User reviews

It "wasn't very good."

Jane Fonda, Peter Finch, Angela Lansbury, Arthur Hill, and Constance Cummings star in "In the Cool of the Day" (1963.

I have no idea what the title means. It's one of those titles like "Fever in the Blood." Actually, "Fever in the Blood" would have been better.

Murray Logan (Finch) plays a publisher who falls in love with his friend Sam's (Arthur Hill) young wife Christine (Jane Fonda). She is a fragile woman both physically and emotionally, suffering from a lung disorder.

Part of her problem is her mother (Constance Cummings); she is afraid of her and hates to be around her. Christine's husband worships the ground she walks on, but at this point, they are separated and she is living with her father (Alexander Bonner), and they meet at his house.

Murray's wife, Sibyl (Angela Lansbury) is a recluse, due to a horrid automobile accident she and Murray were in which killed their little boy. Murray feels responsible so he puts up with her, though she's a nasty woman.

Sam makes certain promises to Christine about the way she can live her life -- he's very suffocating -- and she desperately wants to see Greece. She invites Murray and Sibyl to accompany her and Sam. Surprisingly, Sibyl accepts.

The Grecian scenery is stunning.

The movie overall moves like molasses, and it was difficult to invest in any of the characters.

As far as Fonda's hair - it was distracting. It's also the way women wore their hair in the '60s. I didn't mind her clothes, which some have mentioned. She was still quite beautiful.

The performances were okay - for me, only Lansbury and Cummings provided any spark. Fonda's performance was a little mannered for me. I can never get over the fact that Arthur Hill was the original George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf because he's the same in every single thing I've seen him in. Peter Finch didn't register a ton of emotion.

The ending was very clichéd.

I just found it a waste of good talent and beautiful locations.

If fashion and Mediterranean scenery tend to dazzle you about a movie then you'll likely be all up in the clouds dancing over this one. For the rest of us who desire somewhat more from our hours invested in a movie, In-the-Cool-of-the-Day falls far short of the mark I'm afraid.

It's your basic "Two people married to other people fall in love on a romantic European trip, having been put together alone due to circumstances and also the situation in each of their marriages." In Fonda's character's case she's simply not in love with her doting and rather 'doormattish' husband. In Finch's character's case his wife (Landsbury) is a miserable joy-killing shrew of a woman who is playing ever the martyr and guilt-tripping him over a past tragedy in their lives. While Fonda's husband can't make the trip, Finch and Landsbury end up fighting and she walking out, leaving he and Fonda to continue on alone.

The back story on Fonda's character is that she has been sickly since early childhood, having had multiple surgeries on her lungs and nearly dying. In any normal family of the time that would mean the only sensible course of action, that being no one smokes near her. But in THIS film the production (writers, director, producer, etc) all thought it was no big deal to just have all involved puffing away like steam engines including Jane's character herself.

While the view on smoking was a little different back in '63 than it is today it is still fairly unthinkable that a physician would raise major concern over a trip by car through the mountains due to a little rain yet have no quarrel whatsoever about a girl with serious respiratory ailments smoking like a chimney.

As for the ending all I'll say is I found it abrupt, unsurprising, and disappointing, Fonda herself is absolutely gorgeous. The vistas and views of the countryside are spectacular. The acting is decent. The story and plot is where this film falls flat.

4/10

Christine Bonner (Jane Fonda) is getting away from her overly-protective husband Sam (Arthur Hill) and dreams of going to Greece. She is counselled by family friend Murray Logan (Peter Finch). He has his own marital issues with wife Sybil (Angela Lansbury).

Everybody is troubled and I like that aspect. I don't buy the romance in any shape or form. I'm more interested in the two characters working out their problems with their individual marriage partners. A better movie would be Murray dealing with his wife and Christine dealing with Sam. They could separate if that's for the best but at least they would be adults about it. They're just running away from their problems. It doesn't seem to matter that it's with each other. She's going to Greece either way. This has some exotic locations but the movie makes them look dour. I don't mind a sad movie but this is a movie about two people running away from their marriages without dealing with the underlying problems. It's not romantic.

Jane is quoted as saying she had no idea this film had ever been released and wish it hadn't. She and the rest of the cast seem lobotimized. She and Finch have no chemistry and didn't even bother to try and fake it. I am convinced the cast only made this film because they were promised they could keep the clothes. Angela Lansbury is the one interesting player but not even her talent and style can bring this up to average. She looks stunning though.

