''Secret Ceremony'' is a 1968 British drama-thriller film directed by

Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blacklisted ...

and starring

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequen ...

and

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Jo ...

Plot

Leonora, a middle-aged prostitute, is despondent over the death of her daughter. Cenci, a lonely young woman, follows Leonora to the cemetery and strikes up a conversation with her, inviting Leonora to her home. Leonora is struck by the likeness between Cenci and her late daughter. A resemblance of Leonora to Cenci's late mother becomes obvious once Leonora notices a portrait. Cenci, who is 22 but looks and acts much younger, asks Leonora to stay. A lie is told to her aunts, Hilda and Hannah, that Leonora is actually Cenci's late mother's cousin. Cenci is found one day cowering under a table. Albert, her stepfather, has paid a visit. Cenci is terrified of him, claiming that Albert had raped her. Leonora is repelled by the man's presence until Albert tells her that Cenci is mentally unstable and had repeatedly tried to seduce him. On a beach one day, Cenci and Albert have sexual relations. A despondent Cenci commits suicide. At the funeral, Leonora now knows whom she chooses to believe. After standing beside Albert in silence during the burial, Leonora produces a knife and stabs him. The film ends with Leonora lying in the bedroom of her apartment, listlessly hitting the cord of a ceiling lamp while reciting a poem about perseverance.

Cast

as Leonora *

as Cenci *

as Albert *

Peggy Ashcroft Dame Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991), known professionally as Peggy Ashcroft, was an English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. Born to a comfortable middle-class family, Ashcroft was deter ...

as Hannah * Pamela Brown as Hilda Rest of cast listed alphabetically: * Robert Douglas as Sir Alex Gordon * George Howell as First Cleaner *

Penelope Keith Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith, (née Hatfield; born 2 April 1940) is an English actress and presenter, active in film, radio, stage and television and primarily known for her roles in the British sitcoms ''The Good Life'' and '' To the Ma ...

as Hotel Assistant * Roger Lloyd Pack as Cleaner * Angus MacKay as Vicar * Michael Strong as Dr. Walter Stevens

Production

The short story on which the film is based won a $5,000 prize in a competition run by ''Life en Español''. It had already been filmed for Argentine television when it was optioned in 1963 by

Dore Schary Isadore "Dore" Schary (August 31, 1905 – July 7, 1980) was an American playwright, director, and producer for the stage and a prolific screenwriter and producer of motion pictures. He directed just one feature film, '' Act One'', the film bio ...

. In an October 1969 interview with Roger Ebert, Mitchum claimed that the film's production was "in trouble" when he arrived and that his presence did not help.

Locations

The main location for the film was Debenham House in London. Other London locations were St Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington, the area around the Molyneux Monument in

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...

and the junction of Chepstow Road and St Stephen's Mews in Paddington.Secret Ceremony
Reelstreets.com, retrieved 18 November 2020 The hotel and beach scenes were shot around the Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.Movie-Walks: Secret Ceremony (1968)
retrieved 18 November 2020 File:Debenham House (35482927182).jpg, Debenham House File:St Mary Magdalene's Church, Warwick Estate, Paddington, London W2 - geograph.org.uk - 297563.jpg, St Mary Magdalene Church File:Monument to the Molyneux Family.jpg, Kensal Green Cemetery File:Chepstow Road, London W2 Geograph-1916059-by-Derek-Harper.jpg, Chepstow Road corner shop File:Huis ter Duin, Noordwijk (ca. 1930).jpg, Hotel Huis ter Duin as it looked at the time

Reception

''Secret Ceremony'' has divided critics since its release.

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1938) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'', and in 1968–69, she served as chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is also a write ...

in the ''New York Times'' wrote that it was "incomparably better" than its predecessor, ''

Accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...

'', and that beneath its "elaborate fetishism and dragging prose, there is a touching story of people not helping enough," but she admitted that the film had its "longueurs, but not beyond endurance."

Ernest Callenbach Ernest Callenbach (April 3, 1929 – April 16, 2012) was an American author, film critic, editor, and simple living adherent. He became famous due to his internationally successful semi-utopian novel '' Ecotopia'' (1975). Life and work Born ...

of ''

Film Quarterly ''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...

'' wrote it was "difficult to guess" what the film was about, but felt that its "dominant note, if there is one, is of Losey's usual creepy, misanthropic disgust with sex and how people misuse each other to get it." He also praised Mia Farrow's "touching and perverse and human" performance. Writing 30 years later after its release, John Patterson of ''The Guardian'' listed ''Secret Ceremony'' among the Losey films he dismissed as "woefully misguided material." Similarly, Dave Kehr of the ''Chicago Reader'' lambasted the film as embodying the director's "worst tendencies as a filmmaker: the movie is cold without being chilling, confusing without being challenging."

References

External links

* * * * * {{Joseph Losey 1968 films 1968 drama films 1960s British films 1960s English-language films 1960s thriller drama films British thriller drama films Films based on Argentine novels Films directed by Joseph Losey Films scored by Richard Rodney Bennett Films set in London Films shot at Associated British Studios Universal Pictures films