Of all the directors who earned names for themselves in the last century, Joe Losey took disagreeable pretentiousness to levels that made root canal (no, water boarding) look preferable in comparison. Even those closest to him have confessed not to know - short of a monstrous ego - what made him tick. My take is that all the hugger-bugger and obscure pooh-faced pretentiousness was covering over a fundamentally gay outlook (but a MORBIDLY gay outlook) that he believed needed to be wrapped in layers and layers of ornate obfuscation to pass muster as meaningful art.
If you think about it, a preponderance of Losey deals with characters who carry dark secrets around with them until an inevitable implosion occurs. The two best are, THE PROWLER (1951), and, surprisingly, MR.KLEIN(1976), with Alain Delon - coming near the end of Losey's run. In these two films, the secrets, the dual identities, are clear enough so that the patented menace and stealthy suggestiveness provide a tone of added interest to the melodramatic proceedings. The converse of this brooding portentousness is MODESTY BLAISE (1966), which, contrary to the world,I believe to be the TRUE Losey, the scared, pretentious man-child finally coming out of the closet - full bore - and making violent sport of secrets and double agents, using the full panoply bag of tricks to express his discontent in the form of liberating high (very high) camp. (Bogarde(as alter-ego) was the director in a refreshingly comic, self-mocking mode.)
But the masterful farce atmosphere was a one-term holiday. In retrospect, his greatest critical success, THE SERVANT (1963), made him think that a load of unresolved bad conscience could lure art-house patrons to a life time of devotion to his curious, cork-screw angst. Pinter granted him this. But SECRET CEREMONY (1968) is Pinter without Pinter, closer to trash can Edward Albee, (why did Losey never direct Albee? The two seemed to be made for each other.) This Liz Taylor-Mia Farrow chamber pot play is so bad that even the most dedicated Losey adherents need be restrained from jumping the aisles.
NOTE OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE: Later on in life, I met John Farrow, Jr.. He told me that his one responsibility on the set of the film, SECRET CEREMONY, was keeping the badly bearded Robert Mitchum from disappearing off the premises into one of the thousand and two pubs existing in London at the time.
One would BUY the man his own bar to hear from the horse's mouth candid commentary on the shooting of SECRET CEREMONY.
Rating: Below a 6 doesn't make the cut in my books. I give it a 5 but really - rating wise - no rating for this sad sack picture is warranted: minus 5.
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