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This film is in my library, because it stars, my favorite actor, the handsome, delightfully debonair, Richard Chamberlain. Bryan Forbes who directed this masterpiece, has a wonderful eye for detail. His sharp eye, focused on Richard Chamberlain, casting him as Roderick, Aurelia's young French lover. The engaging actor was powerful considering it was one of his first films, and he was playing against actors, known for strong stage presence. He not only held his own, but actually stoled the scenes, with his fine acting, and exceptional physicall beauty, a "detail," that did not go unnoticed, by the trained eye of director, Bryan Forbes. Forbes found Richard Chamberlain, a delight to direct, and later cast him as Prince Charming, in his romantic Cinderella story, The Slipper and The Rose, remarking on his devastating good looks, and humility.
by Judy Crocker
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I love this film! The Mad Woman of Chaillot, is an interesting satire, based on Jean Giraudoux's famous play. Katharine Hepburn heads up this stellar, all-star cast, as the French Countess Aurelia, immersed in her own little world, and deemed eccentric, perhaps even mad, by Parisian society. When Aurelia "wakes up," to the "real world," and realizes how corrupt it has become, she swings into action! A wonderful mock trial is held, to judge and condemn the evil-doers, sensationally presented by Danny Kaye. The evil ones, consisting of a clergyman, a general, a chairman, a prospector, a commissar, and a broker, are summoned to Aurelia's home, and quickly exterminated. She assures her friends, they will not be missed, "Do you miss a cold when it is gone?" 
If you enjoy satire, lovely music, "The Lonely Ones," great acting, and have an appreciation for detail, then this film is for you. In it's day this film was not well received, but I suspect, it is because satire, often flies over the head of the average viewer. I believe this film was actually, "ahead of it's time," and resonates more profoundly today, with corporate greed, failed cultural institutions, political corruption, and the criminal wasting of our natural resources. Maybe there will be another woman......just mad enough......to step up to the plate and deliver a blow to the present INSANITY!