The Honey Pot (1967)

Here’s the latest from The Magnificent 60s

Shave 20-30 minutes from this and you would have had a taut thriller. You could start with the number of clever dicks who happen to notice that what’s going on bears a close resemblance to a play Volpone by Shakespeare contemporary Ben Johnson, even down to the anglicizing of the names of those fictional characters. And prune the number of detectives, three is two too many especially when there’s an actual genuine detective in the mix. And the shock ending is just…well…mince.

Otherwise, quite fun in a way. Wealthy Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) hires sometime actor, sometime factotum, law graduate Marty McFly – oops William McFly – to help him pull off an elaborate joke, “people-baiting”, a modern version of “bear-beating” apparently. Fox pretends to be dying in order to bring three former lovers, all he presumes desperate to be named in his will, to his bedside in a grand palazzo in Venice. Upfront reason, some kind of revenge. Hidden reason, something darker obviously…

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The Magnificent 60s is a richly curated deep dive into one of cinema’s most transformative decades, guided by film historian Brian Hannan. The site blends sharp weekly reviews with detailed production histories, box‑office insights, and behind‑the‑scenes stories that illuminate how the 1960s reshaped filmmaking. Its archive is vast and meticulously organised, covering everything from spy thrillers and westerns to biopics, musicals, and contemporary films that echo the era’s sensibilities.