View source for Secret Ceremony

{{Short description|1968 film by Joseph Losey}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Secret Ceremony
| image          = SecretCeremony'68.jph.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Joseph Losey]]
| screenplay     = [[George Tabori]]
| based_on       = {{Based on|''Ceremonia secreta''|[[Marco Denevi]]}}
| producer       = {{unbulleted list|John Heyman|[[Norman Priggen]]}}
| starring       = {{plainlist|
* [[Elizabeth Taylor]]
* [[Mia Farrow]]
* [[Robert Mitchum]]
}}
| cinematography = [[Gerry Fisher]]
| editing        = [[Reginald Beck]]
| music          = [[Richard Rodney Bennett]]
| studio         = World Film Services
| distributor    = [[Universal Pictures]]
| released       = {{film date|df=y|1968|10|23|United States|1969|6|19|London}}
| runtime        = 109 minutes
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| budget         = $2.5 million{{sfn|Walker|1974|p=345}}–$3.1 million{{sfn|Caute|1994|p=222}}
| gross          = $5.2 million{{sfn|Caute|1994|p=222}}
}}
'''''Secret Ceremony''''' is a 1968 British [[psychological thriller]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/joseph-loseys-secret-ceremony-5-21-22/|publisher=[[American Cinematheque]]|title=Joseph Losey's Secret Ceremony|date=May 2022|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520101749/https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/joseph-loseys-secret-ceremony-5-21-22/|archive-date=20 May 2022}}</ref> film directed by [[Joseph Losey]] and starring [[Elizabeth Taylor]], [[Mia Farrow]] and [[Robert Mitchum]].<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=Secret Ceremony |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150053767 |access-date=18 February 2024 |publisher=[[British Film Institute]]}}</ref>{{sfn|Palmer|Riley|1993|p=162}}{{sfn|Hirsch|1980|p=240}} Based on the 1960 novel ''Ceremonia secreta'' by Argentine author [[Marco Denevi]], the film follows an indigent prostitute who meets a strange young girl who insists that she is her long-lost mother.

==Plot==
Leonora, a middle-aged prostitute, is despondent over the death of her daughter. Cenci, a lonely young woman, follows Leonora to the cemetery and strikes up a conversation with her, inviting Leonora to her home. Leonora is struck by the likeness between Cenci and her late daughter.

A resemblance of Leonora to Cenci's late mother becomes obvious once Leonora notices a portrait. Cenci, who is 22 but looks and acts much younger, asks Leonora to stay. A lie is told to her aunts, Hilda and Hannah, that Leonora is actually Cenci's late mother's cousin.

Cenci is found one day cowering under a table. Albert, her stepfather, has paid a visit. Cenci is terrified of him, claiming that Albert had raped her. Leonora is repelled by the man's presence until Albert tells her that Cenci is mentally unstable and had repeatedly tried to seduce him.

On a beach one day, Cenci and Albert have sexual relations. A despondent Cenci commits suicide. At the funeral, Leonora now knows whom she chooses to believe. After standing beside Albert in silence during the burial, Leonora produces a knife and stabs him.

The film ends with Leonora lying in the bedroom of her apartment, listlessly hitting the cord of a ceiling lamp while reciting a poem about perseverance.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[Elizabeth Taylor]] as Leonora
* [[Mia Farrow]] as Cenci
* [[Robert Mitchum]] as Albert
* [[Peggy Ashcroft]] as Hannah
* [[Pamela Brown (actress)|Pamela Brown]] as Hilda
* [[Robert Douglas (actor)|Robert Douglas]] as Sir Alex Gordon
* George Howell as first cleaner
* [[Penelope Keith]] as hotel assistant
* [[Roger Lloyd Pack]] as cleaner
* [[Angus MacKay (actor)|Angus MacKay]] as vicar
* [[Michael Strong]] as Dr. Walter Stevens
}}

