Struggling actor William McFly is hired by wealthy eccentric Cecil Fox to play his personal secretary for a "practical joke." Pretending to be on his deathbed, Fox invites three former lovers to his Venetianpalazzo for a final visit: penniless Princess Dominique, fading movie star Merle McGill, and Texas millionairess Lone Star Crockett Sheridan. Accompanying Mrs. Sheridan is her nurse, Sarah Watkins. Each of the women brings Fox a valuable timepiece as a present: Sheridan’s, an elaborate porcelain antique; McGill's, a large quartz block with clock faces telling global time; and the princess’ gift, an heirloom hourglass reputedly filled with precious gold powder. McFly soon recognizes that the premise of the “practical joke” is based on the plot of Ben Johnson’s 17th century theater classic Volpone, in which a swindler poses as a dying man to dupe three men who aspire to inherit his fortune, each bearing luxurious gifts. A former law student, McFly begins to suspect the motives behind the “practical joke” and to question how his role may incur legal liability.
The three women warily size each other up. Sheridan boldly announces that the others might as well go home, as she is Fox's common-law wife, and they can expect to inherit nothing. However, when Sarah returns from a late-night date with McFly—during which McFly left her alone at a restaurant for over an hour ostensibly to make an important phone inquiry—she finds Sheridan dead of an overdose of sleeping pills, an apparent suicide. Police Inspector Rizzi investigates.
Sarah knows that the pills Sheridan had been taking are placebos—harmless fakes. McFly has already revealed to Sarah that Fox is perpetrating a charade, and that the final joke is to be the reading of the will, empowering McFly to choose the heir. “Proof positive” are several quarters from Sheridan’s missing roll of change that Sarah found on searching McFly’s room. She therefore suspects him not only of being the murderer, but also plotting to kill Fox. When Sarah confronts McFly, he locks her in her room, telling her it is for her own safety. She manages to escape via a dumbwaiter and warns Fox, informing him that she has already confronted McFly. However, Fox's displeased reaction puzzles her. He sends her back to her room.
The next morning, Fox is found dead. McFly reveals that Fox killed Sheridan. The quarters Sarah found in McFly's room were taken by Fox—whose greed couldn’t resist even taking petty change—and had been lost to McFly during a poker game. Despite his fabulous palazzo, which was heavily mortgaged, Fox was broke. As Sheridan’s common-law husband, Fox plotted to inherit her immense fortune. Once McFly had figured it out (and more importantly, told Sarah), Fox realized he would be arrested for Sheridan’s murder and chose suicide. As a final disdainful act, Fox had shattered the timepieces given to him by the three women. The princess’s hourglass is found empty of its gold dust. Fox had taken out the centers of all the bonbons in a box of chocolates, filling them with the gold dust, and swallowed the hourglass’s entire contents. Rizzi is puzzled as to why Fox would have done this, and McFly suddenly realizes that Fox has found a way to “take a fortune with him” after death. The princess now announces that the contents of the hourglass—a mere facsimile of the original—was inexpensive pyrite, or “fool’s gold.” Unheard by the cast, Fox's spirit continues in the film as a voiceover and expresses resentment that the princess has cheapened his parting gesture.
Sarah "whimsically" asks McFly to write her name down in the will as the heir of Fox's "worthless" estate as a souvenir, with Rizzi signing as a witness. After McFly complies, an amused Rizzi compliments him on his "generosity"—while Fox may have been deeply in debt, Sheridan's estate is so vast, Sarah will still emerge an extremely wealthy woman. Sarah informs the indignant McFly that she will marry him and hand over the money once he resumes his law studies and becomes a lawyer. Fox’s spirit now expresses admiration for “the Anglo-Saxon woman” for "the larceny" Sarah serendipitously has managed to pull off.
It was originally called The Tale of the Fox[2] and, during production, Anyone for Venice?[3][4]
Production began in September 1965 and was edited in 1966. Cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo died during production and was replaced with Pasqualino De Santis[5] who refused to take credit.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 57% based on reviews from 7 critics.
Variety called The Honey Pot "a rich confection in every department" praising both cast and crew, but it found the film's pace too slow and wondered whether "its hark-back to the days when the turn of phrase and the tongue-in-cheek were a staple" would weaken its appeal for contemporary audiences who preferred "Bondian brashness" to Mankiewicz's "innuendo."[7]Boxoffice also criticized the film's length, but welcomed Mankiewicz's witty style, calling The Honey Pot "one of the most sophisticated and stylish pictures to come along in several seasons...Welcome back, Mr. Mankiewicz!"[8] British film critic Graham Clarke gave the film a favorable review in the Kinematograph Weekly, writing: "It is so full of cunningly contrived intricacies, of cynical, witty and serious dialogue and of boldly presented renaissance flamboyance."[9]
Home media
The Honey Pot was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on January 15, 2011, via its MGM MOD (manufacture-on-demand) service available through Amazon.
