Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Deborah Kerr | ... | Prudence Hardcastle | |
David Niven | ... | Gerald Hardcastle | |
Robert Coote | ... | Henry Hardcastle | |
Irina Demick | ... | Elizabeth Brett | |
Joyce Redman | ... | Grace Hardcastle | |
Judy Geeson | ... | Geraldine Hardcastle | |
Keith Michell | ... | Dr. Alan Huart | |
Edith Evans | ... | Lady Roberta Bates | |
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David Dundas | ... | Tony Bates |
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Vickery Turner | ... | Rose the Maid |
Hugh Armstrong | ... | Ted the Chauffeur | |
Peter Butterworth | ... | Chemist | |
Moyra Fraser | ... | Woman in Tea Shop | |
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Annette Kerr | ... | Gerald's Secretary |
Harry Towb | ... | Racetrack Official |
Prudence Hardcastle (Deborah Kerr) is on the pill. So is her sister-in-law, but someone has been swapping aspirin for their pills. Is it the teenage niece, the maid, the chauffeur, a lover, Prudence's husband Gerald (David Niven), or all of the above? Written by Mike Smith <mismith@brody.med.ecu.edu>
The sexually-estranged wife of a London banker (named Hardcastle!) is suspected of infidelity by her hypocrite husband, who is cheating himself with a French lass. He replaces his spouse's contraceptive pills ("Thenol") with aspirin--to catch her in the act, I guess--an idea he gets after his sister-in-law tells of a scheme by her teenage daughter to avoid pregnancy before marriage by swapping out her own mother's pills in the same fashion. Hugh Mills adapted his smirking play for the screen, and might have been astonished to find most of the female roles filled by matronly women (married to very mature men). This is a blue-haired attempt at keeping up with the youth explosion in cinema circa 1968, but the material is highly unsuitable for its stars. Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Robert Coote (awful!) and Joyce Redman look embarrassed to be involved; Edith Evans, as the potential mother-in-law for sexually-active Judy Geeson, is the only cast member to rise above the juvenile plotting. Director Fielder Cook left the project midway after a disagreement with the producers, to be replaced by Ronald Neame. * from ****