Director: Basil Dearden
Year Released: 1962
Rating: 2.5
Not-bad update of the Bard's Othello for the Jazz Age, with Patrick McGoohan as Iago, Paul Harris as Othello and Marti Stevens as Desdemona. McGoohan, in particular, is slightly campy as the over-heated Machiavellian manipulator trying to win Stevens' talents away from beau Harris: he's perpetually smoking (either cigarettes or dope) and looks like he was pulled out of Reefer Madness. Where it fails is in its attempt to be "hip," spouting psychoanalytic jingoism throughout, and it's doubtful that smoking weed would turn this movie's Cassio (Keith Michell) into an argumentative tyrant (that's not what the devil's herb does, gang). On a personal note, seeing one of my favorite actors of all time (Richard Attenborough) interacting with one of my favorite musicians of all time (Charles Mingus) is enough to send me into Fan Boy Ecstasy; jazz fans might want to take a peek if only to see some of the greats (Tubby Hayes, Dave Brubeck and so on) jammin' the blues away.
