It’s a May-December romance in this neglected 70’s Brit-pic brought to DVD by Scorpion Releasing. Leonard Whiting (who dropped trou for Franco Zefferelli’s ROMEO AND JULIET) plays a carefree, unemployed young man who meets by chance a neglected forty-something housewife (the late Jean Simmons, BLACK NARCISSUS) on a train and spends the rest of the day wooing her all over London (he describes her as “Mata-Hari, Barbarella and Candy all rolled into one”). Will she give in to happiness or cave to convention and stay in her stale marriage to a stockbroker husband (John Lee).
Alvin Rakoff (DEATH SHIP) sensitively directs this potentially sappy but moving drama which is graced with typically attractive cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, GOODBYE GEMINI) and famed Italian composer Riz Ortolani jumps across the pond to provide a romantic score. Of course, with a title like SAY HELLO TO YESTERDAY, there’s a theme song (this one by Mark Wynter). Scorpion Releasing have brought the film to DVD in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer and an audio commentary by the director. See it with someone you love (who’s either twice or half your age).
