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Lady L
Lady L is a 1965 comedy film based on the novel by Romain Gary and directed by Peter Ustinov. Starring Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, David Niven and Cecil Parker, the film focuses on an elderly English Duchess as she recalls the loves of her life, including an anarchist and an English aristocrat. The ending of the film is very different from the ending of the novel.
Not long after she celebrates her 80th birthday, the sophisticated and still attractive Lady Lendale (widely known as "Lady L") sojourns to her summerhouse with her biographer, Sir Percy, to recount the story of her life.
Fleeing her humble origins in Corsica, Louise travels to Paris, where she finds works in a brothel—as a laundress. There she falls in love with Armand, a thief and somewhat inept anarchist, and she eventually becomes pregnant by him. But before Armand can use a bomb to assassinate a Bavarian prince, she meets the wealthy Lord Lendale, who is so enchanted by the young woman that he offers to help her and Armand escape if she will agree to join with him and present Armand’s child to the world as his. Dickie, as she calls him, explains that several of his aristocratic relatives are mad, and he wants new blood in his family.
Lady L becomes a woman of great wealth, moving in high society, and together she and Lord Lendale raise a large family. Many of Lady L’s children and grandchildren achieve elite positions in society, in government, in the military and in the Church of England, although she points to a large cohort of “black sheep” at her birthday party.
In the end, however, she reveals her secrets: She and Lord Lendale were never married because he had a deep respect for the institution of marriage. She and Armand were married more than 50 years before, and Armand fathered all their children while posing as the family's chauffeur. Dickie built the summerhouse as a place where they could meet. She has even kept an unexploded bomb on a table there, not knowing how to dispose of it. A horrified Sir Percy declares her biography would be unpublishable. She agrees—The story is “too moral.” As an aged Armand bundles them into the limousine, the ancient bomb explodes, blowing the summerhouse to smithereens. Sir Percy collapses in the backseat, and Armand (who drives like an anarchist ) heads off down the road—or portions of it.
The original novel has a grim ending. Lady L describes how she hid Armand in a safe. When asked what happened to him, she opens the door to reveal his skeleton. The movie teases first-time viewers with this possibility when Lady L tells Sir Percy that she hid Armand in the closet in the summer house. She opens the door and laughs as Percy starts. She asks if he expected to find Armand’s remains, then reveals the truth.
MGM spent $2 million on pre-production for the film before cancelling the project.
It was later restarted as an international co-production between France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Castle Howard in Yorkshire was used for the shooting of some scenes. Interiors were shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice.
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Lady L
Lady L is a 1965 comedy film based on the novel by Romain Gary and directed by Peter Ustinov. Starring Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, David Niven and Cecil Parker, the film focuses on an elderly English Duchess as she recalls the loves of her life, including an anarchist and an English aristocrat. The ending of the film is very different from the ending of the novel.
Not long after she celebrates her 80th birthday, the sophisticated and still attractive Lady Lendale (widely known as "Lady L") sojourns to her summerhouse with her biographer, Sir Percy, to recount the story of her life.
Fleeing her humble origins in Corsica, Louise travels to Paris, where she finds works in a brothel—as a laundress. There she falls in love with Armand, a thief and somewhat inept anarchist, and she eventually becomes pregnant by him. But before Armand can use a bomb to assassinate a Bavarian prince, she meets the wealthy Lord Lendale, who is so enchanted by the young woman that he offers to help her and Armand escape if she will agree to join with him and present Armand’s child to the world as his. Dickie, as she calls him, explains that several of his aristocratic relatives are mad, and he wants new blood in his family.
Lady L becomes a woman of great wealth, moving in high society, and together she and Lord Lendale raise a large family. Many of Lady L’s children and grandchildren achieve elite positions in society, in government, in the military and in the Church of England, although she points to a large cohort of “black sheep” at her birthday party.
In the end, however, she reveals her secrets: She and Lord Lendale were never married because he had a deep respect for the institution of marriage. She and Armand were married more than 50 years before, and Armand fathered all their children while posing as the family's chauffeur. Dickie built the summerhouse as a place where they could meet. She has even kept an unexploded bomb on a table there, not knowing how to dispose of it. A horrified Sir Percy declares her biography would be unpublishable. She agrees—The story is “too moral.” As an aged Armand bundles them into the limousine, the ancient bomb explodes, blowing the summerhouse to smithereens. Sir Percy collapses in the backseat, and Armand (who drives like an anarchist ) heads off down the road—or portions of it.
The original novel has a grim ending. Lady L describes how she hid Armand in a safe. When asked what happened to him, she opens the door to reveal his skeleton. The movie teases first-time viewers with this possibility when Lady L tells Sir Percy that she hid Armand in the closet in the summer house. She opens the door and laughs as Percy starts. She asks if he expected to find Armand’s remains, then reveals the truth.
MGM spent $2 million on pre-production for the film before cancelling the project.
It was later restarted as an international co-production between France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Castle Howard in Yorkshire was used for the shooting of some scenes. Interiors were shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice.