Man of La Mancha

I was privileged to have seen "Man of La Mancha" twice in the theater. These were riveting and unforgettable moments. As those who have seen it performed already know, the play was presented without intermission. Obviously this is because the drama builds up to such an emotional high as the story unfolds that a break in the narrative would have been both jarring and disorienting.

To that extent, the play was crafted almost in the same vein as a film-----without any break from beginning to end.

The movie version sticks quite closely to its theatrical origins. Given the creative personnel responsible for the film, this is quite understandable.

I thought that Sophia Loren was right for the female leading role notwithstanding her limited vocal range. She gave us an emotionally charged and powerful performance that overcame her lack of strength as a singer.

Peter O'Toole is another matter. Not only was his singing dubbed, but O'Toole was a somewhat mannered and affected Cervantes. Admittedly, it may be a valid artistic conception to make the soldier/actor/poet/author/tilter at windmills effete and rather fragile. But the role as developed on the stage projected a man with more power as he adopted his various guises.

Why didn't the filmmakers remember Howard Keel when they were casting the movie? He had a wonderful baritone voice, and exhibited in "Kiss Me Kate" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" the kind of qualities that could have made Cervantes more appealing and less exhausted. Keel was a vibrant 53 in 1972------the year when the film was released (O'Toole was then 40). Certainly, that would have been an appropriate age for the role. As a footnote, Keel played Cervantes in touring and summer stock productions of "Man of La Mancha" for many years around the time the film was made.

We should be grateful that we have a more or less complete contemporaneous film account of a legendary musical play. What a pity that this good musical film wasn't made even more memorable by casting a worthy singing film actor in the male lead. The score certainly did not benefit from being sung from the mouth of such a depleted-appearing performer as O'Toole. He should have stuck with "Lawrence of Arabia!"