Great Catherine (film)

Great Catherine is a 1968 British comedy film directed by Gordon Flemyng, based on a one act play by George Bernard Shaw, and starring Peter OToole, Zero Mostel, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Hawkins. Like the play, it is loosely based on the story of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams and his time spent as an envoy at the Russian court.

TV Guide wrote, They waited 55 years to make it Shaws play into a film and would have been well advised to wait another 55 years. What a mishmash...Mostel, unless held in check, always overacts, and this is a prime example of a stage actor, accustomed to having to play big for the people in the last row, overdoing things for the closeup camera whereas The New York Times wrote, GREAT CATHERINE has a great clown named Zero Mostel...the glorious hamming of the portly American makes the picture...Surely Mr. Mostels antics would have won the playwrights approval...The story, Braced immeasurably by the Shavian lines, as arranged by the scenarist, Hugh Leonard, and stylishly piloted by the director, Gordon Flemyng, the picture is also beautiful in its lavish dcor, costumes and color photography.

Source: Wikipedia