It's Trad, DadRichard Lester Liebman is forever linked to the British film industry, influencing it extraordinarily in the 1960's, but, truth is, he's a Yank, born in Philadelphia January 19, 1932. He's also something of a genius, starting University Studies at the age of 15, and starting working in television at the age of 18, and within a year moved from stagehand to director within one year.
In 1953, Lester left the States at the age of 22, traveled to England, and began to direct television there, where his work was seen by Peter Sellers who enlisted Lester to direct television specials featuring "The Goons"—Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Spike Milligan. Those shows being "The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d", "A Show Called Fred", and "Son of Fred." It also led to the chance of making his first film, the random Buster Keaton-inspired "Goon" short The Running, Jumping Standing Still Film, which was released in 1959, and was Oscar nominated for Best Short Subject. The film also features Leo McKern and Graham Stark. Lester, himself, cameos as a painter in the film.
The Running, Jumping, Standing Still Film (1959)
Lester's association with The Goons inspired a lot of followers, not the least of which were The Beatles—who remembered his work with them and on his own morning program "The Dick Lester Show,"—and members of The Monty Python troupe, who took the idiosyncratic, free-form and anarchic style of the work when they launched their own series in 1970. It was inevitable that Lester would move on to films from television, where he says "they let you do a second take!" Ironically, Lester became known as a fastidious but efficient director who would, more often than not, print the first take of most of the scenes of his movies, not only for the "freshness" of that initial run-through, but also for the unforseen mistakes and fumbles that that first try would produce.
The Mouse On the Moon (1963) This sequel to 1959's The Mouse That Roared does not boast Peter Sellers reprising his starring roles (he refused to do a sequel, so two of his roles are taken by Margaret Rutherford and Ron Moody), but did recommend Lester to direct, having made short subjects with Sellers and The Goons. And just like the economy of the tiny European Grand Duchy of Fenwick, the budget for this one was miniscule. A somewhat gentle satire about foreign aid in the modern world, Fenwick conspires to supplement its meager economy by requesting money from the U.S. to fund space research (when actually its to replace plumbing in the government buildings). This sets off a competition with the Soviet Union for diplomatic bragging rights, and before one can say "Cape Canaveral" the three countries are in a race to see who can get to the moon first. It's a pleasant film that pales in comparison to its predecessor, and one does not see much of Lester's touch here. He was given much more free reign on his next film, which was a low-budget film featuring some obscure pop-group from England.
A Hard Day's Night (1964) It was a business decision for United Artists. There was this popular group from England that was making hit records, and so the decision was made to make a very cheap film so that the studio could make some quick money on the soundtrack album of exploitable hits. Then, "Beatlemania" exploded. And, fortunately, all the pieces were in place. Richard Lester had been hired to direct for his economy and speed (and The Beatles appreciated his work with "The Goons"). Scripter Alun Owen spent some time with the band while touring, and his ramped up version of the band's life—trapped in hotel suites for their own safety, with emphasis on meeting commitments without enjoying their success—is the DNA behind the whole film. John Lennon would criticize the "roles" that Owen created for them, which seemed to stick in the minds of their fans, who were screaming too loud at the projected images to actually care what they were doing.
I saw the premiere locally, which was tough to understand (with the English "accents" and the jargon) as the movie was perpetually interrupted with screams and girls running up to kiss the screen. Despite the intention to get something quick to capitalize on their current fame, A Hard Day's Night, feels like an eternal document of a much more innocent time.
