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)
Do people still watch this movie any more? It's fun. I mean, it's long, but it gave people their money's worth in 1956. Length! Colour! Widescreen! Stars!
David Niven is a lot of fun as Fogg (the film put him back on top) and Cantiflas engaging as Passporteu. The cameos range from fun - Noel Coward, John Gielgud - to "whatever" - Fernandel, Charles Boyer.
Coward's adventures in the war makes compelling reason in part because he simply went so many places - Poland, Russia, Finland and Norway before the war, Paris after it started, Australia.
Anthology films were briefly the rage in Britain, which explains this not very good adaptation for three Noel Coward plays.
I disliked the first two. Red Peppers, about the feuding couple (Ted Ray, Kay Walsh), felt like a star vehicle that would work if you liked the stars but I didn't know Ray or Walsh (yes I know they're famous back then but not to me). It was a drag.
Fumed Oak was dreadful - a whingeing Stanley Holloway.
Ways and Means, about a dodgy couple, was more fun, with Nigel Patrick and Valerie Hobson animated.
The color photography felt wasted.
Solid doco about making The Italian Job with some great talking heads: Michael Deeley, Michael Caine, Robert Evans, Peter Bart (who never passes up a chance to self promote), Peter Collinson's widow and kids. The Collinson story is inevitably moving. Lots of details about cars. Fun clips. Good natured.
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.
One of several unsuccessful attempts from Coward to find a follow up vehicle for The Lunts after Design for Living worked so well. This was his go at Somesert Maugham style sex in the tropics with whites behaving badly - the play is dedicated to Maugham.
There's a bit of padding and the device of the Maugham/Coward like writer who visits and commentates on the action was surely tired then - although when he talks of his philosophy towards the end of love you go "oh is this Noel Coward talking", about not getting too involved in people.
It's not a great Lunt vehicle as it's not a two hander - there's four roles, the Maugham guy, an ageing woman, her Russian lover, and a young man who falls for the older woman. So there's a lot of gay writer tropes at the time - ageing horny woman, beautiful young man who adores her, rough trade who is mean to her. Alfred Lunt played the rough trade - I was surprised until I read the confrontation.
The drama's not bad, it's a solid love triangle, with people making out in the rain, and gossiping whites in the background. I'm surprised this was never filmed by Hollywood. It's a play I could imagine good pulp screenwriters actually improving, giving the lead to a Joan Crawford type. Or you could flip the sexes around and have it about a guy loved by a younger woman and older mysterious woman. Maybe it lacks the big pay off too - the rough trade kills himself, the young man goes his own way... Really rough trade should have killed the woman. It would've been more satisfying dramatically.
Louis Hayward played the young man on Broadway - makes sense.
Noel Coward disliked this version of his operetta and it's not hard to see why - but also I'm sympathetic to MGM, who needed a film for MacDonald and Eddy. It removes the opening device of the old heroine telling a young couple about her life in flashback because it was used in an earlier film Maytime. But that robs the piece of its point. Also the two stars are too old.
It's overproduced, the colour seems pointless somehow, there's lots of hammy support actors - George Sanders goes full Teutonic as the nasty noble after MacDonald. She's okay, Eddy's stiff.
Some of the songs were well done, particularly the last number. But this film was annoying. They didn't even give Eddy a chance to put up a decent fight in the duel with Sanders - Sanders just skewers him (which to be fair is realistic but it de-balls him). MacDonald doesn't even seem to care. The actors were probably over each other by now.
I'd forgotten I'd seen a bunch of MacDonald-Eddy movies. They didn't linger in my memory.
1. Still Life (1936) aka the play that was turned into Brief Encounter (1945). .Easily the best of Coward’s Tonight at 8:30 works, it’s the sort of drama that is easy to mock from a distance but retains great empathy and understanding. The film is very faithful but accentuates everything and Celia Johnson delivers perhaps the greatest “acting with eyes” performance in history.
