The fascinating personality of Gibraltar in Spain and other coastal locations nearby literally becomes a subplot in itself as the camera follows around the three characters played by Laurence Harvey, Lee Remick and Alan Bates. Harvey has been taking his death as a part of an insurance fraud scheme, and Bates is the insurance adjuster investigating Remick's claim of Harvey's death. By chance, they end up in Spain where Harvey is posing as an Australian millionaire rancher, rather rude to the staff and far from the man that Remick fell in love with and married. Bates plays "tag-a-long" (obviously in hopes that Harvey will crack), and Harvey does everything he can to make face believe he's whom he says he is. Eventually, Remick begins to hate whom her husband has turned into, and it all turns into a desperate situation for all three involved.
When Harvey first begins his impersonation of a real Australian millionaire rancher, Remick seems to be making cracks about his personality as if he was some nasty pretentious dandy purposely becoming demanding wherever he went. But eventually it's obvious that Harvey's character has become that demanding arrogant mean tourist, intentionally treating everybody as if they were dirt under his fingernails. Case in point when a man offering him a shoe shine stands there inquiring if he'd like services, Harvey simply treats him as if he's invisible. Later, he purposely destroys Bates' camera. It's easy to see why Remick would start to fall in love with the much easier going Bates.
While not as intriguing as Harvey's previous thriller ("The Manchurian Candidate"), this is a stunning film to watch, mainly because of the color photography and Spanish coastal locations. It seems that every extra in the background is being directed to do something that they would normally be doing on a normal business day and it's fascinating to watch everything that's going on. Nobody is standing around quiet as if directed to just be in the background, and you are hearing Street noises that you would probably hear if you were there. Young boys working to gain a few pennies in the street singing as they would while washing cars, play-acting at being bullfighters, and peddlers scream at their customers, and vice versa.
Director Carol Reed does a great job in recapturing all of this as if it were as important as the main plot. Frankly, at times, that's much more interesting. Normally, I'd be irritated by hangers-on like Bates character after a while, but in seeing how Harvey behaves, it's easy to switch sides. The film deserves praise for the location footage, background goings-on, gorgeous color photography and sound recording even more than the script and performances. It's like you're getting two movies in one, and the better one is the one that wasn't intended in the first place.
When Harvey first begins his impersonation of a real Australian millionaire rancher, Remick seems to be making cracks about his personality as if he was some nasty pretentious dandy purposely becoming demanding wherever he went. But eventually it's obvious that Harvey's character has become that demanding arrogant mean tourist, intentionally treating everybody as if they were dirt under his fingernails. Case in point when a man offering him a shoe shine stands there inquiring if he'd like services, Harvey simply treats him as if he's invisible. Later, he purposely destroys Bates' camera. It's easy to see why Remick would start to fall in love with the much easier going Bates.
While not as intriguing as Harvey's previous thriller ("The Manchurian Candidate"), this is a stunning film to watch, mainly because of the color photography and Spanish coastal locations. It seems that every extra in the background is being directed to do something that they would normally be doing on a normal business day and it's fascinating to watch everything that's going on. Nobody is standing around quiet as if directed to just be in the background, and you are hearing Street noises that you would probably hear if you were there. Young boys working to gain a few pennies in the street singing as they would while washing cars, play-acting at being bullfighters, and peddlers scream at their customers, and vice versa.
Director Carol Reed does a great job in recapturing all of this as if it were as important as the main plot. Frankly, at times, that's much more interesting. Normally, I'd be irritated by hangers-on like Bates character after a while, but in seeing how Harvey behaves, it's easy to switch sides. The film deserves praise for the location footage, background goings-on, gorgeous color photography and sound recording even more than the script and performances. It's like you're getting two movies in one, and the better one is the one that wasn't intended in the first place.