The ecstatically audacious opening sequence from A Hard Day's Night
The Knack...and How to Get It (1965)
Extraordinarily talky film that Lester took great pains with, in order to take Ann Jellicoe's play (with a free-form adaptation by Charles Wood) to lighten up, tighten up (while expanding the scope), and get moving. Three British flat-mates—nervous schoolteacher Colin (Michael Crawford), slop-artist painter Tom (Donal Donnelly) and serial-lothario Tolen (Ray Brooks), who possesses "the knack" of the title—are inhabitants of a swinging London of mods and rockers, while the older generation looks on and natter like a grousing Greek chorus—only British! Young innocent Nancy (Rita Tushingham) comes to London looking to move into the YWCA, but ends up hooking up with this lot. This can only end in tears, as Tolen cannot resist making aggressive moves on Nancy, leading to a misunderstanding that brings her closer to Colin. Although it is nice to see the Big Sexist of the lot get his come-uppance (or -downance), it is a bit creepy when Nancy accuses him (quite publicly) of rape although appearances imply that nothing happened. It's a face-slapper in terms of acknowledging responsibility for one's actions, but "rape" jokes are nothing to laugh at, and it has the air of perpetuating the chauvinist idea of false rape accusations. It knocks one out of the comedy for a bit. Interesting to note that three of Tolen's "birds" are played by Jane Birkin, Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling in early unbilled roles. |
| Michael Crawford and (yes, that's Jacqueline Bisset...on the left) |
The way of The Knack—that's Richard Lester at 04:14
("Well, I come from Hampston Wick, myself, so I'm used to innuendo")
Help! (1966) The success of A Hard Day's Night guaranteed another Beatles film, but a continuation of that film's chronicling of Life With The Beatles would have been problematic ("and probably X-rated" was Lester's summation), so Lester and writer Charles Wood fashioned a goofy film that, once again, tries to split Ringo from the Beatles—by splitting Ringo "jolly, with a knife"—after he is sent a sacred sacrificial ring by an ardent fan, intended to be the next victim to the goddess Kaili. In color this time (with cinematography from The Knack's David Watkin), the palette veers from pop-art to psychedelia, travels the world like the then-popular '60's Bond films, and the song-breaks are the genesis of nearly every music-video ever made. The Beatles were half-stoned throughout filming—but are no less charming for it—and the film boasts Leo McKern as the high priest of an Eastern cult, Elanor Bron as his chief priestess, and Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear as a mad scientist and his means-well assistant. Lester pulls out the continuity-stops with frequent black-outs, veering attention-span, captioned asides, and quite a bit of logic-cheating for a gag. An out-and-out comedy romp that feels like an early episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus." |
| Lester's "Intermission" for Help! |
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) Theater purists hate it, just hate it. But, if you've never seen the stage version, this is pretty entertaining adaptation, if slightly scatter-shot in presentation. The production team took the hit Broadway musical-comedy and put more emphasis on schtick than on Sondheim (many of his songs were cut). Lester wasn't happy with the cast, "stuck" as he was with talents like Zero Mostel (who is brilliant in this), Phil Silvers and Jack Gilford (as his tastes ran more toward Michael Hordern and Michael Crawford, he might have preferred an all-British cast). So, there's tension here. More deliberate tension is caused by the modernist dialogue and the decidedly less-than-epic run-down look of ancient Rome (complete with flies, achieved by lots of raw meat on the set). That it's a musical that looks horribly un-scrubbed works in its favor, as does Lester's frenetic shooting and editing pace, as you don't have to think too long about much of anything when the farce is stretched. Goofiness is emphasized and a steady, hyper-hap-hazard pace. AFTHOTWTTF is also notable as being the last film of silent screen genius Buster Keaton, whom Lester admired and studied.
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| Gilford, Hordern, Mostel and Silvers |
How I Won The War (1967) Lester and Charles Wood re-teamed again for this black anti-war comedy set during the North Africa campaign of World War II, as Lieutenant Earnest Goodbody (Michael Crawford) relates to the audience his efforts during the war, which grew out of his mission to invade Tunisia in advance of setting up a morale-boosting "Cricket Pitch" to greet the invading soldiers. His command is comprised of the least fit and flunk-outs from military training, including Jack McGowran, John Lennon, Roy Kinnear, Lee Montague, and Ronald Lacey. But despite their clownishness, incompetence, and grousing, they're still far more effective than Goodbody in command, whose only accomplishment seems to be getting his troop killed, one by one. As the situation becomes more ludicrous, the film veers into the surreal with the dead members of the troop following around the living as plastic-colored WWI toy soldiers. Yes, it makes its point, but not in an extremely effective way and grinds away at British complacency about defeating the Jerry's, and the idea of boosting morale in the death pit with a bloody-good round of cricket is something only a desk-soldier could come up with.
