Sadly Over-hyped

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

How sad is this?

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

While enduring an awful night of shivers then insomnia, I found a movie channel and let it run. In the middle of the night I ended up watching film DARLING LILI for the first time. It is set in the final year of an incredibly sanitized version of The Great War. Andrews plays a famous singer who is actually a patrician version of Mata Hari. She does not seem to do much in the way of actual espionage. Mostly she just passes along to her uncle (Jeremy Crabbe) stray bits of gossip from officers she entertains in her sumptuous mansion. One of them is Rock Hudson. They have zero charisma together and he looks like he just walked thru the part. Heck, he does not even appear into the film for quite a while. The film must have cost a fortune, even for big budget musicals of the time. Several times we see Lili performing to a packed opera house. That's a helluva lot of extras in period costumes. Throw in a Hallmark Channel version of THE BLUE MAX. Gotta give Hudson something to do. Julie Andrews' voice was at the top of her game. Honestly she and Blake would have been better served just doing a concert film. One thing to note is that Andrews and her husband/director Blake Edwards were chaffing at Andrew's usual screen persona, a mix of Mary Poppins, Maria von Trapp, and Emily. In all but one of her performances Lili wears incredible gowns. But when she learns her lover (Hudson) has been seeing a stripper, Lili decides to do a striptease number. Oh, and the film earned some salacious publicity at the time because Andrews did a topless scene. Nothing was visible on US screens of course. But there was always "the European version." Did I mention she and Hudson had zero charisma together? The film was Ms Andrew's first bomb, although not as bad as her next project STAR.

Famous big-flop from the Bluhdorn era at Paramount, and it shares some aspects with that other big Paramount flop of the era, "Paint Your Wagon." Both are essentially square musicals that try to be hip. This one tries by messing with Julie Andrews' image: She's a World War 1 spy for the Germans, and she's looser than the Maria von Trapp standard she set: When Rock Hudson, as the flyer who's romancing her, suggests she might be a virgin, she slaps him. Blake Edwards, about to marry her, must have loved the thought of giving the world a new Julie Andrews, but he made some serious mistakes. I find her chemistry with Hudson, counter to some other commenters, just fine. But making her a Mata Hari-type spy leaves us unsure of whom to root for. There's never any mention of how many Allied plots she reported to the Germans, how many Allied deaths she might have caused. And to maintain a persuasive cover, she's always entertaining the Allied troops. But the character is not a heroine, and the ending--she devotes herself to entertaining and raising money for the Allies--is impossible. We wouldn't just forgive Mata Hari, we'd put her before a firing squad. Edwards lengthens the movie with some exciting aerial sequences, a pair of sub-Clousseau French detectives, and much footage of Rock and Julie kissing. It's shot beautifully, and some nice songs are scattered about, including "Whistling in the Dark," a typically lovely minor-key Mancini melody set to an uncharacteristically pointless Mercer lyric. It keeps the eye and ear occupied, but never engages the heart.

Julie Andrews made, I believe, only two major flops, in her career, this movie and "Star". In the case of "Star" I think we have a reasonably good and watchable film with several quite fine scenes. While not a great film, it didn't deserve to flop. On the other hand, this one really deserved its fate.Blake Edwards throws in scenes that don't fit at all together. The aerial dog fighting footage is fine, but has nothing to do with the spying, which has nothing to do with the two strip teases or the can-can dance. Perhaps the worse mistake is putting in two Inspector Clouseau types who just do some mildly amusing slap stick routines.Julie Andrews and Rock Hudson don't have chemistry at all, but that is probably because their scenes are absurdly written. She is trying to get secret spy information out of him, but it is hard to understand why he should be revealing top military secrets to her five minutes after they have met. It is almost like a poor T.V. comedy sketch about a spy. We never do find out why Lili is a German Spy. Why would a beloved and successful British star be risking her life to spy for Germany in World War I. The only explanation suggested in the movie is that her father was German. This really explains nothing.The DVD gives over 53 minutes of footage that was cut as a bonus. Only two or three minutes of Hudson and Andrews in the French Countryside with children singing should have been kept. It is the only scene where Hudson and Andrews seem to be enjoying themselves.Edwards best work with Andrews came later with "S.O.B." and "Victor Victoria." Those have more developed and interested characters.Henry Mancini's score was nominated for an Academy Award and several other awards, but it is only moderately effective and really quite forgettable. There's nothing of the quality of "Moon River" or "The Pink Panther Theme."

I am an avid Julie Andrews fan and I just watched this for the first time on DVD -- the Director's Cut version. I was very surprised that it was rated G. How did they get bedroom scenes, a seduction story line, two strip tease acts, and war/shooting/blood into a G rating? Weird. I would rate it PG-13.Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was a beautiful showcase of Andrew's voice and talent. The acting was great. The storyline was a little weak, leaving gaps that could have been filled with some good dialogue. There were too many "no talking, just walking" scenes for me... I would have liked to see the the relationship between Julie and Rock blossom, so that the intense love would be more believable.