Honey Pot
A wealthy eccentric invites three former lovers to his Venetian palazzo for a final visit, pretending to be on his deathbed as part of a practical joke.
The Honey Pot, also known as The Honeypot, is a 1967 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It stars Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson, Capucine, Edie Adams, and Maggie Smith. The film was based on the play *Mr. Fox of Venice* by Frederick Knott, and loosely on the 1606 play *Volpone* by Ben Jonson.
- Runtime
- 131 minutes (theatrical release cut)
Lore & Background
The film's plot centers on struggling actor William McFly, hired by wealthy eccentric Cecil Fox to play his personal secretary for a practical joke. Fox invites three former lovers to his Venetian palazzo: penniless Princess Dominique, fading movie star Merle McGill, and Texas millionairess Lone Star Crockett Sheridan, who brings her nurse Sarah Watkins. Each woman 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's an heirloom hourglass reputedly filled with precious gold powder. McFly recognizes the premise is based on Ben Jonson's 17th century play *Volpone*, in which a swindler poses as a dying man to dupe three men aspiring to inherit his fortune. A former law student, McFly begins to suspect the motives behind the joke and questions his legal liability.
In Their Own Story
The three women warily size each other up. Sheridan boldly announces she is Fox's common-law wife, and the others can expect to inherit nothing. 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 the pills Sheridan had been taking are placebos—harmless fakes. McFly has revealed to Sarah that Fox is perpetrating a charade, and the final joke is to be the reading of the will, empowering McFly to choose the heir. Sarah finds several quarters from Sheridan's missing roll of change in McFly's room, suspecting him of murder and plotting to kill Fox. When Sarah confronts McFly, he locks her in her room, telling her it is for her own safety. She escapes via a dumbwaiter and warns Fox, but his displeased reaction puzzles her. The next morning, Fox is found dead. McFly reveals Fox killed Sheridan. The quarters Sarah found 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 figured it out and told Sarah, Fox realized he would be arrested for Sheridan's murder and chose suicide. As a final disdainful act, Fox shattered the timepieces. 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, and McFly realizes Fox found a way to take a fortune with him after death. The princess announces the hourglass's contents were inexpensive pyrite, or fool's gold. Fox's spirit continues as a voiceover, expressing resentment. 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, 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 managed to pull off.
Reader's Guide
The film was released in 1967. To understand the plot, note that the story is based on Ben Jonson's 1606 play Volpone. The film runs 150 minutes in its original cut, but Mankiewicz removed twenty minutes, including dream sequences, for the US release. The world premiere was in London on March 21, 1967. The New York premiere was at the Trans-Lux West on Broadway and 49th Street, which was remodeled for more than $150,000. The film was released to DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on January 15, 2011, via its MGM MOD service, and on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.
Did You Know?
- The film's original cut was over 150 minutes, longer than the 131-minute theatrical release.
- The film's first draft was over 600 pages and included a framing device of dream sequences for each major character, which Mankiewicz removed after United Artists and Charles K. Feldman found it too confusing.
- Rex Harrison's then-wife Rachel Roberts attempted suicide by overdosing on barbiturates after Mankiewicz turned her down for the role of Sarah Watkins in favor of Maggie Smith, though the direct link remains unconfirmed.
- Cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo died on February 3, 1966, from misdiagnosed hepatitis while the film was still in production.
- The film's original title during principal photography was *Anyone for Venice?*, not *The Honey Pot*.