Friday | July 29, 2011 9:15 pm

The Honey Pot

Free Admission

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
With Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson.
US, 1967, digital video, color, 131 min.

Mankiewicz's glittering homage to baroque excess stars a debonair Rex Harrison as a roguish millionaire who uses his Venetian palace to stage a cruel and dangerously elaborate joke on his three ex-wives. An inspired adaptation of Volpone, Ben Jonson's celebrated Jacobean fable of cupidity and male narcissism, The Honey Pot delights in strange moments of surreal comedy like the extended scenes of a silk pajama-ed Harrison nimbly dancing ballet in his secret boudoir. Anchoring Harrison's giddy performance is Cliff Robertson as his sardonic, and possibly deceptive, Man Friday and master of ceremonies. – HG