Man of La Mancha (film)

As Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant wait to be called before the Spanish Inquisition for putting on a play critical of the tribunal, his fellow inmates subject him to a sham trial of their own in order to justify taking all of the possessions he has with him. Only concerned about the fate of a manuscript, Cervantes mounts his defense in the form of a play, in which he takes the role of Alonso Quijana, an elderly gentleman who has lost his mind and now believes he should go forth as a knight-errant to right the wrongs of the world. Quijana renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha and sets out with his "squire", Sancho Panza, attacking a windmill he thinks is a giant, and going to an inn, where he meets, woos, and tries to save Aldonza, a world-weary serving wench and prostitute, who he sees as the ideal woman and calls Dulcinea. Quijana's niece, Antonia, is concerned about the effect her uncle's behavior might have on her upcoming marriage to Sanson Carrasco, a rational man who the local priest convinces to try to rid Quinana of his delusions. Carrasco eventually succeeds, but the shock of the cure leaves Quijana on the brink of death. A visit from Sancho revives him, but he thinks his adventures were all a dream, until Aldonza visits and gets him to remember. As Don Quixote, Sancho, and Aldonza prepare to go off to have more adventures, Don Quixote drops dead, having accomplished little other that providing Aldonza with a fantasy that makes her difficult life a bit more bearable. Back in the dungeon, the inmates return the manuscript to Cervantes as he and his manservant leave to face the Inquisition.

• Peter O'Toole (Simon Gilbert, singing) as Don Quixote de la Mancha / Miguel de Cervantes / Alonso Quijana
• Sophia Loren as Dulcinea / Aldonza
• James Coco as Sancho Panza / Cervantes' manservant
• Harry Andrews (Brian Blessed, singing) as The Innkeeper / The Governor
• John Castle as Sanson Carrasco / The Duke
• Ian Richardson as The Padre
• Brian Blessed as Pedro
• Julie Gregg as Antonia Quijana
• Rosalie Crutchley as The Housekeeper
• Gino Conforti as The Barber
• Marne Maitland as Captain of the Guard
• Dorothy Sinclair as The Innkeeper's wife
• Miriam Acevedo as Fermina

In 1967, United Artists paid more than $2.25 million for film rights to Man of La Mancha, the second-highest amount ever paid for the rights to a musical play, behind only the $5.5 million that Warner Bros. paid for the rights to My Fair Lady.[1] In addition to the initial outlay, UA agreed to pay 25% of the gross, if the gross exceeded 2.5-times the negative cost and there were at least $0.5 million in album sales.[1]

According to both associate producer Saul Chaplin (in his memoir The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me) and Dale Wasserman (in his memoir The Impossible Musical),[2] the film had a troubled production history. Originally, Wasserman, composer Mitch Leigh (as associate producer), and Albert Marre (who had directed the original show, but had never before directed a film), were hired to make the motion picture, and original cast stars Richard Kiley and Joan Diener were screen tested in anticipation of repeating their stage roles on film. Because of Marre's inexperience with moviemaking, however, he (according to Wasserman) used up part of the film's budget on screen tests, which angered the UA executives. Marre was fired, and as a result Wasserman, Leigh, Kiley, and Diener (who was married to Marre), also left the project. British director Peter Glenville was then brought in (it was he who cast Peter O'Toole as Cervantes and Quixote), but he was also fired when it was learned that he planned to eliminate most of the play's songs from the film. It was then that Arthur Hiller and Saul Chaplin joined the project. Hiller re-hired Wasserman to adapt his own stage libretto, although, according to Wasserman, the film's new opening sequence, which shows the arrest of Cervantes before he enters the prison, was not conceived by him; it was most likely written by writer John Hopkins, who had been hired by Glenville and left the project when Glenville was fired. Arranger/conductor Laurence Rosenthal had previously worked with Glenville, but remained with the project, and ultimately received an Academy Award nomination for his efforts. It has never been made clear whether it was Glenville or Hiller who cast non-singing actors Sophia Loren, Harry Andrews, and Rosalie Crutchley in the film, though it might have been Glenville, as he had tried to eliminate the songs and envisioned the film as a non-musical.

According to the Turner Classic Movies website, O'Toole had been eager to work with his friend Glenville on the film and make it as a "straight" non-musical drama, so he was highly displeased when Glenville was fired and replaced by Arthur Hiller, who he called "little Arthur".[3] In The Impossible Musical, Wasserman related that says that O'Toole, who could not sing, assisted in the search for a voice double when he realized the film would be a musical after all, and Simon Gilbert was chosen for the task.[2]^: 173 In his autobiography Absolute Pandemonium, Brian Blessed claims to have dubbed the singing voice of Harry Andrews, as well as appearing onscreen as Pedro.

