By 1974, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were preparing to call it quits for the second and last time (reuniting only for a stage production of Noel Coward's "Private Lives"), and so Burton teamed with the equally legendary Sophia Loren for two films. The second was a version of this Noel Coward screenplay, successfully filmed in 1945 and only adapted for the stage just a few years ago. Their teaming here is not a successful one, lacking in chemistry in an updated version of Coward's script that is old fashioned and dull.
The two are married to other people and meet by chance while waiting for trains going opposite ways. She gets a piece of grit in her eye, and he, being a doctor, gently removes it. A few more chance encounters occur before they start to plan on them. Their spouses are no more the wiser (so they think), although Loren almost reveals all when she asks her husband if he's ever been unfaithful. It's guilt that is their punishment, and what was potent 30 years before seems out of place minus much drama in the sexually free 1970's, even in jolly old England.
While Burton and Loren are fine in their acting, it's the personal relationship between them that seems forced. This happens with every famous actor, and in their case, their legend is too big and their characters too normal to make them as exciting as the legend that was Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, both better when they have more troubled characters. Here, they just seem bored and in a rut, and that doesn't warrant interest in a relationship between them that the audience knows can't last. It worked better for Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in the original film because they came off as ordinary. One thing I wish at the end when Loren ran into a non-stop talking acquaintance is that she either totally walked away or told the magpie to button her lip.
The two are married to other people and meet by chance while waiting for trains going opposite ways. She gets a piece of grit in her eye, and he, being a doctor, gently removes it. A few more chance encounters occur before they start to plan on them. Their spouses are no more the wiser (so they think), although Loren almost reveals all when she asks her husband if he's ever been unfaithful. It's guilt that is their punishment, and what was potent 30 years before seems out of place minus much drama in the sexually free 1970's, even in jolly old England.
While Burton and Loren are fine in their acting, it's the personal relationship between them that seems forced. This happens with every famous actor, and in their case, their legend is too big and their characters too normal to make them as exciting as the legend that was Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, both better when they have more troubled characters. Here, they just seem bored and in a rut, and that doesn't warrant interest in a relationship between them that the audience knows can't last. It worked better for Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in the original film because they came off as ordinary. One thing I wish at the end when Loren ran into a non-stop talking acquaintance is that she either totally walked away or told the magpie to button her lip.