STAIRCASE, another bad movie I watched so that you don’t have to. Stanley Donen, who directed a dozen great pictures, also called “Action!” & “Cut!” on a number of duds, this 1969 wanker one of the latter. Charles Dyer wrote the screenplay off his play. Two gay hairdressers, longtime partners, bicker and cut-to-each-other’s quicks over the past, present and future. The hook for this bitchy comedy-drama is that the flamboyantly swish mates are played by Richard Burton and Rex Harrison, two of filmdom’s randiest heterosexuals. Their mothers, both in bad mental and physical health, are played by Cathleen Nesbitt and Beatrix Lehmann. *

Initially, it’s amusing to watch these pros indulge themselves but the characters aren’t remotely likable and the endless snipping gets old fast. Whether or not you think the acting and writing is daring or dismaying will be up to your own proclivities, but the project at least deserves some credit for opening the closet door thanks to the presence of the stars—a quarter century before Philadelphia. The play and film goosed inspiration that turned into La Cage aux Folles (much more enjoyable) and its 1996 remake The Birdcage.

Those two were big hits but this one, savaged by critics, went down as a flop of some proportions. With the already inflated salaries of Burton ($1,250,000) and Harrison ($1,000,000) the small-scale story added the luxury of shooting in Paris rather than London. Costs ballooned to $6,370,000, enough in 1969 to mount an epic, let alone a one-joke lark. Cogerson posts it in ’69’s 51st place at the box office, taking $5,300,000, while the studio (20th Century Fox) recorded a loss of $5,201,000.

Dudley Moore did the spare music score. Running time is 96 minutes.

* Burton, in his diary: “Rex is very funny in his old-fashioned attempts to upstage, get into my close-ups, do funny business on my lines etc. It’s rather like acting with a very determined young actress.”

Donen dazzlers—Singin’ In The Rain, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Charade, On The Town, Indiscreet, Royal Wedding, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Movie Movie, Bedazzled, Two For The Road, It’s Always Fair Weather. Throw in Arabesque and Funny Face.

Stanley steamers—Once More With Feeling!, The Little Prince, Lucky Lady, The Grass Is Greener, Saturn 3, Blame It On Rio, Kiss Them For Me.     Staircase.