Forerunner to the later - better - movie "The Admirable Crichton", you can't help but nevertheless make a comparison.
Starting with Kenneth More... oh my God!!! Was *that* supposed to be an 'Oirish' accent...??? I've never heard anything so cringeworthy! Competes even with Sean Connery's terrible attempts at accents. Funny thing about More is that I really like him in some things, but heavily dislike him in others. His acting ability is grossly limited, and completely miscast in this film. Contrasting his performance here with his performance in the 1957 "The Admirable Crichton" in which he was reasonably good, we can see the type of character he suits and the type he just does not suit whatsoever. He is not a Daniel Day Lewis by any stretch of the imagination.
Similarly, as an actress, the early Joan Collins is also very limited, but at least she has considerable feminine aesthetic quality to nudge the imagination... thus raising my rating (amongst other things) by one-star.
George Cole, also a limited actor, I feel is a bit more flexible and adaptable than More and has the added ability to impart a comedic aspect to his acting.
Overall, this film is very, VERY poor on all fronts... acting, directing and (especially) the scripting. Perhaps the production and photography fare only slightly better but with the cinematography offering a strange, paled-out, over-exposed hue or colouring.
Also, considering the quartet has been on the island for months, they look awfully pale... virtually no tan.
Fact of the matter, though, is that there *are* worse movies... therefore, I cannot rate it lower than a 2-star + 1-star (see above), giving a 3-star rating.
Starting with Kenneth More... oh my God!!! Was *that* supposed to be an 'Oirish' accent...??? I've never heard anything so cringeworthy! Competes even with Sean Connery's terrible attempts at accents. Funny thing about More is that I really like him in some things, but heavily dislike him in others. His acting ability is grossly limited, and completely miscast in this film. Contrasting his performance here with his performance in the 1957 "The Admirable Crichton" in which he was reasonably good, we can see the type of character he suits and the type he just does not suit whatsoever. He is not a Daniel Day Lewis by any stretch of the imagination.
Similarly, as an actress, the early Joan Collins is also very limited, but at least she has considerable feminine aesthetic quality to nudge the imagination... thus raising my rating (amongst other things) by one-star.
George Cole, also a limited actor, I feel is a bit more flexible and adaptable than More and has the added ability to impart a comedic aspect to his acting.
Overall, this film is very, VERY poor on all fronts... acting, directing and (especially) the scripting. Perhaps the production and photography fare only slightly better but with the cinematography offering a strange, paled-out, over-exposed hue or colouring.
Also, considering the quartet has been on the island for months, they look awfully pale... virtually no tan.
Fact of the matter, though, is that there *are* worse movies... therefore, I cannot rate it lower than a 2-star + 1-star (see above), giving a 3-star rating.