2. Peace in Our Time (1947). This flopped and is rarely revived but I really enjoyed it - an account of what Britain might’ve been liked had they lost the war. A serious drama. The fact the baddies were Nazis make Coward’s reactionary politics, which can be hard to swallow (eg Cavalcade, This Happy Breed, South Sea Bubble, Relative Values) more palatable. This would’ve made a good film.
3. Nude without Violin (1957) - Coward’s post war plays aren’t as revived as his output 1925-45 because, to be frank, they aren’t as good but this is a fun satire albeit of some low hanging fruit, the modern art world. (Waiting in the Wings has a fabulous idea but is far too serious.)
4. Song at Twilight (1966) - Coward’s last produced play and a deserved success because it’s a post war work with a bit of guts and honesty behind it.
5. Blithe Spirit (1941) - this play is pretty perfect. Director-proof.
6. Present Laughter (1939) - we are getting into obvious choices here, this is great fun, and I can’t believe it was never filmed.
7. Private Lives (1929) - obvious choice. The jokes about domestic violence maybe haven’t aged too well.
8. Design for Living (1932) - again, obvious choice, very ahead of the curve with its kinky domestic arrangements.
9. The Vortex (1924) - I could’ve gone with Easy Virtue, Hay Fever, Fallen Angels... Coward’s 20s output was pretty strong (I didn’t mind Sirocco) but went for this because of its drama and the drug stuff is still fresh
10. Bitter Sweet (1932) - I don’t like the music but the book of this is a very good example of how to write the book of a musical (well, operetta) - simple, logical, different characters, romantic, emotional
Noel Coward's lovely play isn't tampered with - he whinged about the ending apparently but I didn't mind it. The colour photography is lovely but probably wasn't worth getting for a film about people in a room. Indeed, it might've been better had they not done it because they might've avoided the worst mistake of the film - painting Kay Hammond all green.
Rex Harrison and Margaret Rutherford are divine in their roles - Harrison did Coward better than Coward, more focused (and I can say it with authority because I've seen the TV version). Cummings and Hammond are fine - it's not Hammond's' fault she's green - but I kept wishing for proper stars. Elvira at least should've been a star - imagine Vivien Leigh or someone.
Coward never went to uni but this is the sort of play you write at uni/drama school - full of passion, and prentention without knowledge of life but it has its own integrity. It's not like anything else I've read of his. It consists of eight scenes - the first is in the trenches, a guy dies, then comes back as a ghost in 1930 to visit his mum, dad, ex, mates, etc. there's a lot of solioquies and it's written with passion and sincerity. I preferred it to the smugness of his keep the classes down works but can see why it's not often performed.
Noel Coward had lots of offers to star in films but only took this in the 1930s. At least it was a unique thing - Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, legendary journos, playwrights and screenwriters, were given funds to direct as well for a brief experiment.
It's good to see Coward at his handsome peak - slim and youthful (the first scene has him getting out of a bath shirtless!). He speaks in that clipped, not terribly engaged way - like he's slightly bored and taking the piss. I think Coward could be a good actor but get the impression he coasted a lot. Mind you he does step things up at the end when he talks to God.
There's lots of awkward pacing, flowery dialogue. It's interesting more than entertaining. Alexander Woolcott is in this. And Lionel Stander.
I heard this was about Coward trying to find a person who wept for him, which it is - but that doesn't happen until about an hour in. Maybe this would've worked better on stage.
But still, it captures Coward at his leading man peak and is different.
Graham Greene's funny novel about a British vacuum cleaner salesman who becomes a spy had the idea director Carol Reed and star Alec Guinness and isn't bad but isn't that interesting. Jo Morrow is dreadful as Guinness's daughter. Noel Coward terrific as a secret service man - ditto Ralph Richardson as Coward's boss.
Maureen O'Hara is alright as Guiness's secretary. Ernie Kovacs is funny as a local head of police. Burl Ives is, well, Burl Ives as a German.
I went with this for a while but then it got annoying. It's smart but there's no emotion - no sense that Guiness is really in danger even though he is, or that O"Hara and he fall in love even though they do, or that he loves his daughter, or that he feels sad when Ives is killed and wants revenge. I wish Hitchcock had made it (he wanted to but the rights were too expensive.)
