Waltz of the Toreadors (1962)

Director:

John Guillermin

Writers:

Jean Anouilh (play)
Lucienne Hill (English translation)
(more)

Release Date:

19 September 1962 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

This is the end of a glorious military career: General Leo Fitzjohn retires to his Sussex manor where he will write his memoirs...

Plot Keywords:

Foreign Language Adaptation | Beautiful Woman | Independent Film | Based On Play

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Gen. Leo Fitzjohn
Dany Robin	...	Ghislaine
Margaret Leighton	...	Emily Fitzjohn
John Fraser	...	Lt. Robert Finch
Cyril Cusack	...	Dr. Grogan
Prunella Scales	...	Estella Fitzjohn
Denise Coffey	...	Sidonia Fitzjohn
Jean Anderson	...	Agnes
Raymond Huntley	...	Ackroyd, Court President
Cardew Robinson	...	Midgley the Undertaker
John Glyn-Jones	...	Jenkins the Innkeeper
John Le Mesurier	...	Rev. Grimsley
Vanda Godsell	...	Mrs. Emma Bulstrode, Dress Shop Proprietor
Catherine Feller	...	Rosemary, the young maid
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Humphrey Lestocq	...	Fox Hunter (uncredited)
Guy Middleton	...	Drunken Fox Hunter (uncredited)
Michael Miller	...	Huntsman (uncredited)

Directed by
John Guillermin

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean Anouilh		play
Lucienne Hill		English translation
Wolf Mankowitz

Produced by
Peter De Sarigny	....	producer
Leslie Parkyn	....	co-producer
Julian Wintle	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Richard Addinsell

Cinematography by
John Wilcox

Film Editing by
Peter Taylor

Production Design by
Wilfred Shingleton

Art Direction by
Harry Pottle

Costume Design by
Beatrice Dawson

Makeup Department
Sarah Beber	....	hairdresser
Stuart Freeborn	....	makeup artist
W.T. Partleton	....	makeup artist (as William Partleton)

Production Management
Arthur Alcott	....	production supervisor
Geoffrey Haine	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
René Dupont	....	assistant director
Derek Cracknell	....	third assistant director (uncredited)
Stuart Freeman	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Peter James	....	set dresser (uncredited)
Tony Woollard	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Bill Daniels	....	sound recordist
John W. Mitchell	....	sound recordist
Peter Musgrave	....	sound editor
Roy Charman	....	sound camera operator (uncredited)
Graham V. Hartstone	....	assistant sound (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
James Bawden	....	camera operator
Brian Ellis	....	clapper loader
George Courtney Ward	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Betty Adamson	....	wardrobe mistress (uncredited)
Jim Dunlevy	....	wardrobe master (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Tom Priestley	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Muir Mathieson	....	musical director

Other crew
Penny Daniels	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Independent Artists
• Julian Wintle/Leslie Parkyn Productions

Distributors

• J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (1962) (UK) (theatrical)
• Continental Distributing (1962) (USA) (theatrical)
• AmCo (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Borium (1989) (Finland) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)
• Euro Films (1985) (Spain) (VHS) (Beta)
• Filmax Group (1994) (Spain) (VHS) (collection: El cine de siempre)
• Hallmark Home Entertainment (????) (USA) (video)
• ITV DVD (2002) (France) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Lusomundo Audiovisuais (????) (Portugal) (DVD)
• Miramar Films (2009) (Spain) (DVD)
• PVB Editions (2003) (France) (DVD)
• Rank DVD Video, The (????) (UK) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

Greece:104 min | USA:105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15 (video rating) | West Germany:18 | Finland:K-15 (2001) | USA:Not Rated | Spain:T | France:U | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Leeds Castle, Kent, England, UK

Company:

Independent Artists

Trivia:

The names of many of the characters were changed for this film version of the play.

Quotes:

Mrs. Emma Bulstrode, Dress Shop Proprietor:We have to perform miracles to make beauties out of these girls.
Gen. Leo Fitzjohn:That's more than their mother could do.

An Edwardian tragic-comedy

Peter Sellers first successful dramatic role of any stature is as General Leo Fitzjohn in this version of the play by Jean Anouilh. Although a success in the military (we see over the years as he rose to his present rank) he was married to a woman who was bed-ridden due to emotional problems, and he was never quite able to carry out his lifelong romance with his French girlfriend. His wife (Margaret Leighton) is a shrew, but she is one who never stopped loving her unfaithful husband - so she will never give him the divorce he'd want. His mistress (Dany Robins) is attractive, and ever hopeful. Unfortunately she has met the General's adjutant, Lt. Finch (John Fraser), who she finds available and able to return her love. So this four sided parallelogram develops as the center of the plays plot.

Sellers has had other affairs, all of which Leighton has had to live through. In one it turns out he had a child. Yet he is unable to break the chain linking him with this woman, who is both sympathetic and neurotic. He yearns and schemes to be with his mistress, but every time something (from a broken leg to a drinking contest) interferes. In the end he watches as he loses her, and he considers suicide.

Sellers had never had such a sad character before. Maybe the alcoholic movie projector operator in "The Smallest Show on Earth" came closest, but he was not the central figure of that film. Sellers showed the depressing effects of aging on the general, once a gallant physical specimen. He is fully aware of his aging, and his failure to attain true happiness (just the temporary enjoyment of sexual pleasure). As he contemplates his mortality, and plans suicide he tells his closest friend (Cyril Cusack), "I don't want to die." But he can't prevent that inevitability.

He did well with the role of Fitzjohn, and it paved the way for some of those bright figures such as his too Christian minister in "Heaven's Above", his triple roles in "Lolita" and in "Dr. Strangelove", and his final great part of Chance in "Being There". Fitzjohn was a taste of what was to come.