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Five Finger Exercise Reviews

The talk and three of the talkers get so irritating that interest wears thin along with the theme.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2020

Rosalind Russell has never been more campy, a large statement, the normally able Jack Hawkins flounders around, and even Maximilian Schell was unable to be convincing.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2019

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Five Finger Exercise (1962): Daniel Mann Family Drama, Starring Jack Hawkins, Rosalind Russell and Oscar Winner Maximilian Schell

A fine cast elevates Five Finger Exercise , an intense family drama, which is replete of internal conflicts and external tensions.

The husband and wife team, Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, have effectively adapted to the big screen Peter Shaffer’s stage play of the same name.

Jack Hawkins plays Stanley Harrington, a businessman incapable of expressing his emotions or compromising with others. Rosalind Russell is cast as his pretentious wife, Louise, who perceives herself as an intellectual, though her intelligence is more of an affectation than a reality.

In his first film after winning the Best Actor Oscar for “Judgment at Nuremberg,” Maximilian Schell plays a teacher from Germany, hired as a tutor for the couple’s two teenage children, the effeminate Philip (Richard Beymer) and the high-strung Pamela (Annette Gorman).

Walter tries to ingratiate himself with the family, but to no avail. When he tries to get to know Louise better, she deludes herself that he’s fallen in love with her. Thus, she is deeply hurt, when he confesses that he instead sees her as a surrogate mother. Turning point occurs when Walter is driven to the brink of suicide, which forces all the family members to reconsider their attitudes toward Walter and toward each other.

This is one of the last films made by the accomplished actress Rosalind Russell, who gives a brave and dominant performance under the direction of Daniel Mann, who usually works particularly well with women.

Runnnig time: 109 Minutes.

Directed by Daniel Mann Screenplay by: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich

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★★ Added by lifeatthemovies

This could have been an amazing blistering melodrama but what we get is dull, shoddily directed whimper of a film. Everyone and everything (including the writers) seems bored and uncomfortable.

Richard Beymer is quite attractive in this film though.

★★½ Watched by johnlease 17 Aug 2024

Jack Hawkins is a self-made man dragged by his wife to a summer residence he can't see the purpose of. He thinks the idea of getting their youngest child a tutor for the summer is perfectly ridiculous. His wife is forever arranging bridge parties, giving everyone instructions, and generally fussing about. Jack Hawkins is his usual reliable self here, but the set decoration is dull and the photography is flat. There is a good scene where Richard Beymer confronts Maximilian Schell with an analysis mocking his true motives. but altogether I don't think this one is quite worth the time.

★★★ Watched by Cybornut 04 Aug 2024

Very compelling film, unfortunately the ending removes a star and half. Everyone in this film needed to kiss and make-up (make-out), seriously… Rosalind Roussel is smoldering as always… wow

Watched by CHRISTOPHER REED 20 May 2024

★★ Watched by luci(an) 25 Jan 2024

philip and walter shouldve kissed it wouldve made them feel better!

★★★ Watched by antonwyzek 08 Jan 2024

Is it amazing? No. Do I think Richard Beymer gives an amazing performance? Yes.

★★ Added by Chambers Stevens

Not really interesting...

★★★ Watched by MyMovieRomance 22 Dec 2023

Older Rosalind Russell is the best! She's one of those people that got better with age. More charming, more attractive.

On another note, Philip is a brat, and Walter is a darling.

★★★½ Added by DN94

★½ Watched by Greg 27 Sep 2023

“Darling, darling, are you going to get intense?”

Take solace that a total of 71 people have logged this in, that’s about 71 too many.

Roz, all controlling and cougary, is playing to the back row of the theater. Hawkins, manbooby, blusters. Beymer, completely miscast and way out of his league, is dreadful (though the script is no help, as it tiptoes around the gay thing, except for that little monologue of I have an Indian friend, who has a…

★★½ Watched by Gregory Wood 23 Sep 2023

From Columbia/Sony comes a rickety drama directed by Daniel Mann It stars Rosalind Russell & Jack Hawkins both turning in great third act work in this one

★★★★ Watched by Kenny 10 Jul 2023

god i could watch Rosalind Russell act for hours and hours

before I forget, I need to mention how she walks into a record store in this movie, and right behind her head is an Auntie Mame vinyl with her name on the cover. Amazing. 

anyway, I love domestic dramas (which I’ve said before), and this was well acted, emotional experience- a great example of the genre. 

this movie had Rosalind, Richard Beymer, and Lana Wood- all folks with close…

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Daniel Mann – Five Finger Exercise (1962)