Although most of the roles in the film were played by British Shakespearean actors who were not noted for singing ability, Ian Richardson did go on to be nominated for a Tony for his performance as Henry Higgins in the 20th anniversary production of My Fair Lady, and the picture did feature several actors, among them Julie Gregg, Gino Conforti, and the muleteer chorus, who did have singing voices. Gino Conforti had been a member of the cast of the original stage production of Man of La Mancha, and Julie Gregg had previously appeared on Broadway in a musical.

Saul Chaplin explained in his memoir that the sets and costumes, which were designed by Luciano Damiani, had already been made by the time he and Hiller were brought in to work on the film, and Hiller could not alter them. Damiani was one of Italy's most-noted stage designers, having worked on plays and operas in Italy, and on a made-for-television film of Cavalleria Rusticana,[4] but this was the only theatrical motion picture for which he designed the sets and costumes.

Following its release during the Christmas season of 1972, Man of La Mancha continued its theatrical run well into 1973, and it earned an estimated $3.8 million in North American rentals.[7] According to Dale Wasserman in his autobiography The Impossible Musical, the film did well at the box office in its first week of release, but ultimately did poorly. Although Wasserman praised O'Toole and Loren's acting, he nevertheless strongly disliked the film, calling it "exaggerated" and "phony" in an online video interview made shortly before his death.[8]

The fact that the film had gone through several directors and screenwriters, and that Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren, who were not singers, had replaced Richard Kiley and Joan Diener in the leading roles, may have influenced the critics' reactions to the film at the time. Upon release, and for several years afterward, the film of Man of La Mancha received overwhelmingly negative reviews, notably from Time Magazine, which not only did not consider the film worthy of a full-length review, but even threw in some criticism of the original stage production into the bargain. They referred to the film as being "epically vulgar", and called the song "The Impossible Dream" "surely the most mercilessly lachrymose hymn to empty-headed optimism since Carousel's "You'll Never Walk Alone."[9] Newsweek, in its review, opined that "the whole production is basted in the cheapest sentiment. Everyone gets a chance to cry over poor Don Quixote".[10] Leonard Maltin still gives the film a BOMB rating in his annual Movie and Video Guide, stating "Beautiful source material has been raped, murdered and buried".[11]

Roger Ebert, who gave the film two stars, mistakenly assumed that Peter O'Toole sang his own songs in the film, and wrote of him: "What favor were they doing us when they let us hear Peter O'Toole sing? Richard Harris is better, and he's no good. He can't sing, that is, but at least he can read lyrics. O'Toole masticates them."[12]

Ebert's colleague Gene Siskel had this to say after the film's premiere in Chicago:

On the stage, Man of La Mancha was one continuous motion: after being hauled into prison on a heresy charge by the Spanish Inquisition, poet-dramatist Cervantes staves off an attack by fellow prisoners by fashioning a little play about a loony old man who thinks he's an impossible-dreaming knight. The play is improvised with props in the jail, and the action flows smoothly from reality to fantasy and-back, with prisoners assuming principal and minor roles.

In the new film version, fantasy and reality are served up chunk-style; the only connecting thread being Peter O'Toole's splendid triple performance as Cervantes, the old man, and Don Quixote de la Mancha. Whereas the play took us to the plains of Spain and a wayfarer's inn by way of the prison floor, the film gives us real Italian plains and a studio representation of an inn in front of a painted background.

The transitions hurt.

The musical numbers succeed in correlation of the acting. When O'Toole is around with his woeful, then glistening, countenance, he lights up the screen and the soundtrack. His death had much of the preview audience sobbing, and their tears were honestly won.

In his absence, however, Man of La Mancha always looks and sounds hollow.[13]

More positively, Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated that the film was "beautifully acted",[14] and both Peter O'Toole and James Coco received Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 53% based on reviews from 17 critics, with an average score of 5.4/10.[15]

Nominated

• Academy Award for Original Song Score and Adaptation – Laurence Rosenthal
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy – Peter O'Toole
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture – James Coco

Won

• National Board of Review Award for Best Actor – Peter O'Toole (also for The Ruling Class). In addition, the Board selected Man of La Mancha as one of the Ten Best Films of 1972.

Man of La Mancha was released by MGM Home Video on May 11, 2004, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD, then as region A/1 Blu-ray on April 25, 2017.

• List of American films of 1972

• Man of La Mancha at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Man of La Mancha at IMDb
• Man of La Mancha at the TCM Movie Database
• Man of La Mancha at AllMovie
• Man of La Mancha at Rotten Tomatoes