==Production==
===Development===
The short story on which the film is based won a $5,000 prize in a competition run by ''Life en Español''. It had already been filmed for Argentine television when it was optioned in 1963 by [[Dore Schary]].<ref>{{Cite news|author=Weiler A. H.|author-link=A. H. Weiler|title=Local Views: 'Odd' Sale: Paramount Acquires Neil Simon Play—Schary 'Ceremony'—New Team|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=15 December 1963|page=123}}</ref>

In an October 1969 interview with [[Roger Ebert]], Mitchum claimed that the film's production was "in trouble" when he arrived and that his presence did not help.<ref name="Mitchum/Ebert">{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Robert Mitchum: My heart flies where the wild goose flies |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/robert-mitchum-my-heart-flies-where-the-wild-goose-flies |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=2 October 1969 |via=[[RogerEbert.com]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241006070730/https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/robert-mitchum-my-heart-flies-where-the-wild-goose-flies|archive-date=6 October 2024|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Filming===
The production budget for ''Secret Ceremony'' was between $2,450,000{{sfn|Walker|1974|p=345}} and $3,173,212.{{sfn|Caute|1994|p=222}} The main location for the film was [[Debenham House]] in London. Other London locations were [[St Mary Magdalene, Paddington|St Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington]], the area around the Molyneux Monument in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]] and the junction of Chepstow Road and St Stephen's Mews in Paddington.<ref name=Reelstreets>{{cite web|url=https://www.reelstreets.com/films/secret-ceremony|title=Secret Ceremony|work=ReelStreets|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128061442/https://www.reelstreets.com/films/secret-ceremony/|archive-date=28 January 2025|url-status=live}}</ref> The hotel and beach scenes were shot around the [[Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin]] in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.<ref name=Reelstreets /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.filmkuratorium.de/walks/secret-ceremony-1968|title=Movie-Walks: Secret Ceremony (1968)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241206180341/https://www.filmkuratorium.de/walks/secret-ceremony-1968/|url-status=live|archive-date=6 December 2024|work=Filmkuratorium|language=de}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="120">
File:Debenham House (35482927182).jpg|Debenham House
File:St Mary Magdalene's Church, Warwick Estate, Paddington, London W2 - geograph.org.uk - 297563.jpg|St Mary Magdalene Church
File:Monument to the Molyneux Family.jpg|Kensal Green Cemetery
File:Chepstow Road, London W2 Geograph-1916059-by-Derek-Harper.jpg|Chepstow Road corner shop
File:Huis ter Duin, Noordwijk (ca. 1930).jpg|Hotel Huis ter Duin as it looked at the time
</gallery>

==Release==
[[File:Secret Ceremony ad - 23 Oct 1968.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Theatrical advertisement from 1968]]
''Secret Ceremony'' was released theatrically in the United States by [[Universal Pictures]] on 23 October 1968.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]]|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/89407/secret-ceremony#overview|title=Secret Ceremony (1968) – Overview|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601180118/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/89407/Secret-Ceremony/#overview|archive-date=1 June 2016}}</ref> It premiered in London the following year on 19 June 1969.<ref name=Walker>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-standard/168682509/|newspaper=[[Evening Standard]]|title=How to deal with Liz—and Mia|last=Walker|first=Alexander|date=17 June 1969|page=11|via=Newspapers.com|author-link=Alexander Walker (critic)}}</ref>