Petulia (1968) "Petulia" rhymes with "peculiar," and this film is quite unlike anything Lester had done previously. The story of the intertwining lives between a socialite (Julie Christie) in an abusive marriage (to Richard Chamberlain) and a San Francisco doctor (George C. Scott) and their affair that almost happens. Shot by Nicolas Roeg (who would soon begin directing in a style very similar to this) and brilliantly edited by Anthony Gibbs, it flashes forward and back, split between emotional impressions of events as they're happening as Dr. Archie Bollen (Scott), recently divorced (from Shirley Knight) finds himself stalked by Petulia Danner (Christie), a self-described "kook" who is inspired by his care of a young Mexican boy involved in an auto accident. The film is very "of" the 60's, and may be more emblematic of the era than other, more obvious films (you can also catch glimpses of Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, as well as The Grateful Dead) and its cutting scheme is complex and far more intricate—seeming more like an emotional stream of consciousness—than the subsequent experiments the next year in Easy Rider or, one might add, the recent work of Christopher Nolan. But, it ain't an easy watch, and one might say impenetrable for all its "gussied-up" editing and oblique angles, but it's saying something about physical separateness and emotional memory. It's up to the watcher to decipher it.
The Three Musketeers: The Queen's Diamonds (1973) If someone wanted to make a case for Richard Lester as a master filmmaker, this one is it. When approached by the producing family, the Salkinds to direct this, he had no interest, and was told "...because you haven't read it." Once he had, he was in, hiring "Flashman Papers" author George MacDonald Fraser to write the script, exploiting the satiric elements, and hand-picking a cast that is hard to improve upon.* Michael York heads the cast as D'Artagnan, Oliver Reed as Athos, Frank Finlay as Porthos, and Richard Chamberlin as Aramis, all four men do their own stunts, which adds immeasurably to the tale, as the fights are clumsy, knock-about things using any skill and dirty trick available to best your opponent. And dirty tricks is what it's all about in the very political environment of France (the film came out in the same year as the Watergate scandal began, so the shenanigans seemed comically appropriate to modern audiences). The Queen (Geraldine Chaplin) is conducting an affair with Britain's Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward) under the clueless nose of the King of France (Jean-Pierre Cassel). Determined to expose the tryst is Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston at his best) with the aid of the Comte de Rochefort (Christopher Lee) and the Milady DeWinter (Faye Dunaway). With Spike Milligan and Raquel Welch as D'Artagnan's land lords and Roy Kinnear as his man-servant, The Three Musketeers (and its "sequel") may be the best version of the "filmed-once-every-decade" classic yet produced. | ||
| Reed, Finlay, Chamberlain, York and Kinnear Musketeering |
Juggernaut (1974) Disaster movies were big at the time, so it's only natural that one should appear here, but Lester's handling of a terrorist plot to extort money with the threat to blow up the cruise ship "Brittanic" is sophisticated, ingenious, and, amazingly, features some fine acting from a second-string cast, and some unknowns who would go on to bigger things. Omar Sharif is the captain of the ship under threat, Shirley Knight is his not-too-hidden mistress, Roy Kinnear is the entertainment director (one of his best, most effective roles). The investigators back in England include Anthony Hopkins, and Ian Holm is the CEO of the cruise line who won't negotiate with terrorists. The bomb squad tasked to dismantle the bombs on the high-seas is headed by Richard Harris (never better) and David Hemmings. It's a well-crafted film, despite some slap-dash dodgy camera-work here and there, and Juggernaut is probably the best of the short-lived disaster genre, but not a lot of people saw it, perhaps due to Sharif and Harris not being A-list draws. Fact is, they're better in these parts than some of the more substantial stars were in their roles in Irwin Allen's films. But, this one is definitely worth the time, and the resulting suspense feels real.
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The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974) Now...Lester's original The Three Musketeers was supposed to be one big road-show movie, a 2 1/2-3 hour epic with intermission. But somewhere along the way, the film was split into two parts, thus increasing the box-office take for the producers and leaving the cast wondering if they were being paid for the one movie they signed up for, or for two. For whatever reason, the film was split at the Intermission point, and its finish, Milady's Revenge released the next year. It might have been a strategic move for the producers, both dramatically and financially. The first film ends with the musketeers triumphant and everyone smiling, but the story goes on for the bad guys to have their revenge for past events and this film is considerably darker, what with the deaths of several key characters, and an uncertain future for the heroes. The light shenanigans of the previous film now took depths of skull-duggery, and a denouement that wasn't all sweetness and light and happy bravado, and was, in fact, very dark and very final, and might actually rankle those who believe in fair trials. Good and bad are dispatched alike, and there's less romp and pomp. Milady's Revenge highlights Oliver Reed at his best, and there are some career-high performances for a number of the cast.
