The Ceremony (1963) User Reviews

Hard to really like this film.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 31 January 2015]

I did not hate "The Ceremony" nor did I particularly like it. I think the biggest problem keeping me from really enjoying the films were the characters...I just didn't care about any of them. And, after a while I found my attention wavering.

When the film begins, Sean (Laurence Harvey) is about to be executed. It seems he was part of a robbery gone bad--and someone was killed during the robbery. However, and this makes no sense at all, some of the folks at the prison are lamenting how sad it is that they're going to kill the guy. However, he isn't executed, as hie brother (Robert Walker, Jr.) arranges for him to escape.

The most interesting thing about this movie is that the leading man, Laurence Harvey, not only starred in it but directed and produced it as well. While this wasn't always a bad thing, I do think Harvey overacted a bit when his character was in prison--and a different director might have gotten a different sort of performance. Additionally, the film suffers because I just didn't care on whit about anyone in the film and at times it seemed a bit lifeless, though the twist at the end was pretty interesting.

"It isn't fair to talk about God to a man whose condemned to death!"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 18 July 2022]

Dismissed by the late David Shipman as "a pretentious plea against capital punishment" and now disinterred by the wonder that is Talking Pictures. Boasting a truly extraordinary international cast, shot in kafkaesque black & white by Ossie Morris and full of ripe one-liners, it's just the film you'd expect Lawrence Harvey to have directed.

Unknown Spanish/US co-production shot in Spain and Morocco , being played/produced/directed by Laurence Harvey

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 7 May 2022]

An obscure and thought-provoking film delivering an almost expressionistic and brooding approach to a twisted situation adequately performed by notorious players . Dealing with a bank robber (Laurence Harvey) who is condemned to death penalty for committing a murder during the failed robbery and about to be executed by firing squad . His brother (Robert Walker Jr , Robert Walker's son with whom bears a remarkable resemblance) comes up with a plan to break him out of prison--but on the condition that his brother's girlfriend (Sarah Miles)"date" him first. Shocking! . . . Savage! . . . Sensual! This is the Ceremony . Her innocence . . . Traded for her lover's life .The story of a man condemned . . . Of his brother who offered to save him for a price . . . His brother's woman!

The Ceremony (1963) displays a simple and plain plot about a convicted killer sentenced to prison , condemned to death and subsequently rescued by his brother who demands liaison with sister-in-law as reward . This is a real and striking drama, developing an intimate approach to the actors as physical as moral , making their expressions a vivid aspect of the drama . Being mostly shot in interior scenarios , and all the roles perform vital parts giving intense interpretations . The higlight of the movie is the cinematography by prestigious director of photography Oswald Morris . As well as evocative and appropriate production design by designer Ramiro Gómez , filmed on various locations in Tangier, Morocco , and La Mancha , Toledo , Sevilla , Andalucía, Spain . Stars Laurence Harvey giving a nice acting , as usual , and he produces and directs , as well . Being very well supported by a great cast with plenty of important British/American actors , such as : Ross Martin , Robert Walker Jr. , Lee Patterson , Jack MacGowran , Noel Purcell and being a Spaniard/American coproduction here appearing several Spanish actors , such as : Fernando Rey , Fernando Sancho, José Guardiola , Carlos Casaravilla , José Nieto , Xan Dan Bolas , José Luis Martin, Barta Barri , among others.

This mishmash was uneven but professionally directed by Laurence Harvey , and it failed at the international boxoffice . Laurence Harvey's film debut came in House of Darkness (1948), and he was soon signed by Associated British Studios. Harvey was cast as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" (1954) , a flick that exemplified the main problem that kept Harvey from major stardom , his screen persona was emotionally aloof if not downright attractive . Then , Harvey attracted enough attention in Hollywood to be brought over by Warner Bros. And given a main character in "King Richard and the Crusaders" (1954). After making three flops in a row, Harvey began a brief reign as the Jack the Lad of British cinema with the great success of "Room at the top" (1958). That film and "Looking back in anger" (1959), which was also released that year, inaugurated the "kitchen sink" school of British cinema that revolutionized the country's film industry and continuing in Hollywood, in the 1960s. In this Hollywood interlude, Harvey also appeared in the screen adaptations of Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke" (1961) opposite the great Geraldine Page, Oscar-nominated for her role, and the artistically less successful "Walk of the wild side" (1962), supported by the legendary Barbara Stanwyck . His next and last decade of Harvey's screen life -dying early at 45- was a disappointment, with the actor relegated to less and less prestigious pictures and international co-productions that needed a "star" name , such as : "Struggle for Rome" , "Night Watch" , "Yellow-Headed Summer" , "Welcome to Arrow Beach" , "The Deep" and "Rebus". And he directed some films with limited success, making the transition to director with this "The Ceremony" (1963) and finished directing "Sentence in aspic" (1968) after the death of original director Anthony Mann. Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable but neither notable , not extraordinary .

Laurence Harvey the intense actor directed intensely by-- Laurence Harvey.

[EphT · 6 January 1999]

If you didn't know this was a Spain/US production, you'd think it was a timeless fable: there are so few localized contexts. The supporting actors delineate themselves sharply, but Laurence Harvey steals the show, as always, with his intensity (check out his work in Tamiko, a neurotic romance set in Japan), and compounds this by directing with intensity: the camera is always zooming into people's faces from above, below, and sideways. It's dizzying. That said, the movie's worth seeing. All praise to early 60's B&W films.

Intriguing characters and film that became unconvincing.

[Marlburian · 7/10 · 28 April 2022]

Halfway through "The Ceremony " (screened on the British Talking Pictures TV channel), I was wondering whether to give it an 8, mainly due to the cinematography and intriguing characters. But then it deteriorated, with the trio's celebrations after Sean's escape being embarrassingly prolonged, the unconvincing fluctuations in the brothers' relationship and the even more unconvincing substitution for the execution. At least the final scenes provided a thought-provoking religious sub-text, albeit somewhat heavy handed.

