Top unmade Margaret Lockwood films

 1) Rob Roy - announced before WW2, cancelled because of it... a great shame, would've been great, Gainsborough, Ted Black, Will Fyffe, Lockwood..

2) The Blue Lagoon - another Gainsborough project cancelled by WW2 it was good this was made in colour but young Lockwood would've been perfect 

3) Vanity Fair - announced in the late 1940s, presumably cancelled due to the financial crisis. Could have been fun. Maybe. I have limited confidence of Rank.

4) Ann Veronica - adaptation of the novel by HG Wells. Hmm... maybe director dependent. She did do it for TV and no one cared.

5) The Wicked Lady's Daughter - this should have been made. Arliss and company were still around. 

6) Mary Magdalene - Rank wanted to do this. She refused. Hmm.... I like the idea but Rank couldn't have pulled it off. The Americans could have.

Movie review - "Tudor Rose" (1936) ***

 British view on Lady Jane Grey. It doesn't have much time to settle into anything other than Jane and her husband were sweet and naive, and Edward VI was manipulated and the adults were prats... but that's basically true, so why not? There is no central core relationship - at the very least it could've dug into the love story more.

 Nova Pilbeam briefly became a star playing the lead. John Mills didn't playing her husband - he just is too young looking. Cedric Harwicke is a terrific villain. I liked Desmond Tester, from Sabotage, as Edward VI.

Very stylishly shot and directed by Robert Stevenson.

Movie review - "A Man About the House" (1947) *** (warning: spoilers)

 After leaving Gainsborough, producer Ted Black joined Korda then seemed to have trouble getting films made. He eventually made this which at heart is an old gaslighting saga about two sisters, Dulcie Gray and Margaret Johnson, who go to Italy. Both fall for handsome local Kieron Moore who marries Johnson and then seems to be trying to poison her to get the land.

It's handled very well. Gray and Johnson are excellent even if both lack X factor of a star - I did miss Phyllis Calvert and Margaret Lockwood say. Moore looks the part and mostly is fine - when he gets too much dialogue the Italian accent is wearying. Guy Middleton is fine but he's so old - he's Gray's love interest and he beats up Moore at the end but he looks 105. Why didn't they cast a young spunk? What was Black thinking?

Some scripting problems - the girls are passive for so long. Takes them ages to figure out what's going on and then they just whistle for help - well, Gray, Johnson never does. It lacks another twist, a bigger role for Moore's secret lover say.

I did like the way it conveyed Moore was shagging Johnson into compliance - her look of dreaminess.

The film cost too much. It was shot on location in Italy and didn't need to be, not really. It's in black and white.

Black's star spotting hadn't abandoned him altogehter - Gina Lollobrigida has a small part.

Book review - "My Lucky Star" by Margret Lockwood (1955)

 Charming memoir from Lockwood, quite early in her career, really - twenty years in. But, as it turned out, it came as she stopped being a film star.

It was an eventful life. She was born into Karachi, moved to England, started acting young, made a fair fist of it early on, helped by her beauty, talent, and the support of Gainsborough. 

I would have liked more about the movies and co stars - there's no a lot here. There is a lot about her husband, her mother, her lover "Bill", and most of all her daughter Toots, the great love of her life. This is very sweet.

Book review - "Patricia Roc" by Michael Hodgson

 Entertaining, affectionate biography of the star, an endearing heroine of the 1940s. Roc was lucky in many ways - pretty girl, well off background - who wanted to be in pictures. She had a pleasant on screen presence that ensured work in "girl" parts. She was fortunate to come up in the 40s when for a brief moment British cinema actually cared about promoting female stars. Roc had a "girl next door" quality that was spot on and became a name in Gainsborough movies such as Millions Like Us.

What makes the book interesting is the oddness of Roc's career - genuinely popular for a brief time. she kept in public attention due to support of people like J Arthur Rank, but when the tide went out it went out quickly. It also helps that Roc had a colourful personal life - she loved sex, always had affairs (Anthony Steel fathered her child), was nicknamed "bed rock". Married for money eventually, seemed to regret it... she was arrested for shoplifting. I think she missed acting but maybe was more into the lifestyle than the craft. I could be wrong.

Affectionate, easy to read book.