It's a musical, but the book was published in an early collection of plays so I gave it a read. I'm not wild about Coward's music - too foreign. But the book is lovely and simple. Reminded me of the Barry Manilow song 'Copacabana'. A young couple are in love, he's a poor song writer she has a rich guy who wants to marry her, a rich old dame talks about her life being in love with a poor song writer, running off, but he gets upset seeing her dance with a count and dies in a duel. Which makes him a wanker but it gives the piece weight because she never gets over him.
It's a very simple effective book - contrasting timelines, sad love story, bookended with a happy one a la The Man in Grey.
Look, this was okay and you imagine could be a fun night out. Coward adapts Feydeau so it's set in Paris in 1908 with mistresses, maids, soldiers, Russian counts, misunderstanding. Lulu is a courtesan/mistress/dream part for ageing star whose boyfriend goes away for a few weeks. She fake marries his bestie for cash, which is risky, the boyfriend finds out and ensures it's a real marriage.
The plotting is a still watery which surprises me - they don't really do much with the character of the horny Russian prince who wants Lulu, or use the girl who loves Lulu's fake fiance.
It's bright enough. There's some fourth wall breaking eg making gags "you wouldn't believe it if it was on stage" and recaps on the plot - which are dicey when the work isn't that good.
Vivien Leigh played this in London.
Coward famously collaborated with the Lunts on Design for Living but could never get the magic back though he tried. Maybe if you liked the Lunts and saw it this was fun. It's not great to read. For some reason it's set in the nineteenth century as if to hide the fact the story is a version of Private Lives - a couple married to other people run off together and their partners, the heroes, set off in pursuit and they fall in love.
It was a drag to read. The characters weren't funny not terrible individual (one liked trains another was an industrialist). I didn't like these people and the action felt padded. Maybe as a one act play this would've worked.
One of those "it just clicks" film. Very strong source material, one of Coward's best plays, given loving treatment from skilled collaborators - David Lean, Ronald Neame, Tony Havelock-Allen, Robert Krasker, Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard.
The ace in the hole is Johnson with her average appeal, gorgeous eyes that switch from every day living to love, to passion, to terror, to devastation. It's one of the great performances. Trevor Howard is very good too - he just doesn't have Johnson's eyes. Or POV in terms of storytelling.
Admittedly, you can mock this if in the mood.
Lovingly shot. Great little performances from Johnson's dim sexless husband who does realise something is going on, and Howard's slimy mate who loans him an apartment.
Fun version of the play with the benefit that it stars Noel Coward. Alongside him are Claudette Colbert, Lauren Bacall and Mildred Natwick so there's star power - Mrs Cunningham from Happy Days is one of the guests.
Coward sometimes seems to be on autopilot, other times rises to the occasion. He found Colbert exasperating but her pretty dowdiness is perfect for the part, just as Bacall's racy glamour is perfect for Elvira. And Madame Arcadi is an actor proof role.
Once I got into the groove of 1956 live television, this was great. The play is nicely trimmed, it has that magic of the ghosts and spirits (good idea of Coward to have them felt when not on stage). Lovely.
Times change. Noel Coward's play was very Britain focus but this faithful film version not only won the Best Picture Oscar it was a big hit.
It was hard work. And I didn't mind reading it.
There's plenty of money and production value. Everyone commits.
But these families. Diana Wynard, strolling around, elegantly suffering as husband goes off to war, and son, and the one son dies and then the other son dies but after he's shagged her ex-servant's daughter which is apparently not on. Why doesn't she get a job.
The dull husband (Clive Brook) who I was kind of hoping would die.
The cockney servants who get uppity when they own their own business - one becomes a boozer and dies in an accident the other is mocked for thinking her daughter has risen in the world.
I didn't care about any of them. Maybe I was in a bad mood.
No star power. The cockneys popped up in The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Frank Lloyd directed this. Two Oscars. No one much remembers him now.
Maybe you had to be there.
I really thought I'd like this more than I did.
