Leo the Last (1970) – Nostalgia Central

Marcello Mastroianni starred in his first film role in English (he couldn’t speak any English and learned his lines phonetically) as Leo, an exiled European prince and the last in the line for the throne of a country that no longer exists.

After the death of his father, he travels to his father’s posh Georgian mansion in London, the only pristine house on a street of darkened terraced houses in a slum area of Notting Hill.

Leo is joined by his predatory mistress Margaret (Billie Whitelaw) and surrounded by a staff of manipulative sycophants, including a smooth socialite doctor-in-residence (David de Keyser), shady lawyer Max (Graham Crowden), his deaf old nanny (Gwen Ffrangcon Davies) who still treats him like a child, and his sinister Chief of Staff, Laszlo (Vladek Sheybal), who stores guns and bombs in the house’s basement and dreams taking back the homeland with a small band of loyalists.

Bored and unfulfilled, Leo spends his days birdwatching from his room. While pursuing his hobby, he begins voyeuristically watching the world outside through his telescope.

He is touched by the misery of his neighbours and drawn into the world of a poor black immigrant family – Mr and Mrs Madi (Thomas Bucson and Tina Solomon) and their children, including Salambo (Glenna Forster-Jones) and her boyfriend Roscoe (Calvin Lockhart).

When Salambo is raped by a porcine white bully named Kowalski (Kenneth Warren), Roscoe retaliates violently and is arrested by the police. Left without her protector, Salambo is forced into prostitution by the prancing street pimp Jasper (Keefe West).

Driven to do something to help the Madi family, Leo initially proves quite inept at the art of altruism. In one case, he literally kills with kindness when he sends the family a bunch of food and drink, leading to Salambo’s father dying of a heart attack.

Leo eventually discovers that his father owned the entire street and made his fortune from the rents collected from the exploited tenants of the neighbourhood, inspiring him to turn his back on his retinue of advisors, gift the houses to the tenants and lead a guerilla attack on his own home, which is consumed by fire.

“Well, you didn’t change the world, did you?” Roscoe remarks afterwards. “No, but we changed our street,” Leo replies.

The camera work is excellent, and there are some nice comedic moments from Mastroianni, but the movie is over-simplified, portraying the blacks as near-savages and the whites as another kind of barbarian, like the bored rich who stuff their gullets with food at one of Leo’s parties while outside his neighbours are starving (Salambo and Roscoe cause a distraction at a local shop to steal a chicken).

Location shooting took place on and around Hurstway Street, Testerton Street and Blechynden Street in West London, where whole rows of terrace houses were being demolished to make way for new tower blocks which would become the Lancaster West Estate – where the infamous Grenfell Tower now stands.

Five weeks before filming began teams of construction workers and painters moved into the area. Working from 65-foot high hydraulic platforms, they sprayed the terrace houses and streets with over a thousand gallons of black paint. There were 40,000 square feet of roadway alone to be covered.

Broken windows were improved artistically, and Victorian lamposts were substituted for the existing modern ones.

Shops were changed into those needed for the story and duly stocked with scrap metal, old clothes and fish-frying equipment.

One whole corner of a block was demolished to give a clear sight-line from Leo’s house to the Madi home and to make a clearing for a bonfire that would be built during the action.

But the central part of the construction work was converting the three main terrace houses at the end of the cul-de-sac into a residence where an Archduke might have once lived in exile.

After 300 tons of rubble were removed, 100,000 feet of timber went into reflooring the building and constructing a sweeping double staircase: 10 tons of plaster were used for cornices, columns and pediments, and the entire building was rewired.

The result was a highly malleable set, with the added plus of the actual houses surrounding it, with their gritty quality of a genuine slum that had taken many years to mature.

By the time it was completed, £19,000 was spent on building the house alone, which was indeed a classical pediment and portico – sadly destined to be exploded in the film’s finale.

In scenes set in the Bramley Arms, the pub which served as the local for the street’s residents, and in a supermarket, the art department had the near-impossible task of removing all colour from the goods and bottles on display.

They finally achieved overall black and grey and white settings, defeated only by the yellow of the yolks in the eggs thrown by the rioting women in the market.

Two weeks before shooting on the film was scheduled to end, the whole production was jeopardised when Leo’s residence caught fire one day during the lunch break.

The flames tore through the three floors of the house in a matter of minutes, and one whole side was destroyed, completely gutting the first floor, which included Leo’s bedroom and bathroom, as well as part of the roof.

It cost the company £50,000 in repairs, replacement of furniture and props, and extra salaries for the stars and technicians because of the additional time needed for filming.

The irony of the situation was that two weeks later, after five nights of all-night shooting, the same building was purposely set on fire.

The naked “water therapy” pool scenes were filmed at the Kensington Baths.

The film earned John Boorman the Best Director Award at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.

Leo
Marcello Mastroianni
Margaret
Billie Whitelaw
Roscoe
Calvin Lockhart
Salambo
Glenna Forster-Jones
Max
Graham Crowden
Hilda
Gwen Ffrangcon Davies
David
David de Keyser
Laszlo
Vladek Sheybal
Jasper
Keefe West
Kowalski
Kenneth J. Warren
Mrs Kowalski
Patsy Smart
Black Preacher
Ram John Holder
Mr Madi
Thomas Bucson
Mrs Madi
Tina Solomon
Bip
Brinsley Forde
Madi Child
Robert Redman
Madi Child
Malcolm Redman
Madi Child
Robert Kennedy
Blonde Whore
Phyllis MacMahon
Black Whore
Princess Patience
Jasper’s Bodyguards
Bernard Boston
Roy Stewart
Wailing Lady
Lucita Lijertwood
Supermarket Manager
Ishaq Bux
Singing Lady
Doris Clark

Director
John Boorman