The premise of In the Cool of the Day was intriguing: a married man falls for his friend's wife while on vacation in Greece. Since I'd just come back from a vacation in Greece myself, I was looking forward to watching it. Plus, any movie with the insanely beautiful Jane Fonda will be good, right? Not so much. And the hairdresser and makeup artist must have hated their leading lady. Poor Miss Fonda was given a hideous wig and strange eye makeup to distort her features - you can still tell she's a beautiful woman underneath all that, but it's painful to watch such attempts to make her look otherwise. She does get to wear some gorgeous outfits, though.

Peter Finch is the lead, and he's unhappily married to Angela Lansbury. Angela refuses to be seen in public because she doesn't want the "disfiguring" scars on her face to attract attention. But there's nothing wrong with her face at all! Perhaps the makeup artist was too busy with Jane Fonda to remember Angela's scar tissue. Anyway, Peter goes from one sick woman to another: Jane has bad lungs and could die from pneumonia at any time. Then why is she practically chain-smoking throughout the entire movie?

Thankfully, there are other movies you can watch if you want to see the sights of Greece. And even more thankfully, there are other movies you can watch if you're a Jane Fonda fan (and who isn't?). So why watch this one? It's weird, uneven, and disappointing.

Infidelity on the Mediterranean as a vacationing man and woman, married to others, fall for each other while touring Athens under the eyes of their respective spouses. What they used to call a "windswept soaper", with handsome travelogue footage from Greece used to bolster a wayward story. Performances are mostly dull, unusual with such a good cast: Peter Finch looks sleepy as he attempts to mediate a rift between friend Arthur Hill and wife Jane Fonda; she's a flirt and ensnares Finch, much to the concern of Peter's wife, Angela Lansbury (who manages to give the film a little goose). Bewigged Fonda is meant to be alluring and faintly dangerous, but her exotic Asian-styled hairpiece instead makes her look like the night hostess at Madame Chow's. Barely-released melodrama from John Houseman Productions and MGM recently gained some recent notoriety for being named by Fonda as the least-favorite of her own movies, although it's really no more terrible than, say, "Tall Story" or "Period of Adjustment". *1/2 from ****

I thought the movie was unique if not wonderful, being only ever so slightly cliché in its ending. I could not, however, tell if the style in which the film was shot was meant to be unusual and fresh or if this achieved addition to the film was simply an accident brought on by clumsiness. As for questions concerning the title, I would recommend the book of Genesis (to be found in the Bible for all of those who don't know) where Adam walked with God in The Cool of the Day. I don't have a Bible handy at the moment so I will not quote you can read this for yourself. Fonda reminds me of a young Katharine Hepburn in this film. She seems unsure of herself, probably because this was one of her first major roles, and like the Great Kate, in her very early films, she uses a higher voice than is generally attributed to her in this early film. It is not until a few years later in each career that we hear those majestic deeper voices that command so much respect from audiences.

Travelogue-tragedy-soap opera set in Greece, London, and New York, all of which look luscious in the wide-screen color photography of 1963. And jeez, what a collection of unhappy principals. Peter Finch, a nice-guy British publishing executive, is miserably married to Angela Lansbury, a contemptuous shrew who suffered the effects of a bad deed of his years before and won't ever let him forget it. He crosses the pond to help out buddy and co-worker Arthur Hill, who's also miserable, being unable to please his much younger, fragile wife, Jane Fonda, who also suffers from being the daughter of self-centered, selfish Constance Cummings. She and Finch respond to each other's temperaments and mutual love of Greece, and they're off to Athens and Mykonos and other well-photographed spots, along with Lansbury, who continues to make Finch miserable and pursues an affair, as things heat up between him and Fonda. For a soap, it's unusually literate, and also unusually visual, what with all the island-hopping, and I find it compelling, if a downer. All the actors are good, and Fonda and Lansbury are rather better than that. It's compromised by an abrupt, depressing ending, and the MGM orchestra saws away more than it has to. But I, too, am surprised to find it has only a 5.0 rating on the IMDB, and I'd urge fans of literate melodrama, and 1960s time capsules, to give it a look the next time TCM shows it.

