Man of La Mancha (film)


Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion. The musical was suggested by the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, but more directly based on Wasserman's 1959 non-musical television play I, Don Quixote, which combines a semi-fictional episode from the life of Cervantes with scenes from his novel.
The film was financed by an Italian production company, Produzioni Europee Associates, and shot in Rome. However, it is entirely in English, and all of its principal actors except for Sophia Loren are either British or American. The film was released by United Artists. It is known in Italy as L'Uomo della Mancha.
The film was produced and directed by Arthur Hiller, and stars Peter O'Toole as both Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote, James Coco as both Cervantes' manservant and Don Quixote's "squire" Sancho Panza, and Sophia Loren as scullery maid and prostitute Aldonza, whom the delusional Don Quixote idolizes as Dulcinea. Gillian Lynne, who later choreographed Cats, staged the choreography for the film.
Gino Conforti, as the barber, is the only member of the original Broadway musical cast to repeat his role for the film.

Plot

Cervantes and his manservant have been imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, and a manuscript by Cervantes is seized by his fellow inmates, who subject him to a mock trial in order to determine whether the manuscript should be returned. Cervantes' defense is in the form of a play, in which Cervantes takes the role of Alonso Quijano, an old gentleman who has lost his mind and now believes that he should go forth as a knight-errant. Quijano renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and sets out to find adventures with his "squire", Sancho Panza.

Cast

In 1967, United Artists paid more than $2.25 million for rights to the show, the second most ever paid, behind the $5.5 million that Warner Bros. paid for the rights to My Fair Lady. In addition to the initial outlay, UA agreed to pay 25% of the gross if the gross exceeded 2.5 times the negative cost plus $0.5 million for album sales. According to both associate producer Saul Chaplin and Dale Wasserman, the film had a troubled production history. Originally, Wasserman, composer Mitch Leigh – serving 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 the two actors repeating their stage roles. Because of Marre's inexperience with moviemaking, however, he 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, but was in turn also fired when it was learned that he planned to eliminate most of the songs. 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, showing the actual arrest of Cervantes before he enters the prison, was not by him. Writer John Hopkins, who most likely wrote the scene Wasserman refers to, had been brought in by Glenville, and had left when Glenville was fired. However, 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, it might have been Glenville, since he had tried to eliminate the songs and envisioned the film as a non-musical. Glenville had also previously worked with arranger/conductor Laurence Rosenthal.
According to the Turner Classic Movies website, O'Toole had been eager to work with Glenville, a friend of his, on the film and make it as a "straight" non-musical drama, but was highly displeased when Glenville was fired and replaced by Arthur Hiller, referring to him constantly as "little Arthur". However, according to Saul Chaplin's autobiography, O'Toole, who could not sing, generously assisted in the search for a voice double for his songs when he realized that the film was going to be made as a musical after all. According to Brian Blessed's autobiography Absolute Pandemonium, he dubbed the singing voice of Harry Andrews as well as appearing onscreen as Pedro.
Wasserman and Hiller then restored nearly all of the songs to the screenplay that Glenville had ordered cut.
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 original cast of the stage production, and Julie Gregg had also appeared on Broadway in a musical.
Saul Chaplin also explains in his book that the sets and costumes, designed by Luciano Damiani, had already been made by the time that he and Hiller were brought in to work on the film, which meant that Hiller could not have them altered. 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, but this was the only theatrical motion picture for which he designed the sets and costumes.

Changes to storyline

Two changes are made to the storyline of the stage musical: one of them is the reason for Cervantes' imprisonment. The play begins with Cervantes and his manservant entering the dungeon, after which we learn that Cervantes incurred the wrath of the Inquisition by issuing a lien on a monastery that would not pay its taxes. But in the film's opening scene, we see a colorful festival in the town square, during which Cervantes stages a play that openly lampoons the Inquisition, thereby leading to his arrest on the spot. He and his manservant are then taken to the prison.
Another change in the film occurs when the priest and Dr. Carrasco are sent to bring Quixote back home. In the stage version, they arrive at the inn and simply try to reason with him, but he pays no attention. In the film, in a scene directly inspired by Cervantes's original novel Don Quixote, an elaborate ruse is set up by Don Quixote's family. A man is brought in on a bier, apparently "turned to stone" through some enchantment. Quixote is told by the man's "relatives" that only he can break the spell, by fighting the dreaded Enchanter, Quixote's mortal enemy. This prepares us for the Enchanter's later appearance as the Knight of the Mirrors. The "stone man"'s so-called relatives are revealed to be Don Quixote's niece Antonia, his housekeeper, the priest, and Dr. Carrasco.

