Play review - "Misalliance" by George Bernard Shaw (1909) (re-reading)

 Lots of jolly japes and zingers among the rich at a house. Not a lot of plot but fun.

Play review - "The Devil's Disciple" by George Bernard Shaw (1897)

 A cad in revolutionary America redeems himself via an act of bravery to impress a sensible woman. The British officer at the end is fun.

Play review - "Arms and the Man" by George Bernard Shaw (1894)

 I can see why this is popular as the idea is great - a mercenary soldier winds up in the bedroom of a woman engaged to a idiot soldier. The mercenary has business like attitudes to fighting which is funny and the romance is well developed.

Play review - "Mrs Warren's Profession" by George Bernard Shaw (warning: spoilers)

 A first rate dramatic situation - daughter finds out mum owns a brothel - leading to lots of sensible chat from Shaw's sensible women. The piece probably lacks a crazy puritan to livens things up. The daughter starts and ends the same way - she's a bit of a bitch to reject her mother.

Play review - "The Doctor's Dilemma" by George Bernard Shaw (1906)

 Strong dramatic situation - doctor torn whether to let useless artist husband of a woman he loves live. Lacked a little something for me. Maybe too smarty pants about medicine which does do a lot of good.

Play review - "Saint Joan" by George Bernard Shaw (1923)

 I loved this because it had all the smart arguments about religon and politics but also an emotional core because Joan is prosecuted for being competent and smart and her death is horrible. 

Play review - "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw

 Funny. Clever. All that. Show stolen by Eliza's dad. Shaw loves these feisty women and asexual men.

Rex Harrison top ten

 1. My Fair Lady (1964)

2. Cleopatra (1963)

3. Anna and the King of Siam (1946)

4. The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)

5.  Blithe Spirit (1945)

6. Night Train to Munich (1940)

7. Dr Doolittle (1967)

8. Midnight Lace (1960)

9. Major Barbara (1941)

10. The Rake's Progress (1945) 

Book review - "Letters of Noel Coward" by Barry Day

 A lot of this was very familiar but there was some lovely fresh stuff - the letters from Coward feel well trodden ground but the ones to him are really fascinating: TE Lawrence, Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Edna Ferber. Coward really loved the "c" word. Loved Marlene Dietric writing letters about how Yul Brynner would love bomb her then gaslight her.

Very long book but rewarding. Good companion piece to Day's other works.

Book review - "Preston Sturges: The Last Years of Hollywood's First Writer Director" by Nick Smedley and Tom Sturges

 Sturges' career is very well covered via some solid biographies but this adds a fresh take in focusing on his last decade - the one after his Fox stint, when he made just the one film but was constantly trying to get up projects and failing, before dying relatively young.

Smedley tries to put a positive spin on this era, emphasizing how Sturges found true love with his last wife, never gave up, was always coming up with new ideas. And I'm sure Sturges when on form was marvellous company.

But he does not come across well in this superbly researched, illuminating book. He couldn't stop drinking, he loved his wife but cheated on her and ignored her, he was a lousy father (he didn't see his wife or kids for the last few years of his life), he kept spending money (once the third highest paid person in the country he managed to blow it all via idiotic decisions when all he had to do was buy real estate), he was hard to collaborate with, he whinged, he was fired from some projects and my sympathy was with the producers.

We did miss out artistically from a lack of Sturges projects - Smedley makes a case for the greatness of The Millionairess and I liked his gangster comedy idea - but some sound like terrible ideas.

Famous faces and names pop in and out -Sturges was mates with Orson Welles, he was always trying to work with Alec Guinness and Robert Donat, Errol Flynn almost starred in The French They Are a Funny Race (not sure how Errol would've gone but it would've been better than Flynn's Herbert Wilcox movies).

I think Sturges' problem was that he went from rags to riches so many times in his career, was such a successful gambler, that kept thinking his luck would turn around. And maybe it would have if he's managed to save some money and stay off the booze.

