Fox and Honey

The Honey Pot, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz in 1967 belongs to a class of movie that just doesn't get made any more. It's a prestige presentation with a witty script, deluxe sets and top-rank stars, all in service of a more or less throw-away mystery.

It stars Rex Harrison as the fabulously wealthy Cecil Fox, living in a Venetian villa. Rex Harrison, how deluxe is that? We meet him watching a few acts of Volpone, in the Venice Opera House, all alone, in a private performance. Then the plot begins. He has hired as a personal assistant one William McFly (Cliff Robertson), middle-aged aspiring actor. The job includes general secretarial, and help in pulling off a grand prank.

You see, Fox will be pulling off a variation on the plot of Volpone. He will gather around him his past lovers, on the pretext that he is mortally ill, and convince each one that she is the beneficiary of his vast fortune. McFly will play the part of the Volpone's servant, Mosca. Volpone = Fox, Mosca = Fly. Very clever.

And so it goes, with literate dialog, clever plot twists and A-list actors taking it to the top, and a bit over. The ex-lovers are Susan Hayward, Capucine and Edie Adams (oil, old money and Hollywood, respectively). The standout of them all is Maggie Smith, as Hayward's nurse/companion. Of course, among all of these glamorous women, Robertson falls for her.

When one of the women is murdered, the prank takes a different turn, and Aldo Celi (Largo!) turns up representing the Policia. All in all, this movie could hardly be any more fun - my only issue would be with Cliff Robertson, who is a bit of a Tom Ewing presence: he has an air of anti-charisma that he can't shed when he becomes the focus of the plot.

This reminded me a lot of The Last of Sheila. Same kind of twisty plot set among the ritzy class, dissolving into fluff once it's over. Do they make these any more? It seems to me that now, trash is trash and prestige is prestige. Any modern examples?