Waltz of the Toreadors (film)


Waltz of the Toreadors is a 1962 film directed by John Guillermin and starring Peter Sellers and Dany Robin. It was based on the play of the same name by Jean Anouilh with the location changed from France to England. It was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay, in 1963.
The film had its World Premiere on 12 April 1962 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End.

Plot

This is the end of a glorious military career: General Leo Fitzjohn retires to his Sussex manor where he will write his memoirs. Unfortunately, his private life is a disaster: a confirmed womanizer, Leo has infuriated his wife Emily, now a shrewish and hypochondriac woman, all the more bitter as she still loves him. The General has two plain-looking daughters he dislikes and an attractive French mistress, Ghislaine, with whom he has had a platonic affair for seventeen years. When Ghislaine resurfaces, determined to complete her love with him and to get rid of Emily, Leo is at a loss what to do...

Cast

Box Office

The film was the 11th most popular movie at the British box office in 1962.
According to Kine Weekly the most popular movies at the British box office were The Guns of Navarone, The Young Ones, Only Two Can Play, The Comancheros, Dr. No, A Kind of Loving, Sergeants Three, Blue Hawaii, The Road to Hong Kong, That Touch of Mink, Waltz of the Toreadors and Carry On Cruising.

Critical

In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote, "Mr. Sellers, still in his thirties, plays the comically stiff and paunchy role of a retired British Army general with a still-eager eye for the girls, and he does it with detail so deft and devilish that he adds another jewel to his crown."