REVIEW: The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)

The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)

The film opens in a basement full of “betting gentlemen” watching Sir Paul Deverill (Keith Michell) struggle with a greased pig.  He is supposed to be marrying Vanessa Ruddock (Clare Austin), though he doesn’t love her.  As he rides home in a coach with her father, he promises him they will marry regardless.  Meanwhile, two gypsies, Belle (Melina Mercouri) and Jess (Patrick McGoohan) are making their way on foot in the same direction as Deverill.

Belle enters the Deverill kitchen to try and “sell her wares”, and gets kicked out, stealing some cooked chicken in the process.  She brings the food to Jess, who is building a fire, and she states she is not a gypsy, since her father was a “gentleman”.  Meanwhile Deverill has a hot bath, a luxury to the gypsies. 

Aunt Lady Caroline Ayrton (Helen Haye) visits Paul and his sister Sarah (June Laverick), who Caroline says will get her fortune, not Paul, who will squander it away.  Caroline is in love with a medical student, John Patterson (Lyndon Brook). 

The band of gypsies hold a sort of fair, full of locals, and Deverill holds a boxing match.  He promises to pay the winner “a purse”, but after the match, he discovers his pocket has been picked.  Blame is put on Belle, who the crowd turns on.  She seeks safety in Deverill’s arms, and returns his purse.  She flirts with him, and he proceeds to give her freedom… and the money.  Deverill will get another purse for the winning boxer.

Next we meet Sarah’s intended, as well as Deverill’s. 

One rainy night, Deverill’s coach is passing Bess and Jess’s camp, and she runs up to the road and finagles herself into the coach.  She tells him sister Sarah that she isn’t a real gypsy, because her father was a gentleman.  She is offered a roof over her head for the night.  This ends up being a night in Deverill’s bedroom.

Belle ends up living at the house, Sarah doesn’t like it, Belle steals the second purse of money intended for the boxer, Deverill is called on to decide which woman to keep, Belle or Vanessa, he chooses Belle, etc etc etc.   Belle and Deverill get married.  Sarah tells her there is no money, just debts.  Belle gets mad.  But she sticks around, determined to be something more than poor.

Time passes, and it appears most of the valuables in the Deverill house have been sold to pay creditors.  Most of the staff is gone.  Jess manages to become Deverill’s “man”, taking care of horses, etc.  He lives over the stable.  Belle occasionally flirts with him, but also hits him like she hits the last remaining maid.  He makes it clear Belle can’t treat him that way, and also if he ends up having to run, he will run alone. 

Aunt Caroline passes away, and the family lawyer comes to the house.  He explains the terms of her will.  Sister Sarah will get her fortune if she marries before she turns 21.  Belle and Jess start working on making sure she can’t get married in time, scheming with the lawyer. 

Jess locks Sarah inside a “folly” on the estate, what looks like an Oriental tower of sorts, surrounded by water.   She often met her boyfriend John there.  So when John arrives looking for her, he goes to see if she is there.  Jess pretends he is living in the folly, and John leaves. 

Sarah ends up escaping the folly, and makes it to London.  Belle, Jess, and Deverill head there as well.  Belle and Jess meet up with the lawyer and Jess suggests having Sarah committed to an insane asylum.  She is found, then kidnapped and brought to the asylum.  Bess gets a drunken Deverill to sign the proper paperwork to keep his sister locked away.

Sarah’s friend Mrs. Haggard (Flora Robson) finds out, and tries to free her.  She succeeds in convincing the corrupt head of the hospital to let her go instead of being exposed to the public.

Deverill suddenly sobers up enough to go to his lawyer’s office.  He discovers what has been going on behind his back, and suddenly grows a spine. 

The movie ends with Sarah and Mrs. Haggard in a coach speeding away from the asylum, followed by Jess and Belle on another coach.  Deverill is on horseback racing toward them from the opposite direction.  They meet on a stone-arch bridge over a swift waterway.  Jess and Belle fall into the water.  Deverill jumps in after Belle, as Jess swims toward the shore.

Belle yells out for Jess, as Deverill keeps her above water.  Deverill has saved Belle’s life, but she only wants Jess.  Jess keeps swimming and gets onto the shore.  He looks back, but sees no one.  Deverill decides to drown Belle and himself.

This movie can be found online with some digging.  It appears to have been released on DVD in a few countries (such as Region 0/Spain)

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This film is somewhat notorious for McGoohan fans (female ones, anyway) thanks to that beard and the smooching scenes.  To what extent his infamous no-kissing policy actually extended, we may never know.  But his Rank roles did require kissing women, no more so than in this story.  Though, you never really see lips touching lips!

