Soft Beds, Hard Battles

Soft Beds, Hard Battles
Directed byRoy Boulting
Written byRoy Boulting
Leo Marks
Based onan idea by Maurice Moisiewitsch
Produced byJohn Boulting
Roy Boulting
StarringPeter Sellers
Curd Jurgens
Lila Kedrova
CinematographyGilbert Taylor
Edited byMartin Charles
Music byNeil Rhoden
Production
company
Charter Film Productions
Distributed byThe Rank Organisation (through Fox-Rank[1])
Release date
  • January 1974 (1974-01) (UK)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£750,000[2]

Soft Beds, Hard Battles is a 1974 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting, starring Peter Sellers (in several roles), Curd Jürgens, Lila Kedrova and Jenny Hanley. Sellers reunited with the Boulting brothers for this farce, in which the women of a brothel help the war effort to rid the world of the Nazi peril – in the bedroom.[3]

The film took a limited release; in the United States, it was released under the title Undercovers Hero.

Plot

Set in Nazi-occupied France, the story follows Major Robinson of the British Army. Installing himself at a Parisian brothel, he assists the French resistance and works with Madame Grenier and her girls who find themselves eliminating high ranking German officers (using ingenious rigged beds and killer flatulence pills) right under the noses of the Gestapo. The girls find themselves enlisted in the Free French Forces and finally help to foil Hitler's plan to blow up Paris. They later receive medals from the French president.[4]

Cast

Production

John and Roy Boulting had been pursuing separate careers for several years before reuniting to make this film. John left his position as managing director of British Lion which he held for six years to produce "because I am anxious to make films again."[5]

The project began as a script called The Saga of the Six Black Virgins by Maurice Foster. The brothers disliked it but were interested in the idea of viewing the war through the point of view of a brothel, albeit with new characters and a new story. Roy Boulting wrote the script with Leo Marks in 1971 and 1972. They decided to offer the film to Peter Sellers, who accepted in July 1972.[6] Maurice Foster left the project and the Boultings bought out his interest.

John Boulting called the film "a flippant look at war and the absurdities of war... All naked men are alike really and the film stresses the idea that wars are not won or lost by top level Whitehall, Pentagon, or Wilhemstrasse strategy but by fortuitous intangibles and by the foibles of human beings."[5]

The Boultings revived their old company, Charter Film Productions, and obtained investment from Lord Goodman and Max Rayne. Part of the budget became from the Rank Organisation (by the end of the 1974 financial year Rank financed Carry on Dick, Carry on Girls, The Belstone Fox and Don't Just Lie There, Say Something, and partly financed Soft Beds and Hard Battles and Caravan to Vaccares.[7])

In August 1972 the Boultings were told Sellers had changed his mind.[6] Filming was postponed, althogh the Boultings had spent £35,000 of his own money. Sellers eventually changed his mind again.[8]

The brothers were directors of British Lion, which was sold to Barclay Securities. Barclay proposed to sell 45 of the 60 acres of Shepperton studio for housing development. The union protested and said if any of the previous directors of Shepperton, such as the Boultings, tried to make films anywhere they would be blackbanned. Production on the film began in March 1973 but was halted due to uncertainty about the banning.[9]

John Boulting blamed "a little cabal of Communists who are ideologically motivated. They are dedicated in my view not to the improvement of our industry but to the destruction of the whole fabric of society." The union said the Boultings were "hysterical."[2][10]

The union withdrew the blackban provided the Boultings give "prior consideration" to Shepperton for the making of any other films.[11] The brothers agreed.[12] Filming, which was to have begun on 3 April, started on 16 April.[13] It was a 62 day shoot with Sellers required for 51; filming mostly took place at Sheperton Studios with one week of filming in France.[14]

Filming finished by May 1973.[15]

During filming it was revealed Sellers had begun a romantic relationship with Liza Minelli.[16]

Reception

The film was a financial failure and Roy Boulting lost a considerable amount of his own money on it.[17]

Critical

Evening Standard called it "glaringly unfunny, so stamped with the mark of 20 years ago." [18] The Guardian wrote "it's dreadful, and I cant think of how it happened."[19]

The Irish Times called it "his best film for some time".[20] Vincent Canby The New York Times called it "a sketch film with very few jokes".[21] Time Out wrote: "Its raison d'être is Peter Sellers, back in brilliant form as six variations on blinkered authority, including Hitler and a De Gaulle-ish French general, but particularly as the Gestapo chief Schroeder, limping-cum-strutting from disaster to disaster, an extraordinary amalgam of Dr Strangelove and Fred Kite. Worth a visit for Sellers and one classic joke about a PoW."[22]

References

  1. ^ "Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974)". BBFC. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b Barker, Dennis (19 March 1973). "Boulting threat to halt films". The Guardian. p. 1.
  3. ^ "Undercovers Hero Trailer, Reviews and Schedule for Undercovers Hero | TVGuide.com". Movies.tvguide.com. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  4. ^ "Soft Beds, Hard Battles | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  5. ^ a b Author? Archie Bunker, No Less. By A. H. WEILER. The New York Times. 3 December 1972: D11.
  6. ^ a b Boutling, Roy (February 1974). "Getting it together". Films and Filming. p. 11-13.
  7. ^ "The Rank Organisation Annual Report and Accounts 1974" (PDF). Memories of Rank Xerox at Mitcheldean. p. 21.
  8. ^ Boutling, Roy (February 1974). "What happened after the cliffhanger". Films and Filming. p. 24-28.
  9. ^ "Shepperton men seek studio pledge". Evening Standard. 19 March 1973. p. 10.
  10. ^ "Union deny plot to kill films". The Daily Telegraph. 20 March 1973. p. 2.
  11. ^ New move in film dispute. The Guardian (1959–2003); London (UK) 20 March 1973: 5.
  12. ^ Studio workers lift blacking threat. The Guardian 23 March 1973: 5.
  13. ^ "Union ban on Boulting film ends". The Daily Telegraph. 23 March 1973. p. 6.
  14. ^ "Soft beds hard battles". Thanet Times. 15 May 1973. p. 8.
  15. ^ IT'S MUTUAL: Liza Minnelli Tells Love for Peter Sellers Lambert, Tom. Los Angeles Times. 23 May 1973: a9.
  16. ^ "I love Peter and he loves me - Liza". Evening Standard. 22 May 1973. p. 1.
  17. ^ Hayley was my true love, but I lost her and my son. Now I've found him again. Film legend Roy Boulting on a life of infidelity and reunion with his pop star son: [1ST_STH Edition 5] Middlehurst, Lester. Daily Mail. 20 June 1998: 32.
  18. ^ "Soft beds, hard battles". Evening Standard. 24 January 1974. p. 26.
  19. ^ "Middle course". The Guardian. 24 January 1974. p. 12.
  20. ^ SIX OF SELLERS Linechan, Fergus. The Irish Times. 4 November 1974: 10.
  21. ^ Canby, Vincent (23 October 1975). "Movie Review - Undercovers Hero - Screen: 'Undercovers':Sellers Plays 6 Roles in Boultings Comedy". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  22. ^ "Soft Beds, Hard Battles". Time Out London. 27 December 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
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