Royal Flash (1977) Having worked with George MacDonald Fraser on the "Musketeers" adaptations, Lester enjoined the author to collaborate on one of his earlier "pet" projects—making a film of Fraser's own "Flashman" novels. The "Flashman" series were comic satires written in the first (and only) person by Sir Harry Paget Flashman, described by Fraser as "a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward—and, oh yes, a toady." Fraser got the character from "Tom Brown's School Days" (Flashman was the school bully) and decided to expand on the character's life vaulting through ever higher rungs of British society by being the worst kind of sociopathic charlatan (shades of How I Won the War). With Flashman at its center, Fraser could re-write (or correct) history to his heart's content.The story is based on Fraser's second novel, where Harry (played by Malcolm McDowell) is coerced by the Prussian Otto von Bismarck (Oliver Reed) to marry a Dutch princess (Britt Ekland) for political purposes by impersonating a Danish prince (in a plot similar to what Fraser purports to have inspired "The Prisoner of Zenda")—and also to keep Harry from making time with von Bismarck's mistress Lola Montes (Florinda Bolkan). The cast is truly amazing, Lester gets the resources of Geoffrey Unsworth as photographer. But, the film was cut by the studio from its original length of two hours to 90 minutes, making parts of it a muddle. Perhaps one day a full-length version will show up one of these days.
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| Harry Flashman (McDowell) addresses a class—Patton-style—in Royal Flash. |
Robin and Marian (1976) After the success of the "Musketeer" films, Lester became the de facto "period" director for niche-oriented producers. Ray Stark had a property—an original screenplay by The Lion in Winter author James Goldman, of Robin Hood in his twilight. The script was enough to coax Audrey Hepburn back into films after six years of inactivity, an event in and of itself, and by then, Lester had his choice of cast. Again, its the cream of the crop of British actors with Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Nicol Williamson, Richard Harris, Ian Holm. Stark and Lester clashed over tone. The producer wanted something light and frothy for Hepburn's fans, while Lester wanted to be true to the period in its brutality of crossed swords and Crusader savagery. The two don't really mix—this isn't Errol Flynn's Robin Hood—and the more jaundiced eye that Goldman and Lester have towards the folly of battle and the efficacy of heroics must ultimately win out if it is to show the last campaign of Robin Hood. Despite that, Connery and Hepburn have a distinct chemistry, while being miles apart in acting style. All the actors take the material and play it smart, with the exception of Hepburn, who takes it sentimental, but is so charming in her role you forgive her everything. Although script and direction seem to clash a bit, there are a lot of lovely things about this.
The Ritz (1976) Lester's adaptation of Terrence McNally's Broadway hit with much of the original cast in a situation that's comparable to Lester's filming of A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum—Lester might have been better served with his own casting ideas, but the film is served well by the veteran cast including Jack Weston (from Lester's Cuba), Jerry Stiller, Rita Moreno, and F. Murray Abraham doing the celluloid version. New to the film are Treat Williams as a detective who looks the part, but doesn't sound like it, and Kaye Ballard as Weston's wife. He plays Gaetano Proclo, the son-in-law of a Mafia Don who, on his death-bed, says the words "Get Proclo!" His brother-in-law, a low-level hood, puts a hit on Gaetano, who disguises himself to stay at The Ritz, a low-level New York bathhouse to hide out, not knowing its reputation as a gay hangout.It is interesting to watch The Ritz, considered "racy" in its day for its depiction of a stereotyped gay lifestyle, with the benefit of hindsight. This was, after all, made in the 70's, the era of disco and general cultural flamboyance. The AIDS crisis was years away, and "gay" stood for comedy—not drama, only drama-queens—if it was brought up at all. Homosexuals were still very-much closeted and farces like The Ritz seemed to be the best anyone could do to get noticed. "Quaint" might be the best word for it, as in a time where equal rights and life and death are no laughing matter, The Ritz is as relevant as the term "sissies."