Other differences from the stage musical

The film made a far more literal use of scenery than did the original show, in which nearly all scenery had to be imagined by the audience in the theatre. The dungeon, rather than merely being "suggested" by the use of a drawbridge, an overhead grille to allow light inside, and a trap door, as it was onstage, was vividly shown in the film, complete with a water wheel which, when set into motion, allowed the drawbridge to be lowered. The windmill that Don Quixote mistakes for a ferocious giant was likewise also shown, as was Quixote's fight with it.
The plains of La Mancha, as well as the kitchen, the stable, and the courtyard of the inn were similarly shown, as was a view of the dilapidated-looking exterior of the inn from a distance. The exterior of the prison to which Cervantes and his manservant are taken was also briefly shown, as was the courtyard of the prison. Don Quixote's bedroom and the exterior of his house were also shown towards the end of the film.
The locations of several songs were changed:
The only scenery from the play which was rendered on film exactly as on stage was the confessional, at which Antonia, the Housekeeper, and the Padre sing "I'm Only Thinking of Him." The confessional was merely suggested by the use of boards to separate the three singers. Part of the reason that this scene was so literally transcribed from the play was so that the "chessboard" effect, which would have been problematic had a real church had been used, could be retained in the film.
Sancho's vocal range is soprano in the stage version, however in the film version, it was changed as a contralto due to Sophia Loren's vocal range.
The film presents a more faithful depiction of Don Quixote's armor, as described by Cervantes in the original novel, than did the original production of the play. Cervantes describes Quixote's armor as having a brownish quality because of rust, which is the way it appears in the film. In the film, before he begins using a shaving basin for a helmet, Quixote obviously wears a morion with a cardboard visor attached, as Cervantes tells us he did. As designed for the original stage production, his first helmet is simply a regular medieval one.
The film was criticized by some for having shabby-looking scenery in the Don Quixote scenes, but the design of both the windmills and the inn is remarkably faithful to that of the actual windmills and inns of that time in La Mancha.

Music

's Tony Award winning score, which onstage used no stringed instruments aside from guitar and string bass, is augmented in the film adaptation with discreet string orchestration by Herbert W. Spencer. The heaviest string orchestration is used in the deathbed scene. As in the stage version, a solo Spanish guitar provides accompaniment in the scene in which Don Quixote keeps vigil over his armor.
Two songs from the musical, "What Does He Want of Me?" and "To Each His Dulcinea", were completely omitted from the film, as were two verses of "Aldonza" and the second verse of the deathbed reprise of "Dulcinea". The lyric of "It's All The Same" was partially rewritten by Joe Darion. The last few lines of "I Really Like Him" were also rewritten. O'Toole's singing voice was deemed to be inadequate, and was dubbed by Simon Gilbert. All the other actors did their own singing, though in his autobiography Absolute Pandemonium, Brian Blessed claims that he also dubbed Harry Andrews.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 46% based on reviews from 13 critics.
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. Previously, it has been proven by the success of films like Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Laura that a change in directors or actors need not affect the response to a film negatively. 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." 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". 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".
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."
His colleague, Gene Siskel, had this to say upon its premiere in Chicago:
On the other hand, Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated that the film was "beautifully acted", and both Peter O'Toole and James Coco received Golden Globe nominations for their performances. The film, according to Dale Wasserman in his autobiography The Impossible Musical, fared well financially in its first week, but ultimately did poorly at the box office. And 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. Over the last few years, however, the film's reputation has somewhat improved, as evidenced by favorable online reviews from writers such as Phil Hall, and modern viewers as well as critics are more responsive to it.
Having been released in the middle of the Christmas season of 1972, the film continued its theatrical run well into 1973 and earned an estimated $3.8 million in North American rentals.

Awards and nominations

;Nominated
;Won
Man of La Mancha was released by MGM Home Video on May 11, 2004 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD. That release is now out of print.
It was released on region A/1 Blu-ray April 25, 2017.