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Man of La Mancha (film)

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Man of La Mancha
Directed byArthur Hiller
Written byMiguel de Cervantes (novel)
Dale Wasserman (musical/screenplay)
Produced byArthur Hiller
StarringPeter O'Toole (dubbed by Simon Gilbert)
Sophia Loren
James Coco
Harry Andrews
John Castle
Ian Richardson
CinematographyGiuseppe Rotunno
Edited byRobert C. Jones
Music byMitch Leigh (musical)
Laurence Rosenthal (incidental music)
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
December 11, 1972
Running time
130 min.
CountryItaly / US
LanguageEnglish

Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film version of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion. The musical was suggested by the classic novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, but more directly based on Dale Wasserman's 1959 non-musical television play, I, Don Quixote, which combines a semi-fictional episode from the life of Cervantes with scenes from his novel.

The film was financed by an Italian production company, Produzioni Europee Associates, and shot in Rome. However, it is entirely in English. It was released by United Artists. The film is known in Italy as L'Uomo della Mancha.

The film was produced and directed by Arthur Hiller, and stars Peter O'Toole as both Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote, James Coco as both Cervantes' Manservant and Sancho Panza (Don Quixote's "squire"), and Sophia Loren as scullery maid and prostitute Aldonza, whom the delusional Don Quixote idolizes as Dulcinea. Gillian Lynne provided the musical and fight staging

Gino Conforti, as the barber, is the only member of the original Broadway musical cast to repeat his role for the film, though James Coco also played that role, briefly, on Broadway.

Synopsis

Main article: Man of La Mancha

Cervantes and his manservant have been imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, and a manuscript by Cervantes is seized by his fellow inmates, who subject him to a mock trial in order to determine whether the manuscript should be returned.

Cervantes' defense is in the form of a play, in which Cervantes takes the role of Alonso Quijana, an old gentleman who has lost his mind and now believes that he should go forth as a knight-errant. Quijana renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and sets out to find adventures with his "squire", Sancho Panza.

Two changes are made to the storyline of the stage musical: one of them is the reason for Cervantes' imprisonment. The play begins with Cervantes and his manservant entering the dungeon, after which we learn that Cervantes incurred the wrath of the Inquisition by issuing a lien on a monastery that would not pay their taxes. In the film's opening scene, we see what seems to be a festival in the town square, during which Cervantes stages a play that openly lampoons the Inquisition, thereby leading to his arrest on the spot. Another change in the film occurs when the Padre and Dr. Carrasco are sent to bring Don Quixote back home. In the stage version, they arrive at the inn and simply try to reason with him, but he pays no attention. In the film, in a scene directly inspired by Cervantes's original novel, an elaborate ruse is set up by Don Quixote's family. A man is brought in on a bier, apparently "turned to stone" through some enchantment. Don Quixote is told by the man's "relatives" that only he can break the spell, by fighting the dreaded Enchanter, Quixote's mortal enemy. This prepares us for the Enchanter's later appearance as the Knight of the Mirrors.

Production

According to both associate producer Saul Chaplin (in his memoir The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me) and Dale Wasserman (in his memoir The Impossible Musical),[1] the film had a troubled production history. Originally, Wasserman, composer Mitch Leigh, and Albert Marre, who had directed the original show but had never before directed a film, were hired to make the motion picture, and original cast stars Richard Kiley and Joan Diener were screen tested in anticipation of the two actors repeating their stage roles. Because of a dispute with UA, however, Marre was fired, and Wasserman, Leigh, Kiley and Diener also left the project. British director Peter Glenville was then brought in, but was fired when it was learned that he planned to eliminate most of the songs. It was then that Arthur Hiller and Saul Chaplin joined the project. Hiller re-hired Wasserman to adapt his own stage libretto, although, according to Wasserman, the film's new opening sequence, showing the actual arrest of Cervantes before he enters the prison, was not by him. Writer John Hopkins, who most likely wrote the scene Wasserman refers to, had been brought in by Glenville, and had left when Glenville was fired. However, it has never been made clear whether it was Glenville or Hiller who cast the usually non-singing actors (among them O'Toole, Loren, Brian Blessed, Harry Andrews, Ian Richardson, and Rosalie Crutchley), although it may be assumed that Glenville did, since he had tried to eliminate the songs, and had previously worked with both O'Toole and Laurence Rosenthal, the music adaptor, on the film Becket. Although most of the roles in the film were played by British Shakespearean actors who were not noted for singing ability, the picture did feature several actors, among them Julie Gregg, Gino Conforti, and the muleteer chorus, who did have singing voices.

