Directed and produced by Blake Edwards, who co-wrote the story with William Peter Blatty, I would hardly classify this unique film as a Musical, but I do agree that it's difficult to nail down to a single category.Yes, Edwards's wife Julie Andrews is its star and she does sing a number of songs, but the plot is more espionage, with a corresponding romance, during World War I, than anything else. Plus, though it does contain the director's humorous touches not unlike those seen in his Pink Panther movies, the overall tone is quite a bit more serious.The film, which received Academy Award nominations for its Costume Design, Score, and the Henri Mancini-Johnny Mercer Original Song "Whistling in the Dark", bombed at the box office which may be the reason Ms. Andrews didn't make another one until The Tamarind Seed (1974).Andrews plays Lili Smith, aka Schmidt, a German spy who's well known as a patriotic British singer in Paris during the war. Smith was actually born in the "motherland", but raised since she was 10 in London. Her controller, and lover, is German Colonel Kurt Von Ruger (Jeremy Kemp), who works for General Kessler (Carl Duering), who's not sure he trusts the Londoner. Her latest assignment involves seducing an American flight commander, Major William Larrabee (Rock Hudson), to learn his squadron's plans. Larrabee's biplanes have had regular aerial conflicts with their German counterparts, one of which is the notorious ace Baron von Richtofen (Ingo Mogendorf), aka The Red Baron. These dogfights sequences are pretty good, though they do consume a lot of screen- time. It's at that point during World War I when these so called "silly little planes" have become strategic weapons, particularly for the Allies, while the Germans are still using Zeppelins for their bombing raids. Hence, Lili's assignment is to get information from Larrabee, whom she calls Bill.During the course of the film, Andrews's character sings many songs: when performing one night at a theater, she engages the frightened (by a German bombing run) London crowd into singing a rousing rendition of "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile"; she even gets some British soldiers to join her on stage. Another time, she sings at a hospital for some injured soldiers. A young lieutenant (Michael Witney) gets Lili to sing "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" in a Paris restaurant. The French even bestow upon her a "medal of freedom"-type honor for her patriotic deeds. It's safe to say that Lili is beyond reproach. In fact, two French secret service agents (Jacques Marin & André Maranne) actually ask for her assistance in their investigation of Major Larrabee as a possible spy! Herein lies most of the comic relief, since these two characters are a milder version of Inspector Clouseau; one of these actors (Maranne) was a Pink Panther series regular. The other slapstick scenes involve one of Larrabee's squadron members, dubbed T. C. (Lance Percival), who's mostly in a drunken haze.Director Edwards chose to show the romance develop between Lili and Bill with largely wordless scenes (e.g. the two walk in the park holding hands while one hears only the film's score). It becomes clear that Lili has let her personal feelings affect her professional judgment. For instance, there is an important bit of information that Lili must extract from Bill, about an operation called Crepe Suzette. But, based on some information that Lili receives from Colonel Von Ruger, she suspects that Bill is two- timing her with a Paris striptease artist also named Crepe Suzette (Gloria Paul). The scene in which Lili witnesses Suzette perform is both sexy and funny, and prompts Lili into exhibiting herself during her next on-stage performance. There is a painfully long scene at a French château, during the rain no less, where Lili and Bill have escaped for a romantic weekend. Von Ruger turns up to give Lili some vital information while the French agents, Maj. Duvalle (Marin) and Lt. Liggett (Maranne), are also there to spy on the couple. After a falling out between the lovers, followed by some extended action sequences, everything works out fairly predictably in the end.Bernard Kay and Doreen play Lili's butler and maid, respectively, who are also part of the spy team; Vernon Dobtcheff plays an assassin who works for Kessler.

Darling Lili may have been a major flop at the time, but to me it is not a bad film. Not great, uneven is a good way to describe it, but it is much better than its reputation. It is overlong, the comedy/slapstick scenes at times feel out of place and compared to the other themes that make up the film at odds with the rest of the film, the film can get muddled, the film can drag and Rock Hudson while likable is rather stiff- compared to his usual performances- and doesn't have the strongest of chemistrys with Julie Andrews(though not without its moments). Julie Andrews though is great though, her acting and presence are charming and she as ever sings like an angel. Lance Percival shines also in possibly his best film role and one of his best performances. The film looks gorgeous, the highlights being the marvellously shot aerial dogfight sequences and the visuals that accompany the song Whistling Away the Dark. The music is distinctive Henry Mancini, it fits the film adeptly and is a very memorable score and one you can re-visit more than once. Much has been said about the hauntingly beautiful Whistling Away the Dark, how Andrews sings it(like an angel and with so much nuance and emotion) and how it's staged and for good reason, simply put it's a beautiful song that is beautifully sung and beautifully staged. The script and the story aren't great but they're not disastrous either. The script is intelligent with some snappy moments, it didn't feel that talky, and the story at least has some entertainment value despite moments being muddled and the spy thriller, drama and musical themes being far more convincing than the comedy and romance ones. Overall, uneven but Darling Lili a decent film and is much better than it's made out to be, though it's somewhat easy to see why it was a flop. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I found this at a DVD sale and I'd never heard of this movie before. The description on the DVD case sounded fun and pacey - what a fallacy! After a very arresting opening scene, the movie devolves into the most wet and infantile romance story with no rhyme or reason to its plot and more montage sequences than you can poke a stick at. Neither Andrews or Hudson have more than a dozen lines in the first hour and when they finally do get any dialogue of significance you're past the point where you care to hear it. Andrews' songs are all identical (with the exception of an inexplicable strip sequence towards the middle) and while she is, as usual, vocally flawless, she is completely disconnected to her material and her co-stars. Hudson has no capacity opposite her to appear the powerful leading man he had in past movies. A minor amount of comic relief is offered with some stock Blake Edwards material - two bumbling French inspectors and a drunken flight captain. Beyond that this movie is badly put together, horrendously developed, badly scored (the same endlessly sappy violin riff throughout) and poorly costumed with little attention to detail or to period. Andrews looks sterile throughout, firing up a few times for some fight scenes that fall flat for the simple reason that they, like every other plot point in this movie, are given little to no background. The aerial dog-fighting sequences are very grandly shot but have no stakes whatsoever rendering them a pointless distraction. Edwards later claimed the studio interfered a great deal with this movie in development - honestly I don't buy it. This plot was rotten to the core. Having seen the full 133 minute cut I can well understand why a lot of editing went on. ANYTHING to make this dog have some pace or punch!

It really is a great film (after being able to ignore Blake Edwards Pink Panther references which he appears to be obsessed with and are hugely unfunny). Julie is, as usual, wonderful - singing and acting brilliantly. I remember seeing it at the Odeon Cinema in the Haymarket, London on its release. However Julie's non-appearance at the UK premiere of STAR! was most unfortunate and (apparently!) due to filming the aerial shots for Darling Lili over Ireland. A reasonable excuse if she had appeared in any of these aerial shots but she did not. Two box office flops in a row ruined her film career for quite a few years. But Darling Lili,just like STAR!, deserves much more public appreciation.