Five Finger Exercise * (1962, Rosalind Russell, Jack Hawkins, Maximilian Schell, Richard Beymer) – Classic Movie Review 11,223

Director Daniel Mann’s 1962 film Five Finger Exercise stars Rosalind Russell, Jack Hawkins, Maximilian Schell, and Richard Beymer.

Pretentious mother Louise Harington (Rosalind Russell), unfeeling father Stanley Harrington (Jack Hawkins), sensitive son Philip Harrington (Richard Beymer), bothered daughter Pamela Harrington (Annette Gorman) and Walter (Maximilian Schell) the German tutor lodging with the family of the warring long-married couple in California. These are the five main components of director Daniel Mann’s poor 1962 black and white film version of Peter Shaffer’s stage play success Five Finger Exercise about the mother’s passion for the tutor.

It worked excitingly on stage in its day, but nothing about the film falls into place, certainly not the cast who are all at sea and shouldn’t be there in the first place, with Russell, in gowns by Orry-Kelly, particularly miscast.

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s script (relocating the setting from England) and Mann’s direction make no headway either.

Also in the cast are Lana Wood, Todd Armstrong, Terry Huntingdon, Bill Quinn and Kathy West.

It is produced by Russell’s husband Frederick Brisson, who appears as Golfer (uncredited).

Harry Stradling Sr shoots in black and white.

Russell did her best work in the Forties: hence her Oscar nominations for My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946) and Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), though her final nomination was for Auntie Mame (1958). The 1940 His Girl Friday sees her at her best. And she did win Golden Globes for A Majority of One (1961) and Gypsy (1962).

Lana Wood is the sister of Natalie Wood, who starred in Gypsy with Russell.

The play premiered in July 1958 at the Comedy Theatre in London’s West End and ran at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway for 337 performances from on 2 December 1959 to 1 October 1960. The teenage Juliet Mills played Pamela Harrington and was nominated for a Tony Award.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,223

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