===Home media===
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released ''Secret Ceremony'' on [[VHS]] on 31 October 2000 as part of their Universal Treasures line.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Ceremony-VHS-Elizabeth-Taylor/dp/B00004W46K|website=[[Amazon (company)|Amazon]]|title=Secret Ceremony [VHS]|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250324014528/https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Ceremony-VHS-Elizabeth-Taylor/dp/B00004W46K|archive-date=24 March 2025|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Kino Lorber]] issued a North American [[Blu-ray]] edition of the film on 21 April 2020.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review-joseph-losey-secret-ceremony-on-kino-lorber-blu-ray/|website=[[Slant Magazine]]|title=Review: Joseph Losey's Secret Ceremony on Kino Lorber Blu-ray|date=18 April 2020|last=Smith|first=Derek|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122214714/https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review-joseph-losey-secret-ceremony-on-kino-lorber-blu-ray/|archive-date=22 November 2022|url-status=live}}</ref> The British distributor Powerhouse Films subsequently released a Blu-ray in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Powerhouse Films|title= Secret Ceremony - BD|url=https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/secret-ceremony-bd?srsltid=AfmBOoo1biHseVttynb5G7WUkQlP8IDiKLDj9HV1GbfI_EaM1veIsUta|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250324013640/https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/secret-ceremony-bd?srsltid=AfmBOoo1biHseVttynb5G7WUkQlP8IDiKLDj9HV1GbfI_EaM1veIsUta|archive-date=24 March 2025}}</ref>

==Reception==
===Box office===
The film earned approximately $3 million in United States and Canadian rentals,<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Big Rental Films of 1969|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=7 January 1970|page=15}}</ref> with a worldwide total gross of $5,232,905.{{sfn|Caute|1994|p=222}}

===Critical response===
''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' wrote: "''Secret Ceremony'' is constructed on the dualist view of man as a battleground for the twin aspirations of Good and Evil. Appropriately, in view of its schizophrenic theme, two is the film's magic number: two mothers and two daughters, two aunts, two fathers, two funerals, two baptisms (one actual, one metaphorical when Leonora accepts Cenci as her daughter), and above all, two temples of communion.&nbsp;... In many ways, notably in its insidious illumination of the fascination of madness, ''Secret Ceremony'' reminds one of ''[[Lilith (film)|Lilith]]'' [1964], but the style is entirely Losey's own, a return to the crystalline ellipses of ''[[Accident (1967 film)|Accident]]'' [1967] after the opulent undulations of ''[[Boom! (1968 film)|Boom!]]'' [1968], and with superb, unexpectedly funny characterisations by the entire cast."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1969 |title=Secret Ceremony |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305831011 |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=36 |issue=420 |pages=142 |id={{ProQuest|1305831011}} }}</ref>

[[Renata Adler]] in the ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' wrote that it was "incomparably better" than its predecessor, ''Accident'', and that beneath its "elaborate fetishism and dragging prose, there is a touching story of people not helping enough," but she admitted that the film had its "longueurs, but not beyond endurance."<ref name="Adler NYT">{{cite news |last=Adler |first=Renata |title=Screen: 'Secret Ceremony,' Directed by Joseph Losey, Opens |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/10/24/archives/screen-secret-ceremony-directed-by-joseph-losey-openselizabeth.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241127211352/https://www.nytimes.com/1968/10/24/archives/screen-secret-ceremony-directed-by-joseph-losey-openselizabeth.html|archive-date=27 November 2024|url-status=live |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=26 October 1968}}</ref>

[[Ernest Callenbach]] of ''[[Film Quarterly]]'' wrote it was "difficult to guess" what the film was about, but felt that its "dominant note, if there is one, is of Losey's usual creepy, misanthropic disgust with sex and how people misuse each other to get it." He also praised Mia Farrow's "touching and perverse and human" performance.<ref name="Callenbach">{{cite journal |last=Callenbach |first=Ernest |title=Review: Secret Ceremony |date=1 April 1969 |volume=22 |issue=3 |page=64 |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article-abstract/22/3/64/38607/Review-Secret-Ceremony?redirectedFrom=PDF |journal=[[Film Quarterly]] |access-date=27 November 2022}}</ref>

===Modern appraisal===
Writing 30 years later after its release, John Patterson of ''[[The Guardian]]'' listed ''Secret Ceremony'' among the Losey films he dismissed as "woefully misguided material."<ref name="Patterson">{{cite news |last=Patterson |first=John |title=Why the new Joseph Losey box-set is a treasure |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/1 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=24 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241127192206/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/1|archive-date=27 November 2024|url-status=live}}</ref>