Margaret Lockwood Top Ten

1)The Wicked Lady (1946) - may as well get this over and done with - great fun
2) The Lady Vanishes (1938) - classic film, one of Hitchcock's best, so different from Wicked Lady - she's good in Night Train to Munich as well but really playing the same sort of role (she has more to do in the Hitchcock)

3) A Girl Must Live (1939) - Lockwood is bright and vivacious for Carol Reed
4) Bank Holiday (1938) - another good performance by Lockwood for Reed
5) I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945) - fun musical with Lockwood in an Alice Faye type role
6) Cast a Giant Shadow (1955) - Lockwood is almost unrecogniseable in this very good film
7) The Man in Grey (1943) - the film that changed her image and she's very good
8) Love Story (1944) - Lockwood is a goody here and very effective
9) The Stars Look Down (1939) - she tries some different stuff, in a decent film
10) Madness of the Heart (1949)

I realised I did an earlier top ten for here. Basically the same only Sweetheart got in.

Could Margaret Lockwood's career have been saved?

I've been thinking about Margaret Lockwood lately, as you do (okay no one does except me) - in particular, about what went wrong with her career after the triumph of The Wicked Lady. The most popular star in Britain at what was arugably the high point of the British film industry... within ten years her name was thought to repel audiences from Cast a Dark Shadow.

During World War Two Lockwood's resume was full of hits, notably the Gainsborough melodramas - The Man from Grey, Wicket Lady, Love Story. She was also in some well received other kinds of films such as Dear Octopus and I'll Be Your Sweetheart.

Let's look what followed:
*Bedelia (1946) - which could and should have been right her up her alley (she played a murderess) but was hurt by some odd scripting decisions and inadequate casting
*Hungry Hill (1947) - should have been a blockbuster but the film lacked focus - it needed to be about Lockwood's character through and through but instead she pops in and out of it
*Jassy (1947) - did okay at the box office - a half success - but could've done better. Again, the movie lacked focus. Was Lockwood good or evil or what? It felt like a movie that didn't know what it really was.
*The White Unicorn (1947) - I haven't seen this film yet. It's about delinquent girls.It was a melodrama. Didn't sound very exciting.
*Look Before You Love (1948) - I haven't seen this either but it sounds terrible.
*Cardboard Cavalier (1949) - Lockwood tries comedy but instead of using a well worn source material she decides to play foil to Sid Field. It's not a very good movie.
* Madness of the Heart (1949) - not a bad melodrama, though it has a poor rap. Lacks big name co-stars.
*Highly Dangerous (1950) - an attempt to make a Lady Vanishes style film but it never seems sure of her tone.
She then made three poorly received films for Herbert Wilcox, and basically ceased to be a star.

So anyway what happened to Lockwood's career? What could she have done differently?

I'll try not to be too harsh in hindsight here but it seems her main errors were

*Not featuring against bigger stars. Most of her late 40s movies lacked names- no Phyllis Calvert, no Stewart Granger or James Mason. You had people like Denis Price, Dermot Walsh, Griffin Jones, Dane Clark.... very much the second eleven. Nothing wrong with making a trashy movie but the trashier films generally need stars.

*She should have been the focus of more of her films. Hungry Hill and Jassy in particular pulled against the fact they needed to be women's pictures, about women.

*She should've tried Hollywood. I understand her reluctance, but the material was simply better. Interestingly all the big British stars of the late 1940s - Mason, Granger, Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding - suffered when the 1950s came in, in Britain. The only ones to survive were those who went to Hollywood and stayed. (Phyllis Calvert and Patricia Roc gave it a go but didn't stay).

Margaret Lockwood... a big star who should've been a LOT bigger.

My Stewart Granger Top Ten

1) Scaramouche (1952) - Granger's best film and best performance - wonderful fun
2) Moonfleet (1955) - flawed but entertaining smuggler movie
3) All the Brothers Were Valiant (1954) - fun adventure tale with Granger an ideal villain
4) Caravan (1946) - outrageous Gainsborough high camp fun
5) Captain Boycott (1947) - intelligent well made period movie
6) Fanny By Gaslight (1944) - strong melodrama
7) The Man in Grey (1943) - the film that made Granger a star and it still holds up
8) The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) - it may have remade the Selznick version exactly but this is still good
9) Bhowani Junction (1956) - underrated post colonial melodrama
10) Waterloo Road (1945) - smug in many ways but Granger gives one of his best performances as a spiv

 Richard Burton wrote in his diary that you couldn't have a Stewart Granger Film Festival. Is this true? Well, it would be a little low rent.