TV review - Hallmark Hall of Fame - "St Joan" (1967) ***

One of Shaw's most famous plays isn't as good as his comedies, for me at any rate, but it well done here. The cast includes Theodore Bikel, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans, Leo Genn and a young Genevieve Bujold as Joan - she's very impressive. Joan is sympathetically depicted but is still barking mad; Shaw seems more at home with the squabbling aristocrats.

Play review - "Candida" (1894) by George Bernard Shaw

I was curious to read this because Garson Kanin mentioned it in one of his books as a great Shaw female role, and a possible vehicle for Katherine Hepburn. Candida is sensible, smart, funny, beautiful, loyal and so on - so much so that you never really feel she even comes close to leaving her clergyman husband for Marchbanks. This character, the young and in love aristocrat, is actually more interesting a character than Candida - who is more of a star role than a character, and is passive a lot of the time, for all that the men pant over her. (I had a similar problem with Major Barbara too).

Still, it's not hard to imagine with the right three actors this would be a treat to watch. Not major Shaw but it was worth reading.

Movie review - "Androcles and the Lion" (1952)**

Hollywood went Bible and Ancient World crazy in the 1950s which is presumably how this adaptation of G B Shaw's satire of religion in Ancient Rome got the green light. The play is one of my favourite of Shaw's - wry, funny, very clever - but the handling here is all wrong. The story is basically the same, so are the actors - but the tone, emphasis, atmosphere, everything... it just feels off.

Maybe this was too hard to adapt. Maybe its too American, with Alan Young in a role that might have been better played by a British "little man" and Jim Backus a very unconvincing legionary. Victor Mature is definitely hopelessly out of his element as the Roman captain -  a great role, but old Vic fails completely by giving a Robe type performance. Maybe its the mixture of American and British accents. Maybe its the multiple plot lines and lack of clear protagonist.

Jean Simmons is beautiful and would seem to be ideal, but she lacks a certain fire in her part - maybe it's having to play opposite Mature. The supporting cast e.g. Elsa Lanchester, Robert Newtown look as though they might save the day but they don't. It's just a frustrating mess.

Movie review - "The Doctor's Dilemma" (1959) **1/2

Civilised entertainment from Anthony Asquith and Anatole de Grunwald - the latter also adapted the play, instead of getting their usual collaborator Terence Rattigan to do it. Maybe it would have been a better film had that been done - maybe not.

The plot involves Leslie Caron (very sexy in a not-much role) asking doctor John Robinson to cure her artist husband Dirk Bogarde, even though he's a brat. The doctors debate ethics and so on - much of which is no longer applicable in this day and age (there are still plenty of ethical questions - it's just so specific to its time, though. the barbs don't drive home). I never bought the set-up - there seems to be far too much time for John Robinson to make up his mind. And they never really get at the drama of the situation (i.e. whether a brilliant bastard should take precedence over a dull but decent person) - it's talked about, but you never feel it.

The story is really Robinson's rather than Bogarde's - maybe it would have been a more popular film if the two had swapped roles. Having said that, Bogarde is excellent as a caddish artist (he has another wife waiting for him); he was always good as unsympathetic manipulators, although his death scene goes on and on and on. Caron's part isn't much - when all's said and done she's an enabling doormat. 

Excellent support cast including Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer, plus great colour and sets and funny lines. A half-success but not bad.

Play review – “Misalliance” by G B Shaw (1909)

I wanted to read this because Rod Taylor starred in two productions, one for the John Alden Company on stage in Sydney, the other an adaptation for Playhouse 90 in 1959. It’s a comedy of manners set at a house, centered around the upcoming marriage of the daughter of an underwear manufacturer to the son of a lord. There is lots of funny talk and bantering – but it doesn’t have a strong plot. Three people drop in – two of them literally, in a plane – and there are various proposals and lots of talk about marriage and family. Great female characters – and other characters too, but it does drag.

