Darling Lili

United States

1970

107 Min

Color

2.20:1

English, German

Currently 2.6/5 Stars.
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SCR Blake Edwards, William Peter Blatty

CAST Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Jeremy Kemp, Lance Percival, Michael Witney, Gloria Paul, Jacques Marin, André Maranne, Bernard Kay, Doreen Keogh, Carl Duering, Vernon Dobtcheff, Laurie Main, Louis Mercier, Arthur Gould-Porter, Ingo Mogendorf

Set in Paris during World War I. Lili Smith/Schmidt is a German spy being requested to go under cover to help Germany during the war, to try and find out their plans. Her “uncle” wishes her to fulfill the operation, whereas one of his colleagues believed she is not capable of performing such an operation as she is British. She soon finds herself following Major William Larrabee’s every move and spending all her time either with him or thinking of him. Her “uncle” realises she’s in love with him but Lili is not facing that she is. Things & people are coming between her true fate. But what is it… —IMDb

Director

Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards’ stepfather’s father J. Gordon Edwards was a silent screen director, and his stepfather Jack McEdwards was a stage director and movie production manager. Blake acted in a number films, beginning with Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) and wrote a number of others, beginning with Panhandle (1948) and including six for director Richard Quine. He created the popular TV series “Peter Gunn” (1958), “Mr. Lucky” (1959) and “Dante” (1960). He directed a diverse body of films, from comedies to dramas to war films to westerns, including such pictures as Operation Petticoat (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Experiment in Terror (1962), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Pink Panther (1963) and A Shot in the Dark (1964). After The Great Race (1965) he began fighting with studios. In England he surfaced again with The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), then went back to Hollywood and a real hit, 10 (1979). Victor Victoria (1982) won him French and Italian awards for Best Foreign… read more

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James R.

2Jan12

Unlike the unjustly maligned Star!, Darling Lili is a true failure, although it might have succeeded had the studio given Blake Edwards more artistic freedom. Several years later, Edwards excised twenty minutes, (downplaying the lighter comic elements), doing nothing to improve the film's disjointedness and failed attempts to satirize Andrews' sugary image. Some good music can be salvaged from this mess, however.