But thinking classy movies

- Some Launder and Gilliats: Waterloo Road, Captain Boycott

- Caesar and Cleopatra

- Some Gainsboroughs: Man in Grey, Fanny by Gaslight, Love Story, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Magic Bow

- MGM auteur pieces: Moonfleet (Fritz Lang), Bhowani Junction (George Cukor)

- Scaramouche!

So you could.

Movie review - "Doctor Syn" (1937) **

Doctor Syn was a popular figure in British literature - a parson by day, smuggler by night. He's played here by George Arliss, an ancient looking dude who was a film star in the 1930s. He's okay as Syn, though he lacks dash.

Director Roy William Neill made some good films in his time but this is pretty creaky. In part because I watched a crap print where you couldn't tell what was going on in the night scenes. But also dramatically - you're all too aware so much exciting stuff happens off screen (the death of Clegg/Syd's wife, his revenge against the pirate). I think the person who killed his wife needed to be alive.

The plot involves the authorities figuring out what Clegg/Syd is up to but it's never that exciting. There is some sweet stuff involving a young Margaret Lockwood who is Arliss' secret daughter; their scenes work - a lot more than Lockwood's love for drippy lunk John Loder.  There's some lively trap doors and creepy covers and I enjoyed the fat kid.

Movie review - "A Girl Must Live" (1939) ***

Really fun, bright British comedy about three showgirls on the make, full of energy and bright Frank Launder script. Launder wrote this without Gilliat; it was interesting to contrast this with Girl in the News, which was also directed by Carol Reed starring Margaret Lockwood but was written by Gilliat without Launder. This was a better movie, a lot more fun - and made me wonder if Launder was a better writer than Gilliat. Of course it simply maybe personal taste, the source novel, anything... But it seems Launder was better at comedy. You can definitely feel The Lady Vanishes here more than in Girl in the News.

Anyway Margaret Lockwood is bright and vivacious in Lady Vanishes mode as a bright young thing who flees finishing school and winds up on stage. Her cronies include Renee Houston and an achingly young Lili Palmer. Everyone is good as is the support cast including Naunton Wayne.

The film feels influenced by those Warner Bros musicals of the early 1930s with girl's minds on money and doddering old men interested in sex. This makes it refreshingly adult. There are a few musical numbers but it's not really a musical.

The girls run around in their underwear a lot, Houston and Palmer have a cat fight, Wayne is a drunken burglar, Hugh Sinclair is the noble who Lockwood falls in love with. This romance is a little abrupt - Sinclair comes into the piece too late and is too sketchy a figure. It was the biggest flaw of the film for me. But Reed and the writers have such affection for their characters this is a hard movie to dislike and I found it a delightful surprise.

Movie review - "The Girl in the News" (1940) **

Unpretentious little British melodrama which reunites Carol Reed and Margaret Lockwood in what was their fifth teaming, I believe. It has an intriguing idea: Lockwood is a nurse who is put on trial for killing a patient; she just gets off in part due to the skill of her lawyer Barry Barnes, but when a second patient is killed things look grim.

Oddly, Lockwood played a version of this in the later movie Bedelia where she was guilty of knocking off various husbands. Here she's innocent. And this could have made an ideal Hitchcock movie, with it's thriller aspects, lawyer falling in love with accused, butler having affair with married man. But there is not much pace - most of the action is set around courtrooms.

Lockwood is warm and sympathetic - she made such a good bitch later in her career that it's good to be reminded what a winning heroine she could be. Barnes is a wet drip (something many British leading men of this period were). There is a strong support cast, including Emlyn Williams (suspicious butler), Roger Livesey (the detective - shame he didn't play the male lead), Margaretta Scott (non grieving widow). Script is by Sidney Gilliat so it's logical and well done. It just lacks spark ad humour.

Movie review - "Bank Holiday" (1938) ***

An early landmark in the career of Carol Reed and Margaret Lockwood, who were solid names of British cinema in the 30s and became legends in the 40s. It's a simple enough tale of various people going away for a weekend - rather like the later Holiday Camp, which surely ripped off this film.