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| Williams, Moreno, Abraham, and Weston (with Stiller on the floor). |
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979) Ten years after the release of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, someone had the brilliant idea to make a prequel (as a sequel was a bit out of the question). William Goldman did not write this one (although he Executive Produced and contributed a couple of bits); Allan Burns did the lion's share of the script, which is long on incident, but short on through-line and, as Newman and Redford had forged ahead with their careers and were not looking any younger, two up-and-comers with vague resemblances to the two—Tom Berenger and William Katt—were cast as Newman and Redford...er..Butch and the Kid. Lester, who confessed to never having seen a Western, screened the original, but chose to think of this film as "a Victorian adventure." There isn't much Western to it, with extended episodes in Telluride (naturally), a revenge story that turns on its ear featuring Brian Dennehy as a former friend, a visit to the home of the Robert Parker's (featuring Jill Eikenberry as Cassidy's wife) and the story of a few first's: their first bank robbery, first encounters with dynamite, the first chase by Joe LeForge (Peter Weller plays him in an early role), Sundance's first killing, and, probably the sequence closest to Lester's heart, an elaborately staged first train robbery. Like the two robbers at this point, it is genial and mostly unoffensive.
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| The Kid and Cassidy rob their first bank, all in a good cause. |
Cuba (1979) Lester re-unites with writer Charles Wood and star Connery to tell a story of utter corruption in pre-Castro Cuba. Connery plays British soldier-of-fortune Robert Dapes, hired by a Cuban patriarch, Don Jose Pulido (Walter Gotell) to keep an eye on revolutionary insurgents, and help train the Cuban Army (led by Martin Balsam's General Bello) to fight off Castro's forces. But while there, he runs into an old flame (Brooke Adams), who has married (unhappily) into that patriarch's family. The era is rife for satire as there are so many conflicting interests among the government, the military, the low-tech industrialists, and the revolutionaries, that there's nowhere to turn without finding some black-humored irony in the mix. Jack Weston plays an American investor, with an eye toward investing in the cigar and rum factories run by the Pulido family, if only he can be convinced that the government and business interests are stable. But, at the time, nothing is stable in Cuba.
Nice parts for Hector Elizondo, Chris Sarandon and Denholm Elliott, but the film concentrates more on soap opera than the dynamics of change, and the movie suffers for it.
Superman II (1980) Late in the production of the first Christopher Reeve-starring Superman film, the producing Salkind family hired their Three Musketeers director to oversee production, ostensibly to make director Richard Donner work faster and with less budget (as Lester is a notoriously "print the first take" kind of director). When it came time to finish work on the super-sequel (filmed in tandem with the first film), Donner was not hired back and Lester was brought in to complete the film, re-writing, shooting and editing the footage so as to guarantee having slightly more than 50% of his work on-screen to get sole director credit. The results are understandably uneven, and even more so when compared with Donner's previous film. In an attempt to match the look of the first's director of photography (Geoffrey Unsworth), the entire film looks smeared with vaseline and degraded, and there is little similarity between scenes that were shot with Donner (anything involving Gene Hackman, who didn't return for re-shoots out of protest—ironic as he gets top-billing, even over Christopher Reeve) and Lester's work with DP Bob Paynter—for one thing, Lester didn't like the deep-perspective look that Donner brought to the work in favor of a "flat" image to emulate the looks of comic-books.. Because Donner had used his "ace-in-the-hole" solution of spinning the Earth back in time in the first movie (it was actually at Lester's suggestion), re-writes of the original script had to be done, involving a terrorist threat in Paris (involving Lois Lane) that manages to free the three Kryptonian villains (Terrence Stamp, Sarah Douglas and Jack O'Halloran) seen at the beginning of the first film. The scenes shot between Reeve and Marlon Brando were cut (so as not to pay Brando) and Susannah York was inserted uneasily into the scenario. The results are very uneven, and leave some mysteries that would have been cleared up if Donner were allowed to finish. Still, the Super-action in Metropolis seems to have won over quite a few supporters (although these days, it looks like bad effects and wire-work). | |||
| It's probably Lester because you can't tell if it's Hackman in the background | . |
Superman III (1983) The success of the second "Superman" film (seams and all) meant that another Superman movie was viable, and as Lester was seen as something of a miracle worker for salvaging a hit from a bad situation, he was the first choice to direct the follow-up. To maximize profits, the producers brought in Richard Pryor who, at the time, was at the height of his popularity with film-goers. But, the casting works to the detriment of both—Pryor isn't nearly as edgy as he could be, and the Superman story-line is equally weak, shuffling off Margot Kidder's Lois Lane (salary demands, again) for Annette O'Toole's old Smallville flame Lana Lang, inconsequentially, as it turns out. It seems the writers were forced to shoe-horn in the desires of the cast, without the benefit of (oh, say) an inspired idea to begin with. This time, another evil industrialist (Robert Vaughn) and his formula idiot-sidekicks (in this Superman series, at least) are trying to...hell, I don't know what they're trying to do...make money and kill Superman...not too terribly unlike the producers. Pryor's computer-savant is all the help they need to accomplish all that. Somewhere along the way, a synthetic kryptonite is created (by computer?) and it has the effect of Jekyll/Hyding Supes from his secret identity of Clark Kent. Must have been fun for Reeve to play, but, frankly, there were better ideas on the old George Reeves television show. What this movie could have used was some "mole-men."
