A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)

Film: A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)

Stars: Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Sydney Chaplin, Tippi Hedren

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Tippi Hedren-click here to learn more about Ms. Hedren (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Last week we talked about Tippi Hedren both in Marnie and in general her tumultuous relationship with our director-of-the-year Alfred Hitchcock.  Hedren's career after Marnie was rough, though, as she was under contract to Hitchcock (whom she refused to work with again), and who had final say in what films she was able to do, and he supposedly turned down several pictures that Hedren was interested in making.  She was finally released from her contract with Hitchcock & Universal in 1966, but her career has lost all of its momentum.  How do you follow up working with Hitchcock in two of his last great pictures?  Apparently, by appearing opposite the rare filmmaker who could rival Hitchcock's legend and track record on his final picture.  Yes, the first movie that Tippi Hedren made after working with her most iconic director was in the final film made by Silent Era genius Charlie Chaplin, A Countess from Hong Kong.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Ogden Mears (Brando), a wealthy man nominated to be the next US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who visits a brothel that includes Natascha (Loren), a Russian countess who is now penniless after the Russian Revolution.  On his voyage back to America, he realizes that Natascha has stowed away on this ship in his cabin, with hopes of arriving in the United States and starting a new life.  Initially reluctant, he eventually acquiesces to hiding her, even marrying her off to his valet, who then becomes quite amorous toward his new fake bride.  When Ogden's wife Martha (Hedren) arrives on the ship in Hawaii, he must choose-will he stay with his wife, with whom he has an in-name-only marriage that is meant to further his political career, or will he chase after this new woman that he has fallen in love with (even if it could be the downfall of his career)?  Only someone watching their first movie wouldn't know where Ogden's allegiances end up.

A Countess from Hong Kong is regarded as more curiosity than actual discussed film today.  Chaplin hadn't directed a film in ten years at the time, and that movie had been a critical flop.  Countess would suffer the same fate, and though Chaplin would continue to tinker with scripts & ideas for the next year before his death in 1977, this was his his final film.  It's easy to see why critics & the public didn't respond to this.  While some of the comic bits play better with a bit of nostalgia (you can see the classic Chaplin eye for sight comedy in the way that Loren is continually stuffed into a bathroom every time someone comes to the door), he had not modernized his comic styling & it didn't play as well so far-removed from the Silent Era.  It didn't help that Brando & Loren have no chemistry together.  Both have very naturalistic acting styles, so I'm not saying this couldn't have worked, but Brando always struggled with comedy, and Loren doesn't have enough character to pick up the slack.  All-in-all, this is the kind of movie you'd forget pretty quickly if there weren't so many legends involved (Chaplin, for what it's worth, is only onscreen for a brief minute, as are his three daughters).

Hedren is also in the film for a short while.  According to Hedren, she later said that she felt Chaplin tricked her to say yes to the picture, promising a bigger part in the pitch, to which she said she would've done it just to say she'd have worked with Chaplin.  She's good in the movie, but it is indeed a cameo despite her high billing, and it would be a footnote of her filmmaking lexicon were it not for Chaplin, Brando, & Loren's involvement.  This would also be arguably the last time that Hedren would work with an "important" director for decades, and in terms of making a film with such prominent billing, it'd be the last time ever.  That didn't mean she didn't work though, and next week we're going to talk about a film that she spent the better part of a decade trying to make, whose subject would lead Hedren to her true passion-in-life.