The Yellow Rolls-Royce

The Yellow Rolls-Royce is a 1965 dramatic composite film written by Terence Rattigan, produced by Anatole de Grunwald and directed by Anthony Asquith, the trio responsible for The V.I.P.s (1963).

The Yellow Rolls-Royce
Film poster by Howard Terpning
Directed byAnthony Asquith
Produced byAnatole de Grunwald
Written byTerence Rattigan
StarringRex Harrison
Jeanne Moreau
Music byRiz Ortolani
CinematographyJack Hildyard
Edited byFrank Clarke
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • 13 May 1965 (1965-05-13) (US)
[1][2]
Running time
122 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5.4 million (US)[3]
949,156 admissions (France)[4]

Apparently adapting an idea from In Those Days, a 1947 German drama by Helmut Käutner that had its US premiere in March 1951,[1] The Yellow Rolls-Royce uses a yellow 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II[5] to frame the story of three very different owners: an English aristocrat, a Miami gangster and a wealthy American widow. It is set in the years up to and including the start of World War II.

Prompted by the production team's success with The V.I.P.s, the film boasts a similar all-star cast,[2] including Rex Harrison, Ingrid Bergman, Shirley MacLaine, Omar Sharif, George C. Scott, Alain Delon and Jeanne Moreau.

The soundtrack song "Forget Domani" by Riz Ortolani won Best Original Song at the 23rd Golden Globe Awards. Another tune, "Mae", for the Scott-MacLaine-Delon section of the film, was also released in several versions.

Plot
This is the Rolls-Royce Phantom II used in the movie, chassis No. 9JS and built in 1931. The car carries Sedanca de Ville coachwork by Barker.

On a flatbed lorry driven in the streets of London, a motorcar is under a grey cover with the initials RR. The Rolls Royce is first purchased by Charles, Marquess of Frinton as a 10th wedding anniversary present for his French wife, Eloise. Frinton is Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. The marquess is a longtime horse owner who has his heart set on winning the Ascot Gold Cup. This year his horse, named 10 June (his wedding anniversary date; also the writer Terence Rattigan's birthday) is the favourite and does indeed win. Lord Frinton is presented the Gold Cup by King George V. However, his elation is blighted when he finds his wife with her lover, his underling John Fane, in the back of the Rolls with the shades drawn. For appearance's sake, Lord Frinton will not divorce his wife, but he instructs the chauffeur to return the car to Hooper. When Lord Frinton is asked why the car is being returned, his answer was, "It displeases me".

20,023 miles later, Genoa, Italy — The Rolls, according to G. Bomba, owner of the Genova Auto Salon was “owned by a Maharajah, who lost his money at the San Remo Casino.” The Rolls is purchased by American gangster Paolo Maltese. He is touring the sights of Italy with his bored fiancée Mae Jenkins and his right-hand man Joey Friedlander. When Maltese returns to Miami to take care of some unsavory business, he leaves Friedlander to chaperone Jenkins. Friedlander turns a blind eye when she falls in love with Stefano, a handsome young street photographer she had met while still with Maltese. Upon finding Jenkins and Stefano in the back of the Rolls with the shades drawn, Friedlander walks away. But he later shows Jenkins an eight-day-old American newspaper headline, Bugs O’ Leary Slain—Police Claim Gang Warfare, that was Maltese's business in the United States. Although in love with Stefano, Jenkins reluctantly leaves him, telling him that it was just a fling, to protect both of them from possible reprisal from her lethal boyfriend Maltese.

Trieste on the Yugoslav border – the year, 1941 — The Rolls is in a repair shop. The car exterior is filthy with OCCASIONE (Bargain, Special Offer) painted on the windscreen. It is bought by Gerda Millett, a powerful and wealthy American widow touring Europe. Just before the Invasion of Yugoslavia by the Nazi Germans, she encounters anti-fascist Davich who commandeers her automobile to sneak into Yugoslavia, hiding in the boot before the border crossing. Along the way, these two seemingly different people fall in love. At their Ljubljana hotel, they survive a German aerial attack, then she insists on driving him to a partisan camp in the mountains and makes several trips to pick up more villagers and deliver them to the camp. She wants to stay and help repel the invaders, but Davich will not permit it, saying it is not her fight. He tells her to go back to America and tell people what she has witnessed. The car is seen being unloaded from a cargo ship in New York.

Some years later, shown during the closing credits, the Rolls is seen driving along an expressway, passing beneath a road sign reading I-95, George Washington Bridge, Bronx – Next Right.

Cast

Uncredited Cast

Production

In early April 1964, Robert H. O'Brien, President of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer informed the press about the upcoming Rolls-Royce project, with production set to start on 6 April.[6] Along with the announcement, Anatole de Grunwald was assigned to produce the original screenplay by Terence Rattigan.[6] By that time, Ingrid Bergman, Rex Harrison, Shirley MacLaine, Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, George C. Scott and Omar Sharif were already cast in the key roles.[6]

Shooting took place in MGM's British Studios in London and on location in Italy.[6]

Reception

The film's reviews were "tepid," but it performed "respectably" at the box office.[2]

Critical

According to The Sunday Telegraph, "anyone willing to be taken for a smooth ride could hardly find a more sumptuous vehicle, star-studded, gold-plated, shock-proof and probably critic-proof, too."[2] Time magazine called it an "elegant, old-fashioned movie about roadside sex" that "looks worn at times," but is "always appropriately overprivileged in high-powered personalities and spectacular sets."[5] The New York Times called it a "pretty slick vehicle, that is pleasing to the eye and occasionally amusing, but it hardly seems worthy of all the effort and the noted personalities involved."[1]

Box office

The film grossed $5.4 million at the US box office, among the top ten films in box office receipts for 1965, a year in which Mary Poppins topped the list with $28.5 million.[3]

The movie was not particularly successful at the French box office, failing to reach more than one million admissions.[4]

The film's producers also benefited financially from television's willingness to pay studios more for more timely broadcasting rights to new films: The Yellow Rolls-Royce received its television premiere on CBS[7] in fall 1967.[8]

Awards and nominations
Year Award ceremony Category Nominee Result
1966 Golden Globe Awards Best Original Score Riz Ortolani Nominated
Best Original Song Forget Domani by Riz Ortolani and Norman Newell Won
1965 BAFTA Awards Best Cinematography - Colour Jack Hildyard Nominated
Best Costume Design - Colour Anthony Mendleson Nominated

References
  1. The Yellow Rolls-Royce at Music Hall: Three Stories Linked by Car's Ownership, a 14 May 1965 review by A.H. Weiler from The New York Times
  2. Article: The Yellow Rolls-Royce from Turner Classic Movies
  3. The Box Office: The Gross Is Greener, a 14 January 1966 article from Time
  4. Box office information for film at Box Office story
  5. Cinema: Back-Seat Romance, a 21 May 1965 review from Time
  6. "MGM Set to Roll With 'Yellow Rolls-Royce'". Lewiston Evening Journal. 4 April 1964. p. 4-A.
  7. Television, a 6 October 1967 article from Time
  8. Television: Every Living Room a Nabe, a 23 June 1967 article from Time
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