If you like Jane Fonda, you will enjoy her acting in this picture and also how very young looking she looked in all her fancy looking clothes. There is also fantastic photography through out Greece and the ancient ruins, also a nice Greek dance with Peter Finch and Jane Fonda. Murray Logan, (Peter Finch) is a successful author married to Sybil Logan, (Angela Lansbury) and they are a very unhappy couple because of a tragic event in their early marriage. Sam Bonner, (Arthur Hill) is a very good friend of Murray and one day he meets his wife, Christine Bonner, (Jane Fonda). As soon as this couple look at each other, you can see in their eyes an outstanding attraction and this is what makes this film a triangle of love and romance and plenty of fights.

If ever there was an underrated film, In the Cool of the Day is it. I am not one to dismiss it as a soaper, nor do I share in the silly fixation on Jane Fonda's period hairstyle, which becomes her to my mind. As I see it, the film not only bears reasonable scrutiny, I would not change a thing about it.

The age-old theme of loyalty clashed with forbidden love never stales so long as it is done right, as is the case here. More than an intelligent study of sexual propriety, the film is an ode to traveling, something I might just do indefinitely if only I could. The four principal characters are well-established. Jane Fonda's Christine Bonner and Peter Finch's Murray Logan share an affinity for Greece that is evinced most compellingly. Greece itself is very well shot by Peter Newbrook, who did second unit photography on David Lean's visually amazing Lawrence of Arabia.

So, it's a match made in Graecophilic heaven. Unfortunately, he is married to the contemptibly cantankerous Sibyl (Angela Lansbury), and she to the doting, tiresomely prudent Sam (Arthur Hill). Christine's overbearing self-indulgent mother is another fly in the ointment. What's more, Christine has a serious lung condition.

All in all, a most satisfying little known film with an average rating of 5.0 on 215 votes. Frightful luck as to the few who have seen it, perhaps. It's a very small sampling, so give it a go.

Oh, and IMDb, a cover picture would be nice. Please and thank you.

Peter Finch and Jane Fonda play a pair of unhappy marrieds who run off to Greece for a fling in In The Cool Of The Day. With this film Jane takes on a role back in the day would have been played by her father's first wife Margaret Sullavan who was always playing tragic heroines in the glory days of Hollywood.

Fonda plays a sickly woman much like Sullavan in Three Comrades. But that doesn't mean she doesn't want to live and experience life. Her husband Arthur Hill is overprotective as she sees it, treating her like a hothouse plant. As for Finch he's married to a bitter and reclusive Angela Lansbury.

As Finch is a Hellenophile it's off to Greece for them where we experience In The Cool Of The Day's biggest asset, colorful location cinematography of some of Greece's best attractions. The second thing In The Cool Of The Day has going for it is the title song written by Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis who got an Oscar three years earlier for Never On Sunday. Nat King Cole's recording of it over the title credits is still warm and glowing.

But who gave Fonda that hairdo for this film ought to have been canned. Al Bundy used to call Marcy Darcy, sergeant Carterhead for her do on Married With Children and this one kind of reminds me a bit of it.

If you like the players or are a Hellenophile than you should In The Cool Of The Day.

This is a pretty strange little film about an illicit affair between a married man and his best friend's wife. Finch is the man, a publisher, who finds himself drawn to friend Hill's much younger wife. Finch's wife is a virtual shut-in, played by Lansbury. She suffers from the effects of a car wreck (shown in flashback, in which she looks OLDER than present day!) Fonda is the young lady married to Hill who suffers from emotional problems, lung difficulties and the ugliest hair ever to hit the silver screen. She is downright scary in this film! Her make-up is done in such a severe way and her hair (a hideous "fall", actually) is so unflattering and Orry-Kelly decks her out in an increasingly bizarre set of clothes and atrocious hats that the film becomes a sort of fashion horror movie! Fonda, so attractive in the films before and after this one is made to look like a total freak. At least the unflattering, ugly clothes are something to focus on because the story and the romance between her and Finch is deadly dull. The one bright spot is Lansbury. Though her character is foolish and unreal, she steals every scene she's in, looks terrific (though she keeps obsessing about a "scar" which is almost completely impossible to see!) and when she exits the film, she takes the life right out of it. She gets off a few wisecracks and displays a sexier figure than she often got to show. Cummings is wasted in a very small role. Apart from her first scene, she gets virtually nothing to do or say. The film is watchable for it's Grecian scenery and for the camp value of watching the May-December maneuverings of Finch and Fonda. The music score is exceedingly annoying and the short running time often feels like twice that. Sherwood appears very briefly...the film definitely could have used more of her.

