War and Peace *** (1956, Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, Herbert Lom, John Mills, Vittorio Gassman, Oscar Homolka, Wilfrid Lawson) – Classic Movie Review 6470

Audrey Hepburn makes an incandescent Natasha Rostova and an oddly cast Henry Fonda an intelligent Pierre Bezukhov in director King Vidor’s epic 1956 film version of Leo Tolstoy’s novel about a Russian family’s adventures at the time of the 1812 French invasion by Napoleon (played by Herbert Lom on excellent form).

Wilfrid Lawson as Prince Bolkonsky (the father), Barry Jones and  Lea Seidl as the Prince and Countess Rostov, Oscar Homolka as Field Marshal Kutuzov, Tullio Carminati as Prince Vasili Kuragin, and Helmut Dantine as Dolokhov are all also on the plus side. However, other members of the all-star cast are not so happy, particularly Mel Ferrer’s feeble Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.

Also in the cast are John Mills, Oscar Homolka, Wilfrid Lawson, Vittorio Gassman, Anita Ekberg, Helmut Dantine, Milly Vitale, Barry Jones, Tullio Carminati, Lea Seidl, Anna Maria Ferrero, May Britt, Jeremy Brett, Patrick Crean, Sean Barrett, Gertrude Flynn, Richard Dawson and Robert Stephens.

Hepburn’s performance and the breathtaking battle sequences, directed by Mario Soldati in Italy, partly compensate for a muddled and struggling screenplay spoiled by too many cooks (there are six credited writers including Vidor, who rewrote nightly during filming, plus three more un-credited writers). But, to be fair, they are trying to cram a quart into a pint pot, with a book of well over 1,000 pages being condensed to 208 minutes.

And the movie certainly looks great in Jack Cardiff’s Technicolor photography. But it is a slightly stodgy, uneasy, hard-going experience spread over 208 minutes that fails to flow well.

It is written by Bridget Boland, Robert Westerby, King Vidor, Mario Camerini, Ennio de Concini, Ivo Perilli, Mario Soldati, Irwin Shaw and Gian Gaspare Napolitano, shot by Jack Cardiff and Aldo Tonti, produced by Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis, scored by Nino Rota and designed by Mario Chiari.

It is filmed at Cinecittà Studios, Rome, and on location in Italy.

An unhappy Fonda said later: ‘All the genius of Tolstoy went out the window.’

John Mills recalled: ‘I had a small part with a big scene in prison with Henry Fonda. I was pretty nervous. Later he said I was the first person in six months to look at him in the eye during a scene and it had thrown him completely.’

It was admired in Russia, where they went on to film their own magnificent version in 1967, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6470

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