The stories aren't that much - two girls go looking for boys, a working class family hang out and are working class, and the most screen time is given to a slightly creepy tale about a nurse who meets a guy waiting for his wife to give birth, the wife dies, the nurse goes off for a weekend away with her boyfriend (they're not married) but she can't stop thinking about the guy. The plots in Holiday Camp were much better - there was more of them and they were better structured.

It is redeemed by the acting and the handling, which is very confident. Small roles are played by people like Felix Alymer and Wilfrid Lawson; Walter Patch and Kathleen Harrison are strong as the working class couple. Margaret Lockwood is lovely as the nurse, reluctant to hop in the sack with boyfriend Hugh Williams and obviously keen on newly widowed John Lodge. Rene Ray is quite good as the girl prepared to accept Williams the moment Lockwood's dumped him. (The women in this jump on a guy the moment he's single).

The tone of the stories are pleasingly adult - there's no doubt Williams wants to have sex with Williams, the world weary acceptance about the world from the hotel staff and police, Lodge contemplates suicide. There are neat touches such as all the people sleeping on the beach, the dancing, the scenes at the train station. I preferred Holiday Camp but this has a lot to admire.

Movie review - "The Ghost Train" (1941) ***

Enjoyable, unpretentious British comedy thriller based on a well-known play. It's a vehicle for Arthur Askey, a comic I'm not too familiar with, but he's very lively and engaging. There's not a lot of story on display here - I was surprised how much comedy "business" took up the running time - but the atmosphere is enjoyable: a cross section of British types stuck at an isolated train station, a mysterious legend, a creepy old station master, a midnight ghost train, a possibly insane woman turning up along with her brother, some fifth columnist Nazis, a secret agent. 

It's all rather fun - I was absolutely in the right mood to watch it and it worked a treat.

Movie review - "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (1948) **

A famous flop at the time, this isn't that bad - it's just dull. And it's a shame because it needn't be - the historical story is a very exciting one, there is money to spare, the colour is gorgeous, there's some great Scottish locations, the cast impresses.

And for the first half I didn't mind this that much. David Niven is admittedly disastrously miscast in the title role - as George MacDonald Fraser pointed out, it must have been thought that as a charming Scot he was a natural but he isn't. Because Niven's persona was that of an officer and a gentleman, a decent stick who was brave and good with an anecdote. He's not good at conveying being an adventurer, Italian, full of passion, impetuosity... or anything that would make this role work. Who else could've done it who was a star? Stewart Granger? James Mason? Not John Mills. Maybe it was impossible, in a film where Bonnie Prince was a lead - these sort of erratic ruler roles are best in support parts.

But it has pace because the rebellion shouldn't have even got off the ground, but enjoyed tremendous success. Jack Hawkins is a believable Lord Murray, there's a good Battle of Prestonpans, some romance for the Bonnie Prince. With its heavily accented King George II and Duke of Cumberland, it seems Alex Korda was getting audiences on the side of the Prince.

Then at the retreat from Derby things start to get wonky - long romantic scene with the Prince and Clementine, who then disappears from the story; we aren't shown the Battle of Culloden; then almost half the movie - half! - consists of Charlie's flight from the British. So there's endless trudging over the glens with Margaret Leighton, with endless talk, and I'm never sure what they're getting at - a romance between the two? The rebellion was a good thing? A bad thing? It's all a hopeless muddle. Also, like An Ideal Husband the sets are too rich and opulent at times.

Korda made some classics but also some duds and this is a dud. It's not awful, you don't hate yourself for watching or Korda or cinema, but it's a misfire.

Movie review – “Fanny By Gaslight” (1944) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The Man in Grey was such a success it sparked off a whole cycle of period melodramas, of which this was first (or, rather, second). Phyllis Calvert, James Mason and Stewart Granger are back, with Jean Kent stepping in for the Margaret Lockwood part. (Although she doesn’t share top billing with the three stars – that honour goes to Wilfred Lawson.) It also has a better director than others in the cycle – Anthony Asquith – who handles it all with skill, verve, and lots of whip pans.

