Peter Glenville was a fine stage director but he didn't seem to possess the temperament for cinema and consequently the films he made remain in large part actor's pieces but not much else. With this screen version of Graham Greene's "The Comedians", shot in Panavision and on location in the Caribbean, he had the opportunity to branch out and make something expansive and yet the film is dull and sluggish, unforgivably so since it is set in Haiti during the time of Papa Doc and should, at least, have had a sense of danger. Also the casting of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor was an obvious mistake; they are clearly performing in 'movie star' mode and are in need of a better director and better dialogue. Despite being written by the author himself the film has the stilted ring of a soap opera.
The supporting cast, on the other hand, do go some way in trying to redeem the film. Alec Guinness is a superbly seedy Major Jones, Peter Ustinov a nicely pathetic cuckold and Paul Ford and Lillian Gish are excellent as the naive Smiths, pedaling their creed of vegetarianism. There's also fine work in smaller roles from Roscoe Lee Brown, Raymond St. Jacques, Zakes Mokae and a young James Earl Jones but in the end even the cast can't save the film which amounts to a series of missed opportunities and it just drags along for its 150 minute running time. Perhaps it really needed a Carol Reed to do it justice.
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