I had already formed an opinion of this movie thanks to female fans' comments regarding his kissing scenes (positive), McGoohan's own opinion of his Rank films (negative), and even one newspaper editorial from years ago where a woman was rather upset at his non-Secret Agent-like character (scoundrel). I found a copy of the film posted online and gave it a view...

The whole film actually has a decent "look" to it. Even a less-than-stellar online copy had good color, though McGoohan's eyes didn't look at all blue, so a good copy from a good print probably would look amazing. But there are plenty of outdoor scenes, elaborate sets, and colorful costumes.  It doesn’t look cheap.

But the plot looses your interest after a while, and the ending is rather trite.

The two lead characters, Belle and Sir Paul Deverill, are, well... CADS. It is very hard to be sympathetic to either of them. They both ask for what they get.

I found Melina Mercouri rather annoying.  I probably shouldn’t fault her, but her character instead.  She sure was fiery!  But she just seemed to be pushing the sexy-thing too much. Her whole performance was a bit over the top. Her outfits made the most of her teeny waist and were cut to make the most of the upper-half of her.  Let’s just say she was no Dagmar (look her up…).

Keith Michell as Sir Paul Deverill also annoyed me.  But, again, his character is a spoiled jerk you have no sympathy for, either.  I found myself wondering if I, the viewer, was supposed to hate him for dumping nice Sarah Deverill for slutty Belle, or feel for him because he is being duped.  His death in the end is no great loss…

The "nice" characters are pretty run-of-the-mill, though Flora Robson is a bit of a stand-out as Mrs. Haggard.  June Laverick likewise was OK as Sarah Deverill, if a bit too mousy. 

As for McGoohan's character, Jess, one minute he seems nice, then nasty, then a bit of both, then also a cad.  But how can you hate a character that sits and gently pets a white ferret?  It doesn’t really matter, because he looks darn sexy in his beard.  And I am generally no fan of beards! 

I didn’t find his infamous “love scenes” with Mercouri as steamy as fans always suggest.  I still didn’t see any lip-on-lip contact, he still seems distracted (by food or a purse of money), and the scenes still fade out just in time.  There also didn’t seem to be any sort of connection between the two actors, unlike his kiss at the end of “Nor the Moon by Night”. 

But all that smooching aside (and there is a lot implied in this film), McGoohan’s best scene, acting wise, may actually be the one where Jess pretends to live in the folly.  He’s a totally different character, and actually gets some dialog to say.

Now, if you like horses, there are a lot of them in this one.  I couldn’t quite tell which actors were actually doing their own high-speed riding, some of it side-saddle, but there is one thing I just have to ask:  HOW does McGoohan get onto his horse like that??

Watch it if you must, but have a good reason to, like I did...

REVIEW: Nor the Moon By Night / Elephant Gun (1958)

NOR THE MOON BY NIGHT (1958)

Aka: ELEPHANT GUN (USA)

This film is set in Africa, with Patrick McGoohan playing park ranger Andrew Miller, who has been writing to a woman named Alice (Belinda Lee) for years.  After her mother dies, Alice finally heads to Africa to meet and marry Andrew.  His brother Rusty (Michael Craig) isn’t fond of the idea, and thinks the arraignment will fail miserably.

Andrew becomes involved with problems involving local tribes, poachers, and stampeding elephants while Rusty is assigned to meet and watch over Alice until he can meet up with them.  Putting his job ahead of his woman results in his brother Rusty and Alice falling in love (lust?).  Andrew doesn’t know it yet, but Alice isn’t exactly the nice girl he thought she was.

A native park staffer is killed, and scenes of tribal members, other staffers, and poachers clashing follow.  Accusations as to who is responsible for the death fly.  Was it an evil ghost?  Was it the local white poacher and his men?  Was it a spurned lover?  The dead man’s widow seeks revenge.  Meanwhile Alice and Rusty cavort with each other.

Alice finally gets to meet Andrew when he is rescued after spending time up a tree, bleeding from an arm wound, trying to stay out of the mouths of local lions while a brush fire rages.  Laying on the ground in a daze, he looks at Alice as she hovers over him, giving her a gentlemanly “pleased to meet you”. 

The whole group finally end up together, relaxing in a camp house, where things seem rather frosty between Alice, Rusty, and a local white poacher’s young daughter named Thea, who has run away from home.  Andrew seems out of the loop.  Eventually, Thea, who has a crush on Andrew, confronts Alice about the fact she isn’t in love with him, but his brother, and should let Andrew know. 

Torrential rains begin to fall.  One thing leads to another, Alice and Rusty get passionate, Thea decides to go home, gather her things, and run away from her abusive father for good.  Andrew follows, thwarts Thea’s father who tries to bull-whip him, and takes her to safety.  He stops his Land Rover and, soaking wet, basically tells her she can live with him (and no doubt become his wife), giving her a kiss before the scene fades out.  

