From the very beginning Sally Bowles reminds us of Holly Golightly, from the very format, a struggling writer thrown into contact with a one-off eccentric and outrageous young girl, culminating in the key scene, a 'wild' party peopled by Rent-A-Kooks and the fact remains that Isherwood got there a full two decades before fellow gay writer Capote. As if to emphasize the plagiarism both source materials went through several formats; Isherwoods novel (Goodbye To Berlin) became in turn a stage play (I Am A Camera) by John Van Druten, which in turn became a film (this one) and subsequently a stage musical (Cabaret) which was also filmed, whilst Capote's novella (Breakfast at Tiffaney's) became a film and later a stage musical retaining in each manifestation the original title. Laurence Harvey, a leading graduate of the Forestry Commission School of Acting does his alma mater proud with his interpretation of a tree in the terminal stages of Dutch Elm Disease whilst a badly miscast Shelley Winters appears to think she's playing in The Playboy Of The Western World On Ice. Only Julie Harris, reprising her award-winning performance on the New York stage seems to have any idea of what is going on. One to miss.
Review of I Am a Camera