Every time the man in native costume appeared, I wondered exactly who he was - presumably an indigenous local mayor or governor?

Top marks for Jack MacGowran as Father O'Brien and for the scenes involving the gendarmes who were to form the firing squad.

In the end I gave it 7.

Nothing is going to stop the ceremony

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 14 May 2015]

***SPOILERS*** After a string of hits actor Laurence Harvey tries his hand in directing in the film "The Cermony" with himself as it star the waiting to be executed bank robber Sean McKenna. In fact McKenna was the one who tried to prevent the murder of the bank guard that he's now to play with his life for with the actual killer getting away, due to sloppy police work, Scot-free! Now faced with being shot at sunrise it's McKenna's kid brother Dominic, Robert Walker Jr, who's planning to spring him by impersonating the priest who to give him his last rites!

At first the prison jail break takes the prison administration by complete surprise and is successful with a shocked, in seeing Dominic as a priest, McKenna making it out before the police knew what happened! But what shocked McKenna even more is the fact that his brother Dominic was also planning to check out of the country not with half of the money from the bank robbery but his girlfriend Catherine, Sarah Miles, as well! This leads to a violent fist fight between the brothers as the police start to close in on them. With Dominic making a run or drive for it his car crashes into a tree and explodes leaving him, or his face, unrecognizable.

***SPOILERS*** Half baked final with Dominic due to his disfigurement mistaken for his brother Sean McKenna who's to be executed by a firing squad for Sean's crime. You expected a lot better then what you got with the movies bazaar mistaken identity ending which made no sense at all! With the person who was to be executed walking out of the prison without any of the guards as much as laying a hand on him. It was as if by them, those in charge of McKenna's, in screwing things up the first time around just called it quits and decided to let McKenna off in order to clear their guilty consciences!

Unrelentingly boring

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 16 May 2022]

A real bore-fest, this one, which is a shame as the cast is exceptional, featuring a good mix of big stars and character actors in support. What a shame then that this Spanish production is so unrelentingly boring, with a prisoner on death row involved in a plot to help him achieve freedom. It's arty in the worst kind of way, full of boring dialogue and routine scenarios. No thanks!

Interesting misfire

[sjaytaylor · 5/10 · 7 January 2024]

What no-one seems to have noticed is how utterly in hock to Orson Welles' "The Trial" this film is, with its very elaborate "artistic" direction, brooding atmosphere of menace and general sense of claustrophobic gloom. Harvey, an actor noted more for his vanity than actual ability (other than that of using well-connected older women to further his career) here sets himself up in full Welles mode: star, producer, director.

In the event, his direction is much the most striking thing about the whole film, because it is for the most part terribly acted - Sarah Miles and Harvey himself in particular - loosely constructed and with the same kind of overly-insistent sub-classical musical soundtrack as "The Trial" (Gerard Schurmann - my one-time neighbour - in this Harvey film, Remo Giazotto's egregious fake Albinoni grinding away in the Welles). Poor old Jack MacGowran and Murray Melvin pop up in weird roles doing their usual schtick - pixillated priest, "sensitive" (i.e. Gay) youth - and Robert Rietty does his usual quadruple duty (as in "The Trial") dubbing voices galore.

But it does have a very definite, albeit second-hand from Welles, look about it, with endless bizarre camera angles and suffocating close-ups. You could even make a case for Robert Walker Jr. Giving a very decent impression of Anthony Perkins' befuddled Josef K. So basically the whole thing's a highly derivative mess: but derived from an actual masterpiece, and sometimes therefore oddly effective almost in spite of itself. Worth a squint.

A great drama of justice going all wrong

[clanciai · 10/10 · 2 May 2022]

This is a timeless drama challenging the matter of justice as it is enforced by law, unavoidably leading to mistakes that can't be corrected and leaving wounds and damages for life. Laurence Harvey is the prisoner convicted and sentenced to execution, while his brother (Robert Walker) and sweetheart (Sarah Miles) with a team of others plan to set him free in order for them all to get at the money obtained in some kind of a robbery that cost someone his life, which Harvey actually tried to prevent while instead he got prosecuted for the manslaughter. They all become victims to the ultimate judicial murder, as finally the wrong man gets executed. This is actually a drama, the stage is almost Shakespearian, and all the characters play vital parts. The most striking thing however is the cinematography, which is almost expressionistic in its consistently intimate approach to the actors' faces, making their expressions a vivid part of the drama. It is claustrophobic and very dark as almost everything happens in the dungeons of a prison, but also all the prison staff and wards play an important part and even the other prisoners by their noise constituting almost a chorus. It is all very much like a Greek drama in its structure, leading all the protagonists hopelessly into an abyss of destiny in which they are all ultimately helpless. The story ends classically in a great question mark, as we never shall know what happened next to all the survivors - there is only death in the whole drama. Regrettably this became the only film that Laurence Harvey ever had the opportunity to direct, and it marks in many ways the epitome of his career. He continued acting in films but constantly on a lesser scale until he ended tragically and abruptly at only 45 from a stomach cancer.

Ross Martin displays versatility as villainous commandant.

[mel-78 · 28 May 1999]

When I saw this in the sixties it really made me realize the breadth of acting ability of Ross Martin. I had only seen him in roles of the comedic sidekick prior to this role. His believability as the evil commandant was astounding. This made the movie for me.

cinematography

[cxszf · 9/10 · 18 July 2022]

Some of the best lighting and cinematography I can remember ever seeing .....;slightly surreal.

Remarkable characters ... very beautiful people.

No terrible background music... at least very little ...