The Honey Pot Blu-ray | Classic Mystery Comedy Film | Perfect for Movie Nights & Collector's Editions

“The Honey Pot” is a 1967 comedy/drama with a fine cast that did not succeed in its day and is rarely available for streaming. Though it got a video release in 1993 and a DVD in 2005 it was always hard to find and so I jumped at a chance to get it on a Blu-Ray. This is a Kino release so it has only the trailer as a special feature and no closed captioning, but the picture is clear enough and the sound is good. I saw it in its first release in theaters and had enjoyed it then but had never seen it since.The film makes a great deal of it being based on Ben Jonson’s play, “Volpone”, one of the most performed plays of its period that wasn’t written by Shakespeare. The film makes sure you know this by opening with its star, Rex Harrison, watching the play performed in a Venetian theater and making reference to it a number of times. Its screenplay by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz is actually based on a play by Frederick Knott, who had written “Dial M for Murder: and “Wait Until Dark”. He had adapted the play from the novel. ‘The Evil of the Day’ by Thomas Sterling. The character of Volpone (Italian for fox) here is Cecil Sheridan Fox (Rex Harrison) and his servant Mosca (Italian for fly) is William McFly (Cliff Robertson). The play had three men as the possible heirs of Volpone’s fortune while the film makes them three women. After a comic beginning the film changes direction and completely leaves the play behind except for its setting in Venice.Mankiewicz had already had a long and glorious career in Hollywood with Paramount, MGM, 20th Century Fox and as an independent director with his own production company, Figaro. He peaked with double Oscar wins for director and screenplay for “A Letter To Three Wives” (1949) and “All About Eve” (1950). He had unfortunately accepted 20th Century Fox’s offer to direct “Cleopatra” (1963) after Rouben Mamoulian was fired but the financial disaster caused to the studio by the film’s expense ended his career. This, a major film with a big budget, was his bid for a comeback but it did not register with the public who were busy seeing more action-oriented fare like “Cool Hand Luke”, “The Dirty Dozen”, “You Only Live Twice” and “Bonnie and Clyde”. Mankiewicz did make a comeback with his final film, “Sleuth”.The general criticism of the film is that it is too long and it really is at 132 minutes (150 minutes in the U.K. cut). This is said with qualifications. It is not an action film and adding more action wouldn’t really add anything. It’s just rather novelistic in its way of setting the scene, revealing its characters then spinning out a mystery that becomes more intricate as things develop. The director takes his time doing this and I don’t know if there would be another way to do it adequately. You can’t point to scenes that should have been cut here or there. To enjoy the film you have to be ready to sit back and let it reveal itself in its way; it’s full of sharp conversation and the wheel within a wheel mystery is not only clever, but is fair in the sense that a really sharp viewer has a chance to figure it out before everything is revealed.Rex Harrison is at his most droll and magisterial and absolutely marvelous when giving long speeches. The three women, each of whom has had a significant role in his life at one time are each a type. Susan Hayward is a woman of the American West as Miss “Lone Star Crockett” Sheridan who has an ace up her sleeve. Edie Adams is a fading movie star, Merle Mcgill, who is not above some plotting herself. Capucine adds her usual elegance and fashion sense as Princess Dominique and has her own tricks up her sleeve. But the real star of the picture besides Harrison is a young Maggie Smith, who seems to be the only ethical person in the whole group. It had been so long since I had seen it that I had thought her role as Nurse Sarah Watkins would be minor but she’s often the focus of the film.This, her eighth film, was a big step for her cinematically before making “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”. This leaves Cliff Robertson as McFly, an actor hired to play Fox’s servant. He seems miscast to me and it’s hard to pin down, but he just seems like he should be in an American crime or action film and not here. Adolfo Celi, frequently a film villain, gets a chance to be a good guy and even charming here as Inspector Rizzi.Watch this film when you are in a leisurely mood and give it the time it needs to tell its story and you will be rewarded.