Plot Synopsis by Mark Deming A distinguished cast highlights this film adaptation of a stage drama by Peter Shaffer. Stanley Harrington (Jack Hawkins) is a self-made businessman incapable of expressing his emotions or compromising with others; his wife Louise (Rosalind Russell) imagines herself an intellectual, though her intelligence is more of an affectation than a reality. Stanley and Louise hire Walter (Maximilian Schell), a teacher from Germany, as a tutor for their two teenage children, effeminate Philip (Richard Beymer) and high-strung Pamela (Annette Gorman). Walter tries to ingratiate himself with the family, with little success; when he tries to get to know Louise better, she imagines that he’s fallen in love with her, and she’s deeply hurt when he confesses that he instead sees her as a motherly figure. Walter is eventually driven to the brink of suicide, which forces the family to reconsider their attitudes toward Walter and each other.

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• George Sherman – Tomahawk (1951) September 9, 2019

Five Finger Exercise

Frederick Brisson, who transplanted this 1958 London stage hit to Broadway in 1959, has transplanted it into the more taxing idiom of the screen. It appears that something has been misplaced in the translation, as adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and directed by Daniel Mann.

By Variety Staff

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For one thing, the trimming to 108 minutes apparently has taken its toll of both characterization and plot. Furthermore, although there are two solid performances by Rosalind Russell and Jack Hawkins, there are three equally weak ones by Maximilian Schell, Richard Beymer and Annette Gorman.

The title refers to the significance of five fingers operating in co-ordination to create harmonious music, as in a piano study for beginners. The thoroughly unco-ordinated ‘five fingers’ in this family melodrama, reset in California from the original England, are an uncultured, intolerant, self-made businessman-father (Hawkins), a culture-obsessed, pseudo-intellectual mother (Russell), a confused, educated, ‘mama’s boy’ son (Beymer), an animated, high-spirited daughter (Gorman), and a young German refugee (Schell), who has been employed by the family as tutor, and yearns to become a permanent part of it.

• Production: Columbia. Director Daniel Mann; Producer Frederick Brisson; Screenplay Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett; Camera Harry Stradling; Editor William A. Lyon; Music Jerome Moross; Art Director Ross Bellah
• Crew: (B&W) Extract of a review from 1962. Running time: 108 MIN.
• With: Rosalind Russell Jack Hawkins Maximilian Schell Richard Beymer Annette Gorman Lana Wood

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Five Finger Exercise Reviews

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The arrival of a tutor (Maximilian Schell) changes the lives of a family ruled by a domineering woman (Rosalind Russell). Jack Hawkins, Richard Beymer. Pamela: Annette Gorman. Mary: Lana Wood. Adaptation of a good play misfires; plodding treatment, ineffective performances, slow pace. Directed by Daniel Mann.

A contrived melodrama adapted from a hit play, this film has Russell as the pseudointellectual mother, Hawkins as the unexpressive, intolerant, businessman father, Beymer as a mama's boy, and Gorman as the high-spirited daughter. This California family takes in a German refugee, Schell, as a tutor who tries to become part of the family but sees himself rebuffed at every turn. Russell is flattered by what she mistakenly interprets as the young man's infatuation for her. When she realizes that Schell regards her as a mother figure, she is offended and shows it. Feeling increasingly alienated, the German tries to take his life, an action whose impact on the family brings everyone together.

Five Finger Exercise (1962)

Directed by daniel mann.

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Description by Wikipedia

Five Finger Exercise [sic] is a 1962 American drama film directed by Daniel Mann and produced by Frederick Brisson from a screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett based on the play by Peter Shaffer. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

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Five finger exercise.

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The hit Broadway drama by Peter Shaffer (Amadeus) is vividly brought to the screen by director Daniel Mann (The Rose Tattoo) and screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (It’s A Wonderful Life). The inimitable Rosalind Russell tears into the role of a wealthy Bay Area matriarch whose already shaky relations with her family — including her henpecked husband (Jack Hawkins, Lawrence of Arabia) and “sensitive” son (Richard Beymer, West Side Story) — are further strained when they take in a handsome music tutor (Academy Award®-winner Maximilian Schell; 1961, Best Actor, Judgment at Nuremberg), who has one or two secrets of his own. Russell’s real-life husband, Frederick Brisson, produced both the stage and film versions of this gripping tale, considered extremely daring for its time. Newly remastered.

© 1962, renewed 1990 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2024 Sony Pictures Digital Productions Inc.   All rights reserved

Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.

A long-married couple are at war with each other and with their teenage son and daughter. The presence of a handsome young tutor complicates and sensitizes the savage domestic tensions which arise as the secret emotions of members of the family are shockingly revealed.

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