The film is such a old movie cliché: Rich, sickly young woman married to an older man who neglects her. She gets involved with his good friend whose wife is a nutjob snob. The entire concept is one that is hard to wrap one's head around in the 2000's. First, maybe everyone should stop smoking and drinking and Fonda's character should take some vitamins and see a therapist about her mother. Throughout the entire film, a relative kept saying "rich people" explaining to herself the crazy that was going on. I felt compelled to correct her and say, "No, Hollywood on a bad hair day." Could not take my eyes off of Fonda's wig. 2 Stars for being able to see young Jane Fonda and Greece from another era, though.

Apparently Jane Fonda hated this film and thought it one of her worst. While I'm not sure I'd go that far, she is right in that it's not a very good movie....mostly because of the script.

Murry (PeterFinch) is a successful man who is stuck with a really screwed up and neurotic wife (Angela Lansbury). When a friend asks Murray to help him with his own marriage, Murray ends up spending time with Christine (Jane Fonda) and they hit it off. Later, Christine invites Murray and his wife to come with her and her husband (Arthur Hill) on a trip to Greece. At the last minute, however, Christine's husband backs out because of his father's illness...and the trip goes on as planned. During the trip, Murray's wife is horrible...hating everything, behaving capriciously and being less fun than a pack of rabid ferrets living in your pants! Surprisingly, this wife later runs off with another man...leaving Murray and Christine in Greece...alone.

While the actors seemed to try their best, the script was a mess. Angela Lansbury's character was a huge problem....as she didn't seem to make a lot of sense. Another problem was Christine's illness...and how odd it was they never mentioned WHAT it even was (could it have been Cystic Fibrosis??). But the worst is the ending...which was incredibly vague and ill-handled...and most likely leaving the viewer confused and let down. I had to watch the ending twice...I just couldn't quite follow what they were trying to say.

You won't recognize Jane Fonda in this one... with the SO-straight, dark, perfectly groomed hair. Pretty early role for her. She's Christine Bonner, who doesn't want hubby Sam (Art Hill) to know where she's living. Then she meets Sam's co-worker Murray (Peter Finch had won the oscar for Network.. posthumously.) christine and murray both have rough, stormy marriages, so christine starts writing to murray. And spending more and more time together. All their secrets come out. Co-stars Constance Cummings, who was big in the 1930s, 1940s. And Angela Lansbury (Jessie Baby! Had just done Manchurian Candidate.) it's a study of relationships, marriages, friendships. It's not so bad; apparently the actors regretted making it, but i've seen much worse! And I learned about Retsina.. wine flavored with pine resin. And watched the greek men do their special dance on the ship. The trivia says they had richard burton in mind for the part of Murray, and indeed, he would have been perfect in it. A good heart, but a troubled soul. They pretty much goofed up the last ten minutes; it could have been done so much better. Directed by Bob Stevens; did a lot of work with Hitchcock, and a lot of television. Based on the novel by british writer Susan Ertz.

Robert Stevens represents a sad and mystifying case of a director whose success on the small screen, notably in many of the 'Alfred Hitchcock presents' and early episodes of 'The Twilight Zone', failed to translate to the large although some would say that he did his best with the material at his disposal.

This marks the second collaboration between this director and one of this viewer's favourite actors Peter Finch, also starring Jane Fonda during her 'Method' period, the brilliant Angela Lansbury and the bland Arthur Hill.

It is of course far more entertaining to observe characters suffering in exotic locations and luxurious settings than in urban tenements but here the 'woe is me' element proves rather tiresome. Like all the best actors Mr. Finch is a very good listener and in this his ears are assailed by the constant neuroses of a mentally and physically scarred wife and of a fragile beauty suffering from weak lungs who is stifled by the good intentions of her over-protective husband who just happens to be his best friend.

The novel by Susan Ertz from which this has been adapted assumes the proportions of Greek tragedy but here alas it has been reduced to glamorous soap-opera. One feels that a producer with as impressive a track record as John Houseman should have known better.

Jane Fonda's undoubted star quality shines through despite a ludicrous Queen of the Nile wig and Angela Lansbury, neither for the first nor last time, steals the show. Neither actress was happy with the final product whilst Miss Fonda expressed surprise that it was even released. Mr. Finch had opined that Mr. Stevens was the most exciting director with whom he had ever worked. One cannot help but wonder how long he maintained that opinion.

