.   Capucine committed suicide in 1990.

Adams, also photographed poorly (what's going on here?) and was also never much of an actress.  I can think of many actresses I would have rather seen play horny Merle.  She seems like she never got out of her cabaret-performing mode.  She was probably happy to work with Robertson again... they had played husband and wife in 1964's The Best Man.

Edie Adams

While I have never gone to a flick because Robertson was in it, he is good here.  He has as much nefariousness about him as Harrison does and he was as much the sleuth as Smith and the pair of them made a nice couple.  The actor's penchant for playing things lowkey worked to his advantage here.  

Smith, sixth billed in the proceedings, actually has the largest role among the women.  She is also the only one who's not a little daft.  She seemed to take to her role as if she thought this was the greatest film of her career.  She has a gift for underplaying.  She is the only one of the main actors still alive. 

While the mood on this set wasn't nearly as vitriolic as it was on Mankiewicz's Suddenly Last Summer (1959) or the overall manic craziness of Cleopatra, this was still not an easy time for him here.  He was forever fussing with the script.  It's rather funny that parts of the story have to do with confusion and even deliberate confusion but unfortunately that's a complaint for many regarding the film itself.  

Capucine, Hayward and Adams all had separate dream sequences that helped explain the characters more fully, what they meant to Harrison/Fox, what their motivations were but Mankiewicz deleted them.  It may have been for reasons of the length of the film but it apparently became an issue of a lack of clarity.  When all was said and done, Mankiewicz took the scissors to 19 minutes.

He also eliminated completely the roles played by actors Herschel Bernardi and Massimo Serato.  Poof.  Gone.

The editing is also poor.  It's obvious where some cuts were made and worse there are references to things or people that were eliminated in previous scenes and one strains to determine what they're talking about.

A week or so into filming Mankiewicz fired cinematographer Pietro Portalupi and replaced him with Gianni Di Venanzo (who'd done superior work on two Fellini projects, 8 1/2 and Juliet of the Spirits).  Di Venanzo gave the film the very lush European look that Mankiewicz was looking for.  The few scenes of Venice are so charming and the interior of the palazzo (the studio soundstages must have been full) is eye-popping glamor.

Overall the movie took eight months to complete, an exceptionally long time for one filmed mostly on interior sets.  The studio did not back or promote it as was usually the case.  I don't think business was brisk and I'm not even sure it's gained any steam over the years.  

So, while I liked it, it is most definitely an imperfect film.  But, hey, I got to spend some time with Susan Hayward and Capucine and that induced much happiness.

Here is a trailer:

Next posting:

the tap dancing fool