The only film DeNiro ever spoiled

This film of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel is infinitely superior to the disaster starring Lynn Bari and Akim Tamiroff. The cast is superb: Kathy Bates is a wonderful Marquesa. Geraldine Chaplain captures the spirit of the Abbess. F. Murray Abraham is a very good Viceroy. Pilar López de Ayala does a highly credible job as La Perichole.

Different media require different presentations, and no one expects for a film to be a replication of a novel. Some trivial changes are, however, hard to understand. The Viceroy’s fruity secretary adds little or nothing to the story, and I could see no reason for the twins, Manuel and Esteban, to be mute. (Manuel is La Perichole’s scribe in the novel, and falls in love with her.)

Robert DeNiro’s Archbishop is, on the other hand, a disastrous addition. The part is overblown and DeNiro overplays it with a vengeance. The movie would be infinitely better if every one of DeNiro’s long speeches was cut and the archbishop remained a bit player, as he is in the novel.