Dave Kehr of the ''[[Chicago Reader]]'' lambasted the film as embodying the director's "worst tendencies as a filmmaker: the movie is cold without being chilling, confusing without being challenging."<ref name="Kehr">{{cite news |last=Kehr |first=Dave |title=Secret Ceremony |url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/secret-ceremony/Film?oid=5623356 | newspaper=[[Chicago Reader]] |date=13 February 2012 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201105185231/https://chicagoreader.com/chicago/secret-ceremony/Film?oid=5623356|archive-date=5 November 2020}}</ref>

''The [[Radio Times]] Guide to Films'' gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "This moody mistaken-identity melodrama quickly becomes a macabre muddle of daft sexual psychosis and suspect psychology when nympho Mia Farrow adopts prostitute Elizabeth Taylor as her surrogate mother after a meeting on a London bus. The return of Farrow's stepfather Robert Mitchum provides this meandering morsel of [[Swinging Sixties]] gothic with a suitably off-the-wall climax.<ref name=Callahan/>{{sfn|Norman|2017|p=814}}

[[Dan Callahan]] at ''[[Senses of Cinema]]'' suggests that ''Secret Ceremony''{{'}}s failures may serve as its virtues, comparing the film favorably to ''[[Some Like It Hot]]'' (1959) or ''[[Duck Soup (1933 film)|Duck Soup]]'' (1933).<ref name=Callahan>{{cite magazine|last=Callahan|first=Dan|author-link=Dan Callahan|date=March 2003|title=Losey, Joseph|magazine=[[Senses of Cinema]]|issue=Great Directors Issue 25|url=https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/losey/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211221223730/https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/losey/|archive-date=21 December 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

Callahan writes:

{{blockquote|''Secret Ceremony'' is a film that is so bad, so irredeemably, lovably foolish, that it provides the sort of life-embracing laughs many comedies fail to engender…Is there room to include such a film among a great director's great works? Unless we are unnecessarily stuffy, which would miss the point of his career entirely, the answer has to be yes.<ref name=Callahan/>}}

[[Leslie Halliwell]] offers this concise critique: "Nuthouse melodrama for devotees of the director."{{sfn|Halliwell|1989|p=894}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|30em}}
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/josephloseyreven00caut/page/6/mode/1up?q=budget| title=Joseph Losey: A Revenge on Life|isbn=978-0-195-06410-0 |last=Caute|first= David|year=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England}} 
*{{cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0586088946 |edition=7th |location=London}}
*{{cite book|last=Hirsch|first=Foster|author-link=Foster Hirsch|year=1980|title=Joseph Losey|publisher=[[Twayne Publishers]]|location=Boston, Massachusetts|isbn=0-8057-9257-0}}
*{{cite book|last=Norman|first=Barry |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=[[Immediate Media Company]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-992-93644-0 |edition=18th |location=London}} 
*{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=James|last2=Riley|first2=Michael|author2-link=Michael Riley|year=1993|title=The Films of Joseph Losey|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=0-521-38386-2}}
*{{cite book|last=Walker|first=Alexander|year=1974|title=Hollywood UK: The British Film Industry in the Sixties|isbn=978-0-812-81549-8|publisher=Stein and Day|location=New York City, New York}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Secret Ceremony (1968 film)}}
* {{IMDb title}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20191013183919/https://www.allmovie.com/movie/secret-ceremony-v43446 ''Secret Ceremony''] at [[AllMovie]]
* {{Letterboxd film}}
* [https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150053767 ''Secret Ceremony''] at the [[British Film Institute]]
* {{TCMDb title}}

{{Joseph Losey}}

[[Category:1968 films]]
[[Category:1968 thriller films]]
[[Category:1960s British films]]
[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
[[Category:British psychological thriller films]]
[[Category:English-language thriller films]]
[[Category:Films about prostitution in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Films based on Argentine novels]]
[[Category:Films directed by Joseph Losey]]
[[Category:Films scored by Richard Rodney Bennett]]
[[Category:Films set in London]]
[[Category:Films shot at Associated British Studios]]
[[Category:Universal Pictures films]]