Norman — When Liz Taylor heard that Sophia Loren had been offered a million dollars to co-star in “The Comedians” (1967), she told producers she’d do it for half that price and won the role. For Liz, the pay cut was worth every penny. Her husband Richard Burton had already signed to play the lead and Liz didn’t want to risk his eye wandering toward another legendary beauty like Loren. Now she could keep tabs on her man while they filmed a flawed yet powerful look at the repressive regime of “Papa Doc” Duvalier.
Our story takes place in Haiti in 1964, where we meet Mr. Brown (Burton) as he returns to the island after three months in New York. Brown went to the States to try to sell the old hotel he runs in Port-au-Prince, an inheritance from his mother. She loved the place, but Brown is sick of pouring money into it.
There were no takers, though. Haitian stock is pretty low these days, thanks to Haitian President Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s announcement a few months earlier that he would now be “President for Life.” Since then, the struggling country has taken a nosedive. Duvalier’s secret police force, the dreaded Tonton, have all but taken over, executing anyone who opposes Papa Doc.
The Haiti Brown returns to is quite different than the one he left, but he has no time for political problems. There’s only one thing on Brown’s mind — hooking up with his lover, Marta Pineda (Liz). Unfortunately, he has to carry on in secret with his beloved, since Marta is married to Manuel Pineda (Peter Ustinov), the British Ambassador to Haiti. Manuel is the ultimate nice guy who has no idea his wife is sleeping around.
Sadly, Brown’s reunion with Marta is cut short. She has to get back to Manuel and he has obligations at the hotel, welcoming new guests — and, as he soon discovers, cleaning out the swimming pool, where he finds the body of his old friend Philipot, a political dissident who killed himself before the Tonton could find him and do it themselves.
Although Brown would love to dump Philipot’s body, forget all about Papa Doc, and spend a week in bed with Marta, he can’t. People are living in fear all around him. His fling with Marta is nothing compared to the suffering Papa Doc has inflicted on the country.
“The Comedians” marked the seventh time Liz worked with Dick (out of 11 movies total), and the first time that Dick, who was paid $1 million, made more money than his wife. Ironically, the Dick/Liz scenes are the slowest in the movie and really don’t add all that much. The political story more than makes up for it, though. “The Comedians” boasts a superb cast of African-American actors, including James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Raymond St. Jacques, Cicely Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Georg Stanford Brown and Gloria Foster (who played The Oracle in “The Matrix”) as Mrs. Philipot. Screen vets Paul Ford, Lillian Gish and Alec Guinness round out the fine cast.
Since Duvalier was still in power at the time (and would be until his death in 1971, when his equally gross son Baby Doc took over and finished wrecking the country), “The Comedians” used lovely Benin, West Africa as a sub for Haiti. It’s a bit of a long ride (at 152 minutes), but well worth it.
You can find “The Comedians” (unrated) at Hastings. Check it out.
