A retired English general finds himself with a hypochondriac for a wife, a French mistress and a penchant for buxom chambermaids.
In one of his most impressive performances, Peter Sellers plays retired General Leo Fitzjohn, unhappily married to Emily (Margaret Leighton) and given a second chance at fulfilment with his old flame from Paris, Ghislaine (Dany Robin) – a courtship which never blossomed into anything more than a platonic friendship because of a series of accidents of fate.
Ghislaine remained faithful to him for 17 years until, impatient at last, she decides to chase after him to his English estate – where she encounters Emily, his old battleaxe of an invalid wife.
Browbeaten and dispirited, the amorous old soldier has to be stirred into romantic action again by his friend Dr Grogan (Cyril Cusack), a great believer in the “life force”.
All sorts of complications crop up, including a dashing young cavalry officer called Robert (John Fraser), who raises more romantic problems for Ghislaine and General Fitzjohn.
French playwright Jean Anouilh, from whose comedy the movie is derived, made despair glossily fashionable in the 1960s and director John Guillermin and writer Wolf Mankowitz transform bleak emotional undercurrents into a seductively bittersweet proposition.
General Leo Fitzjohn
Peter Sellers Ghislaine
Dany Robin Emily Fitzjohn
Margaret Leighton Robert
John Fraser Doctor Grogan
Cyril Cusack Estella
Prunella Scales Sidonia
Denise Coffey Agnes
Jean Anderson Court Martial President
Raymond Huntley Undertaker
Cardew Robinson Innkeeper
John Glyn-Jones Vicar
John Le Mesurier Mrs Bulstrode
Vanda Godsell
Director
John Guillermin
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General Leo Fitzjohn
Doctor Grogan
