Despite its occasional passages of purple prose and its labyrinthine plot Lawrence Durrell's 'Alexandria Quartet' has never ceased to cast its spell and is rightly considered one of the finest works of the twentieth century. I would however venture to say that it belongs to a select group of literary works including Joyce's 'Ulysses' and Heller's 'Catch 22' which are frankly unfilmable.
Director Joseph Strick had previously had a go at 'Ulysses' and was hired to direct 'Justine' which is the title of the first part of Durrell's tetralogy.
By all accounts his crackpot notion of casting Glenda Jackson(!) in the title role got him the old heave-ho. In came George Cukor. A safe pair of hands one would think? Think again!
The resulting film is an absolute mess and an unmitigated disaster from which the paying public stayed away in droves. The appeal of Durrell's novel lies in the setting of which he had first hand knowledge when working there for the British government and in the fascinating, complex characters he has created. In fact his second wife, a Jewish Alexandrian, was the inspiration for the character of Justine. Sadly, even with Leon Shamroy behind the camera the film is utterly devoid of atmosphere whilst Anouk Aimee, in attempting to be enigmatic as Justine, is just plain lifeless. Michael York as Darley takes blandness to a new level. Philippe Noiret as Pombal is a caricature and Dirk Bogarde as Pursewarden turns in another of his 'tortured soul' performances. Anna Karina is totally miscast as Melissa. Best to draw a discreet veil over Jack Albertson as Cohen. The only actors who emerge relatively unscathed are John Vernon as Nessim and George Baker as Mountolive.
There is some distinctly dodgy dubbing going on here and one has a sneaking suspicion that the atrocious editing is due to severe post-production snipping. Cukor himself was reticent regarding this which of course speaks volumes.
One dreads to think what Mr. Durrell thought of this monstrosity and he deserved a profound apology.
Apparently he much admired Henry Miller's novel 'Tropic of Cancer', yet another 'unfilmable' that was released in 1970 and directed by..........Joseph Strick!
You couldn't make it up.