Alice thinks she has to leave Africa to face charges of killing her mother, who she was caring for before leaving to meet Andrew.  The charges are dropped, and she drives away with Rusty.

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Before watching this film, you must put yourself in the mind of an English audience-member in 1958.  Britain still has a large colonial presence all around the globe, including Africa.  Racism is still rampant as well, and censors still have much influence over film content. 

Having said that, the handling of scenes with local Africans is surprisingly realistic, dare I say even slightly respectful for the era, though modern audiences may take issue with the whole “voodoo curse” plotline and “rain dance” at the end.  But in all there is a rather authentic feel to most of their scenes (no blackface and seemingly no fake languages). 

The overall look of the film is not as impressive as an MGM Cinerama masterpiece, but for it’s time and budget it does make an impression, with it's wide-screen aspect and landscape shots

As for the animal scenes, they range from adorable to disturbing.  Were any animals “harmed during the making of this motion picture”?  I don’t know, but it sure looks like an elephant was shot somewhere at some time, and either the male lion who ends up draped over McGoohan was asleep from drugs, or downright dead.   

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I'll be completely honest... the only reason I watched this movie was because of Patrick McGoohan.  I think the only reason men watched it when it first came out was because of Belinda Lee!  For a 1950s British film, she sure showed off her figure and near the end had some rather steamy scenes with Michael Craig.  If any kids were in the audience, it was because of the wild African animals, most of which seemed to be real.

Supposedly the on-location production was plagued by “issues” with the cast and accidents like the one that put McGoohan in the hospital after crashing a vehicle.  In a magazine article he later stated that during filming pretty much every actor’s marriage ended but his.  Belinda Lee actually left the production to be with her lover and had to be persuaded to return.   

As for the main plot and cast, Lee’s character (Alice) starts out seemingly innocent and moral, dressing conservatively as she cares for her dying mother.  Craig’s (Rusty) seems dubious of brother Andrew’s (McGoohan) by-mail courtship of Lee.  He almost seems to be telling him he’s not man enough to have a relationship of any kind with a woman.  He no doubt doesn’t understand a man like Andrew, who is a thoughtful, quiet sort of guy, who seems genuinely happy Alice will finally be with him, but doesn’t quite know how to show it.

Everything starts to change once Alice arrives in Africa, and by the time the movie hits the half-way mark, you wonder if you are looking at the same characters as in the beginning!  Lee’s wardrobe style changes, and she basically turns into a tramp.  Rusty becomes a wolf, while Andrew is more interested in the animals in his care than the woman he is supposed to marry. 

It struck me that perhaps there was a casting change before shooting began.  Craig’s character is named Rusty, but he is a dark-haired man, while McGoohan has the reddish-brown “rusty” color hair (though sometimes it seems almost gray).  Craig is also handsome and muscular, and lets the audience know it.  But it is McGoohan’s character that gets all of the dangerous action scenes, though he is tall and lean (and keeps his clothes on).  

In order, Andrew almost gets bitten by what looks like a cobra (according to McGoohan, it was a real snake that had been milked of its venom), crashes his truck (like he did in real life off-camera), gets attacked by a lion, treed by more lions while bleeding profusely, almost burned by a brush fire while in said tree (the cast & crew helped fight a real fire according to a newspaper article), and almost bull-whipped at the end of the film while soaking wet.  All the while buff Rusty gets closer and closer (literally) with a ready and willing Alice. 

One subtle stunt that looked particularly impressive for a non-stuntman was when McGoohan, as an injured Andrew, climbs a tree with only one hand.  I couldn't climb a tree with THREE hands, yet alone one.  

Craig would have looked more “Hollywood” playing Andrew, but McGoohan could never have pulled off the sexiness of the scenes with Lee.  Instead, he gets all the danger and ends up with the young good-girl Thea played by Anna Gaylor, which may seem fitting to his fans.  One of his most natural scenes is the one where we first meet Thea, the poacher’s young blonde daughter.  She gives him a small monkey to hold while she questions him about his by-mail girlfriend.  She obviously has a crush on him, but he treats her like a little sister since she's not yet 18, calling her “Pigtails”.  Thea (Anna Gaylor) receives one of the very few McGoohan on-screen kisses, and if you really watch it, you can almost hear his brain say “I’ll just say what I mean with this little shoulder-bump and a smile” before planting that kiss. 

If you'd prefer not to watch this film as a lowish quality online copy, it is available as a Region 2 (non-US) DVD from Network in the UK (worth it, ladies, just to more clearly see Patrick's blue eyes)