Excellent but underrated film

Better Late Then Never

A Masterpiece!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Lots of good comment already made except for some confusion over interpreting and understanding allegory. This is one of the best examples. Much has been said about the waste of talent by big name actors in this film. This play gives point to the old adage that there are no secondary parts in a play. This play demanded and used TALENT, hence the outstanding cast of true professionals. I was disappointed that there was no credit or reference made of the musical score. It is excellent. I'd buy a copy if I could find it. This music is haunting and will live with you for a long time. This is one of those movies that makes one wonder why it is not more prominently marketed. Maybe too cerebral?

It all depends how you approach this film. DO NOT expect a linear plot line, either by story or history. Do not expect it to explain itself for, like 2001, it leaves more questions open than it answers. This is a truly odd duck of a film and once you open up to what it SAYS about life and liberty, you can appreciate it. I disliked it at first view a long time ago and for the obvious reasons - the plot is a pencil sketch of the first order. King Arthur whacking limbs off the Black Knight makes more sense. But scrap that and listen to what the actors are SAYING about life and liberty and THEN it makes sense, for this is an allegory of a film. The closest I can find elsewhere is OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR which uses allegory just as well. Danny Kaye is always a treat, but Hepburn is in glorious 1913 costumes and owns the show, and remember this is 1969. The same year as THE LION IN WINTER for an entirely different performance. So you have to junk many standard film rules aside and THEN you will find this a very good treat of film. Have it with good French Bordeaux and cheese too. Then go outside and see if you can smell a cafe in Paris serving their unique nuclear coffee. Who knows? You may wind up there too.

A delightful, gentle, quirky and poetic movie. The entire story takes place in the mind of the title character - an eccentric old dear who dreams of a world in which love is requited and evil is simply banished back into the darkness from which it came. The film is by turns moving, funny and magical - and the cast (especially Evans, Brynner, Homolka and Kaye) are a delight. If you are in the mood to be taken into a gentle, unfashionable, charming world of love, poetry and idealistic whimsy, then this movie is for you.

This story must have been popular in 1969. This film was released and a musical version was being presented on Broadway. (Jerry Herman's "Dear World," starred Angela Lansbury.) God can only imagine why. In the film, the big surprise is Brynner, who is the highlight as the character simply titled, "The Chairman." It's a performance that is quite superior to previous work. Maybe he learned how to act by 1969. Who knows? Hepburn is infuriating; mostly because she's miscast, as is most of the cast.