Play review – “Pygmalion” by GB Shaw

Shaw wrote his plays for publication as well as performance, and there are charming asides (eg stopping writing Eliza’s dialogue phonetically). Superb characters – thoughtless driven Higgins; touchy, likeable Eliza (“I’m a good girl”); mercenary Doolittle. Even smaller parts like Mrs Pearce are memorable (I think Shaw really admired and enjoyed women; it comes across.) The comic set pieces remain first rate – Doolittle trying to get money off Higgins and complaining about middle class morality; Eliza’s first appearance in front of the ladies and Freddy; Eliza blowing up at Higgins. The lines are hilarious too (“the word ‘bridegroom’… it makes you realise your place, doesn’t it?”). We never see the garden party scene where Eliza wins the bet, and the romance between Eliza and Higgins is expressly denied by Shaw – but you can’t help reading it into the text. There’s a brilliant, hilarious prose epilogue from Shaw.

Play review – “Androloces and the Lion” (1912) by GB Shaw

Shaw was famous for a somewhat cynical take on religion. It’s brilliantly displayed here with this take on the famous lion-with-the-sore-paw tale. Great characters – animal loving Androloces, the forthright sexy Christian who is loved by a religious Roman, the tough Christian fighting. Shaw takes on religion, bravery, the circus, despots, superstition – and it has a very high body count. Shaw dates well because he takes the piss I wonder he’s not more revived.

Radio review – “Don Juan in Hell” (1952) **1/2

Recorded album of a show which tickled the publics fancy, in that random way that cultured “events” sometimes do. Charles Laughton, Agnes Moorehead, Cedric Hardwicke and Charles Boyer did a cross-country tour with this George Shaw segment of a play. I really enjoyed the stuff with Laughton as a devil; wasn’t so wild about Boyer as Don Juan, he was a little hard to understand.

Play review – “Caesar and Cleopatra” by GB Shaw

Famous Shaw play which brings his unique dry and witty take to the bantering rulers. Cleopatra is a child, kittenish and capable of great charm and rages; Caesar is an aging sly ruler, not without vanity but holding the whip in their generation gap relationship (which seems sex-less). There’s some classic rom com stuff – she doesn’t know he’s Caesar for the first act – and the humour undercuts the Historical-ness of it all eg “I will always get my carpets from you” (NB was the joke about “Lesbian wine” intended?). It’s not without drama, eg the death of the servant (Shaw knew his structure). A clear influence for Mankciewicz’s Cleopatra – this is presumably why the first half of that film was so superior to the second.

Movie review - "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1945) **1/2

Apparently the most expensive film made in Britain at the time and you can't help but wonder "why?" It's basically a filmed play, most of which takes indoors. There are some big sets and some extras and boats, but you don't really need them for the story - at least, not the way its presented here by Gabriel Pascal. 

To be fair to Rank, they gave similar free reign to Laurence Olivier and he produced Henry V so it wasn't wrong they green lighted this. I mean,Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, Shaw, colour, the cream of English acting talent (Cecil Parker, Flora Robson, etc), with the box office appeal of Stewart Granger as an extra lure... It just should have cost a lot of money.

The story concerns the events around Caesar's arrival in Egypt and his placing of Cleopatra on the throne. Their relationship is one of friendship, politics and respect rather than romance and passion - you never get the sense they would generate enough enthusiasm for each other to create a son, as they did. But it works as an interpretation.

Shaw's dialogue is a treat and the two leads are superb - Rains isn't perhaps totally believable as a military general, but he's very engaging, and Vivien Leigh is spot on as the kittenish Cleopatra. There is a real warmth between the two. 

 

The rest of the cast use a variety of fake beards and skin dye (eg Flora Robson) which is sometimes off-putting (Granger, with his dark skin,very short toga and earring, looks as though he's on the way to Mardi Gras), although everyone can act.

A film of the head rather than the heart or the eye, and as such not suited for a spectacle, but as an example of filmed theatre, fair enough. 

 

It has that wash-out colour look found in Rank Films at this time - it may as well have been in black and white (Michael Powell's clever use of colour was a rarity for British cinema). 

 

Michael Rennie impresses as a centurion.