The Yellow Rolls-Royce

The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)

Tagline: "Everything happens in the yellow Rolls-Royce"

Featured Racecourse: Ascot

Starring: Rex Harrison, Jeanne Moreau, Ingrid Bergman, Omar Sharif

Director: Anthony Esquith
Producer: Anatole De Grunwald
Writer: Terence Rattigan

Release Date: Dec 1964
Runtime: 122 mins

IMDB Synopsis: Anthology film about three owners of a yellow Rolls-Royce. A British diplomat buys the car for his French wife. A mobster's girlfriend has an affair in Italy. An American woman drives a Yugoslavian partisan to Ljubljana on the eve of the Nazi invasion.

Where to Buy: Amazon
Film Links: IMDB, Wikipedia

Personal Review


This is a composite film looking at the romantic trials and tribulations of three different sets of owners of the same 1930 Phantom II Yellow Rolls-Royce; an English Aristocrat and his wife, an American gangster and his moll and a rich American widow. The brand new Rolls-Royce first arrives in Hoopers showroom in London where Foreign Minister Lord Charles (Rex Harrison) buys it as a belated anniversary present for his French wife Eloise (Jeanne Moreau). Lord Charles owns the Ascot Gold Cup favourite "June The Tenth", named after the date of his wedding anniversary, and on the eve of the big race he hosts a party at his lavish home, during which he surprises his wife with the new car and takes her for a spin. Just before the Gold Cup race the next day Lord Charles learns that his wife has been having an affair with his understudy John Fane (Edmund Purdom) and he misses the big race to go and find John and Eloise getting passionate in the back of the Rolls-Royce. A shocked Lord Charles returns the the course to find that his horse has won the Gold Cup but the day has been soured by the discovery of his wife's infidelity - they return back home and Charles immediately gets the Rolls-Royce sent back to Hoopers.

Twenty thousand miles and several owners later, the Yellow Rolls-Royce turns up in a showroom in Genoa, Italy, where American gangster Paolo Maltese (George C. Scott) buys it as a present for his moll Mae Jenkins (Shirley MacLaine). Paolo's right-hand man Joey Friedlander (Art Carney) drives them to Pisa where they bump into a womanising photographer Stefano (Alain Delon) and they end up giving him a lift to Rome. When Paolo is called away on urgent business to bump of a rival gang member in Miami, Mae and Stefano have a brief fling but she soon realises the error of her ways and warns off Stefano and then declares her love for Paolo upon his return.

The third piece is set on the border of Yugoslavia in 1941 - a rich and powerful American widow Gerda Millett (Ingrid Bergman) buys the used Yellow Rolls Royce from a local repair shop and plans to use the car to cross the Yugoslav border to go and meet the new king. A fascist freedom fighter Davich (Omar Sharif) overhears her plans in the hotel and tricks Gerda into giving him a lift into Yugoslavia. During the journey, Davich holds the driver and Gerda at gunpoint and orders them to put him in the boot to get across the border and they eventually get to Ljubljana without mishap. Soon after arriving at the hotel the Nazis attack the city and Davich rescues Gerda and they escape in the car to a partisan camp in the Mountains where Davich's colleagues are waiting. Davich and Gerda fall in love and she helps him transport six loads of local villagers to the mountain camp before Davich orders her to return to the safety of her border hotel and to tell the Americans about the troubles in Yugoslavia. At the end of the film we see the Yellow Rolls-Royce arriving in New York on a cargo ship and then being driven along an expressway.

The Yellow Rolls-Royce features a stellar cast and there are notable performances from Rex Harrison, Shirley MacLaine, Ingrid Gergman and Omar Sharif - the problem for me is that the individual stories are too compressed and there is very little time for character and plot development. However, I like the concept of the film in tracking the history of a Rolls Royce and the romantic stories linked too it and I also love the stunning scenery sequences from Italy and Yugoslavia shot in Panavision and Metrocolor. 

The first story featuring Rex Harrison was the best in my opinion, probably because it centred around the Gold Cup at Ascot, and this could have been made into a film all of it's own but then it wouldn't have been a movie about the Rolls Royce itself. In all three stories the Rolls-Royce is used as a passion wagon and I found it quite amusing when we see the car with the blinds in the back seat pulled down - "when the Rolls-Royce is rocking, don't come a knocking!" I found the the Royal Ascot scenes quite disappointing as there wasn't much racing and the majority of sequences were clearly shot on a different day to the hustle and bustle of the Gold Cup.     

A nice little film probably best remembered for the all-star cast and the Phantom II Rolls Royce rather than the individual stories (Rating 5/10).

Favourite Quotes
Lord Charles: "Oh Osborn"
Osborn: "Yes me Lord?"
Lord Charles: "Have the car returned to Hoopers"
Osborn: "Why me Lord?"
Lord Charles: "It displeases me"


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