For those interested in such things, this film marks the final credit of Orry-Kelly, one of Hollywood's greatest costume designers to whom numerous actresses from Bette Davis to Marilyn Monroe owed an immeasurable debt.

Having run out of chances, Robert Stevens returned whence he came, to the small screen.

After reading the reviews on this movie I HAD to chime in on it, because I saw this movie for the first time just a few days ago. Coming from someone is is NOT a Jane Fonda fan, I completely disagree with most reviewers thus far! I found the movie to be VERY watchable, and the storyline to be very romantic and somewhat bittersweet. But most of all, when I first turned the TV on I thought I was watching a much more recent movie by the style of this beautiful young girl. I was amazed to see that it was a 1963 movie, and even more amazed to see that it was Jane Fonda. As I mentioned, I have NEVER been a fan of Jane Fonda, but I never saw her so damned cute as in this movie. The other reviewer must be used to (and prefer) that super puffed-out hair JF that some of us have grown to dislike over the years (the look I cannot stand!). This gorgeous young lady with the "Bob" hairdo AND her clothing were very good-looking (to say the least) and took me by complete surprise. Also, her acting in this was not the typical Jane Fonda, but rather a non-pretentious, more innocent, Audrey Hepburn style of acting. I wish she had remained like this.

Also, the "woman" (I wish I could use another word) that Peter Finch was married to was NOT like that as result of the car accident. The car accident (and loss of the child) was a result of HER. It was brought up in a dialog between Peter Finch and an older woman who knew him before he was married, that Sybil was like that from the start. But Peter was sucked into a relationship with her, and she became pregnant as a result. Peter stayed with her, under the HOPE that she would change. But it just became worse, and culminated in the death of their son (because of her badgering him while driving!). Angela Lansbury played the roll so well you can really feel Peter's pain through the TV.

And yes. The Greek scenery was beautiful. Makes me want to take a vacation there. I enjoyed this movie a great deal.

The news boardmember, Murray Logan, meets the husband of Christine, who has some trouble understanding his wife. Then he meets Christine.

She behaves in a strange way, but of course, she is an fascinating person. She tells him, that she had some issued of pneumonia. Now she is still taken as some kind of 'fragile person'. Her husband does not want her to do several things, including driving. She does feel like his child, not like his wife. Logan has some unlucky moments in the past too. He tells her about. Then she writes him letters. It seems, they both are captured in the wrong scenes of life. It seems, He wasn't the nicest husband too ...

I give it a one, just for Jane Fonda's 'hair' (a lot of us are obsessing about it...), which - seems to be what's most interesting in a very dreary, creaky RomDram from '63.

I don't know the story of where the title a actually came from, but, the fact that it's 'opposite' (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT) titled film was such a well-received film came out AFTER this (as well as the book that film's based on) is probably one of the more interesting aspects going on in it's making.

In her interview with Robert Osborne (PRIVATE SCREENINGS), Angela Lansbury said that it was a 'difficult' project for her, and, while she did her best, she didn't think it was 'that good.'

Thus was an early vehicle for the young, gorgeous Fonda. She was still not fully comfortable on camera, and it shows. The film tries to showcase her as the typical 'sexy, young girl,' this time playing married (to the older Arthur Hill), who shares 'common interests' with the also married - to Angela Lansbury - Peter Finch.

ICD tries to be too many things, but fails in them all.

This was put out at a time in Hollywood before the 'revolutions' of sex, politics would play out in the real world. MGM - desperately trying to find a direction to navigate this tidal change - ends up with a film that might've been 'ahead of it's time' had it come out a few years earlier, but, as the grounds were already trembling, MGM ends up behind-the- times, with a product that - besides the natural beauty of Greece (where this was shot on location) feels very forced and dated.

The story line on the movie is a bit predictable but very charming! The locations were breathtakingly beautiful. The wardrobe for the movie was designed by the great Orry-Kelly and was IMPECCABLE. Jane Fonda's character was quite subdued & as such she wore classic, lovely outfits that were appropriate for her character. I think the styles of her clothing were beautiful and worked well with the locations where the movie was shot. The character that Angela Lansbury played had clothing designed for her character as well. She obviously had some insecurities so it makes sense that she would compensate for this by wearing outfits with lovely colors & fabrics that would flatter her awesome figure. I love this movie & Highly Recommend it!