Darling Lili

Filmmaker Blake Edwards (the Pink Panther movies) spent an estimated $25 million on this opulent World War I epic, designed to showcase his talented wife, Julie Andrews. A huge box-office flop when it was released in 1970 (at least partially because it seemed like an unfocused conglomerate of comedy, melodrama, musical, adventure, and war film), Darling Lili boasted lush production values and fine performances from Andrews and leading man Rock Hudson (as well as a good supporting cast), but nevertheless came off as a hodgepodge with terrific individual sequences but no real cohesion. Shorn of approximately 29 minutes (viewers can check out some of the missing footage in the 19 “additional scenes”), after Edwards re-edited the film some two decades following its original release, the film today comes off rather well overall, with Dame Julie as a Mata Hari-like spy, performing fine songs written by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini when she's not trying to elicit secret war plans from American air-squadron commander Hudson, who discovers that Andrews is a spy…but loves her anyway. Made at a time when the Hollywood musical was in its death throes, Darling Lili constitutes one of the last gasps of a then-expiring genre—but offers lots of campy fun. Boasting a handsome transfer, this is recommended. (E. Hulse)