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| Christopher Reeve fights Christopher Reeve in Superman III |
Finders Keepers (aka Cash, Cash)(1984) It's 1973 in the middle of the Watergate investigation. Michael O' Keefe plays Michael Rangeloff, a roller-derby entrepreneur who crosses paths with the daughter (Pamela Stephenson) of a prominent businessman (Arthur Hill, curiously unbilled) who hooks up with a crook (Ed Lauter) to rob him of $5 million and make it look like a kidnapping. On a cross-country train trip from Oakland to New York, accompanying a coffin carrying the loot, he meets self-centered actress Standish Logan (Beverly D'Angelo), who's on her way to a nervous breakdown in Ogden, Utah. One way or another, except for the authorities who are bunglers, everybody is lying in one form or another and (not unlike Watergate) the perpetuation of the lies just makes things more complicated. It's a bit like an old Buster Keaton movie with a particularly nasty streak and that thought is only perpetuated by a slapstick-laden final act with a confrontation between the parties in a house that is being transported to another location. For all its reputation of being something of a "nothing" film, it is a fun little satire of the times, when, in the '70's, the world went a little mad for awhile (oh, those were the days). |
| The plot-lines intersect with a traffic accident early-on in Finder's Keeper's. |
The Return of the Musketeers (1989) Sixteen years after their triumph with the Three Musketeers films, Fraser and Lester re-teamed with producer Pierre Spengler as well as many of the earlier films' principal stars to adapt Dumas' own "Twenty Years After." They stick fairly close to it, although instead of the chief villain being the son of Milady deWinter, its her daughter (played by Kim Cattrall). Athos' son Raoul is played by C. Thomas Howell, and the film is a less tightly constructed affair than the first film. The fights, given the ages of the returning Musketeers have less of the rollicking energy (though not for want of trying), and there may be a bit too much post-dubbing to keep the thing moving too smoothly. It's a good effort at trying to recapture the magic, but it came at a huge cost—Lester's favorite character-actor Roy Kinnear was killed in a horse-riding accident, and although he appears throughout the film, there is some body-doubling in evidence to get around his considerable loss. After this film, Lester stopped directing films entirely, save for one that returned him to some of his roots.
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| "He wants to rule the world...if he can get a government grant" Roy Kinnear in Help! |
Get Back (1991) Lester's proficiency as a television director, his decisive, quick shot choices, and his habit of filming most of his films with three camera running simultaneously makes him a natural to film concerts (MTV called him the "father of music videos" for his work with The Beatles, which rankled him), and so when former Beatle, now Band-mate Paul McCartney needed a director to film his "Get Back" tour in 1990, he coaxed jis old director Lester out of self-imposed exile. The concert footage is fine, but it is occasionally mixed with multi-media material which sometimes doesn't add to the concert experience, and even works against it in places. It's a film for stalwart McCartney fans, or the incurably nostalgic.
* Supposedly, Lester didn't want Raquel Welch for the role of Constance, and even she was puzzled by it ("Why did they want me for the June Allyson part?" she has laughed in interviews) but she does not disappoint, giving a winsome slap-stick performance that's a joy to watch. She won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress that year, and had the perfect line in her acceptance speech: "I've been waiting for this since 1,000,000 Years B.C.!"
From The Knack: Lester knows his Buster Keaton...to a bouncy score by John Barry
Speaking of which...
Speaking of which...
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