Saul Chaplin also explains in his book that the sets and costumes, designed by Luciano Damiani, had already been made by the time that he and Hiller were brought in to work on the film, which meant that Hiller could not have them altered.

Reception

The fact that the film had gone through several directors, and the non-singing Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren had replaced Richard Kiley and Joan Diener in the leading roles, may have influenced the critics' reactions to the film at the time. Upon release, and for several years afterward, it received overwhelmingly negative reviews, notably from Time Magazine, which not only did not consider the film worthy of a full-length review, but even threw in some criticism of the original stage production into the bargain. They referred to the film as being "epically vulgar", and called the song "The Impossible Dream" surely the most mercilessly lachrymose hymn to empty-headed optimism since "Carousel" 's '"You'll Never Walk Alone".[2] Newsweek, in its review, opined that "the whole production is basted in the cheapest sentiment. Everyone gets a chance to cry over poor Don Quixote".[3] On the other hand, both Peter O'Toole and James Coco received Golden Globe nominations for their performances. The film, according to Dale Wasserman in his autobiography The Impossible Musical, fared well financially in its first week, but ultimately did poorly at the box office. Over the last few years, however, the film's reputation has somewhat improved, as evidenced by some favorable online reviews, and viewers as well as critics are more responsive to it.[4]

Music

Mitch Leigh's Tony Award winning score is augmented in the film adaptation with discreet string orchestration by conductor Laurence Rosenthal, whose work was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Song Score and Adaptation. The original stage orchestration had used no strings other than guitar and string bass.

Two songs from the musical, "What Does He Want of Me" and "To Each His Dulcinea", were completely omitted from the film, as were two verses of "Aldonza" and the second verse of the deathbed reprise of "Dulcinea". The lyric of "It's All The Same" was partially rewritten by Joe Darion. The last few lines of "I Really Like Him" were also rewritten, but, as in the play, Aldonza tosses Sancho a dishrag to take to Quixote as a "token". When Sancho does so, Quixote immediately believes it to be a silken scarf. Peter O'Toole's singing voice was deemed to be inadequate, and was re-recorded by Simon Gilbert.[5] All the other actors did their own singing.

Scenery and costumes

The film presents a more faithful depiction of Don Quixote's armor, as described by Cervantes in the original novel, than did the original production of the play. Cervantes describes Quixote's armor as having a brownish quality because of rust, which is the way it appears in the film (in the original production of the play, it was silver, like most armor). In the film, before he begins using a shaving basin for a helmet, Quixote obviously wears a morion with a cardboard beaver attached, as Cervantes tells us he did. As designed for the original stage production, his first helmet is simply a regular medieval one.

The film was criticized by some for having shabby-looking scenery in the Don Quixote scenes, but the design of both the windmills and the inn is remarkably faithful to that of the actual windmills and inns of that time in La Mancha. (There is a roadside inn still in existence that is, according to legend, one of the two inns that Cervantes describes in the novel.)[6]

Cast

(First billed only)

Awards and nominations

Nominated

Won

References

  1. ^ Wasserman, D, "The Impossible Musical," pages 169-176, Applause Theatre & Cinema Books 2003.
  2. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906738,00.html
  3. ^ http://books.google.com/books?ei=Kxa4Sc3VA4-ctwft_629CQ&ct=result&q=%22Newsweek%22+Man+of+La+Mancha%22+%22cheapest+sentiment%22&btnG=Search+Books
  4. ^ http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=6010
  5. ^ Wasserman 2003 page 173.
  6. ^ [1] [2].
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