CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : MONTE CARLO .. NEW WORLD TELEVISION .. USA 1986 ..

 

NEW WORLD TELEVISION

Presents

MONTE CARLO

Starring

JOAN COLLINS as Katrina Petrovna

GEORGE HAMILTON as Harry Price

LISA EILBACHER as Maggie Egan

LAUREN HUTTON as Evelyn McIntyre

ROBERT CARRADINE as Bobby Morgan

MALCOLM MCDOWELL as Christopher Quinn

PHILIP MADOC as Properi

LESLIE PHILLIPS as Baldwin

PETER VAUGHN as Pabst

Produced by Gerald W. Abrams

Executive Producer - Joan Collins

Based on the novel by Stephen Shepherd

Directed by Anthony Page

Monte Carlo, haven for the rich, the glamorous and the dangerous! The tempature rises even higher with the arrival of glamorous chanteuse Katrina Pertrovna. Beneath her sultry charms and her silken voice lies a dangerous double life and when she meets suave american writer Harry Price the heat rises! Acting as a double agent to obtain war secrets to pass on to British intelligence Katrina meets Harry who is in Monte Carlo looking for inspiration for his next novel. Together they engulf on a dangerous adventure, where the stakes are high and appearances can be deceiving..

After the success of 'Sins', CBS were eager to try and repeat that success with another glamorous miniseries starring Joan and they came up with 'Monte Carlo', based on a novel by Stephen Shephard. The one problem they did have was the fact in the book, the character of Katrina was only minor and it would defeat the purpose of a star vehicle for Joan, with little part to play. CBS then brought Emmy winning tv writer Peter Lefcourt to expand the character of Katrina and made her not only a celebrated Russian cabaret singer but also an English spy by combining two characters from the book.

Joan liked the idea and commented at the time..

'' I think it's an interesting story point, an extremely sophisticated, glamorous entertainer, a sort of Dietrich type, who's working for the allies.''

The network were not happy with the first draft of the scripts and after various rewrites it finally went to production and when it was finally in the can, CBS were eager to get it onto the screen.. Joan was not convinced the viewing public needed another dose of Joan Collins so soon and appealed to the network to postpone their intended air date as it had only been nine months since 'Sins' had aired. Apart from anything else the series was not properly scored and the editing labs were working around the clock.. Everything was been rushed through, with director Anthony Page dismayed that the show would not look the way it should and could with more time. But the network head Kim LeMasters was having none of it and was adament the show would air for the November sweepstakes. 

All Joan's fears were correct as the series was not as big a hit as 'Sins' and she felt it lacked the excitement and glamour. One interesting event that did happen occured on the evening of the tv premiere and Joan decided to host a party for thirty friends at her Hollywood home. Her series co-star George Hamilton was one of the guests and he asked Joan if he could bring a date who turned out to be Elizabeth Taylor! Joan liked Elizabeth as they had known each other for years, but it was widely known that Elizabeth was always late for engagements and Joan was afraid she would turn up when the show was already airing and after dinner! However she turned up in the nick of time, not wanting any dinner but a cigarette, which was fine with Joan for the fact that Elizabeth all glamourised down to her acryllic nails. Whilst lighting her cigarette she managed to set one of them alight, after a dowsing from George's drink, Elizabeth was fire free and after a repair job in Joan's bedroom the screening could commence. Joan was dissapointed that 'Monte Carlo' was not the hit it could have been, but it has since done very well on vhs and recently dvd. 

'Monte Carlo''s most recent release was from Olive Films in 2011, although this release is now deleted, you can order from amazon at the following link!

ORDER MONTE CARLO ON DVD HERE!