Calvert is at her best playing a pretty, innocent thing who is shocked, put upon and indignant – which is what her role is here. She’s very cute as she goes through various travails – realising her father runs a brothel, seeing her father killed by James Mason, finding out he wasn’t really her father, meeting Real Dad (a rich dude), falling in love with rich dude’s secretary, losing dad to suicide (to protect the family name because his wife wanted to marry James Mason), having Granger’s sister abuse her because of her lineage, seeing her racy best friend (Jean Kent) become Mason’s mistress.

This was Kent’s breakthrough part, which she probably got because the role was too small for Margaret Lockwood (this is really a Calvert starring vehicle). She doesn’t have Lockwood’s charisma or beauty, but is she pretty and game – she wet on to carve herself out a nice niche playing sexy girls (libidinous  more than out-and-out villainous) in these sort of movies.

Granger isn’t given much to do except look handsome, romantic and concerned, which he does very well. Mason is excellent, always looking his on his way to or has just come back from an orgy, seething vice and avarice, creating mischief. (He has a great moment where this woman asks him if he’s ever loved her and he simply says “no”.) He’s at the height of her powers – so too is Calvert, in her different way. Her telling off of Granger’s sister at the end is probably the highlight of her career.

It throws in everything but the kitchen sink – illegitimacy, brothels, shonky Lords, tormented MPs, stage stars, French revues, loveable loyal servants who buy a small pub ith their savings, bitch snobby sisters (Granger’s sister is as much of a villain as Mason), duels, feisty French doctors. There’s even an open ending where we’re not sure if Granger will survive his wound.

Movie review – “Millions Like Us” (1943) ****

Rough rule of thumb – British war films aimed to be more realistic than Hollywood ones, and that was rarely better illustrated than in this loving slice-of-life drama about young women at war – specifically two of them who work in a factory. They are Pat Roc, who you think is going to be the sole star, but then around half an hour in the film introduce Ann Crawford as well to romance Eric Portman. Roc is very unthreateningly pretty – she was sort of the back up Phyllis Calvert (just as Jean Kent was the back up Margaret Lockwood). She has a romance with a painfully young Gordon Jackson.

The film is very socialist – it’s all about sacrifice and giving into the greater cause. Roc at the end is sitting at lunch or something but eventually joins in the singing at the end. The romance between Crawford and Portman is very much skewed in Portman’s favour. If Launder and Gilliat had been Yanks they would have been blacklisted for this!

Movie review – “Night Train to Munich” (1940) ***

The Lady Vanishes done again – same writers, female lead, setting, model work and support characters. No Hitchcock but there’s Carol Reed handling the duties. It’s not as good but it’s still fun.

The story has more of a real world setting, with Nazi Germany precisely specified as the baddy – there is a prologue which goes for a couple of minutes establishing the nastiness of the Nazis as they march into Czechoslovakia (cue lot of stock footage). Lady Vanishes was a lark but this has a very serious side, with concentration camps, and Nazis and invading Poland, so it’s not as much fun.

The very British Margaret Lockwood plays the daughter of a Czech scientist who winds up in a concentration camp – at one stage she’s got this grumpy expression at one of the guards, and you can sense Esther the future of The Wicked Lady. But to be honest Lockwood doesn’t have that much to do here, certainly not as much as she did in Lady Vanishes. Most of the hero duties are carried by Rex Harrison as a jolly good nitwit who is actually a British agent – the character is very much in the vein of Michael Redgrave in Lady Vanishes and you can imagine Redgrave playing this part (he even has a musical connection). Actually that’s not fair on Harrison – he was a wonderful egotistical quality which adds a lot of spark to his part here.

Anyway Lockwood escapes from the camp but then 30 minutes in the Nazis get both her and her scientist father back and Harrison goes after them – you could have started the film here. They don’t actually get on the train until 50 minutes in – which is when Caldicott and Charters appear. (One of them buys a copy of Mein Kampf at a railway book store for something to read when they can’t get Punch; the only other thing available is Gone With the Wind.)

This takes too long to get going, Lockwood doesn’t have enough to do, the support characters aren’t as strong (apart from the dynamic duo), and there is a saggy section in the middle. 

But there are some good things: Paul Henreid makes a strong, worthy villain (great twist 15 minutes in when he’s revealed to be a Nazi – the eye exam stuff is clever too); Caldicott and Charters are funny and I like the way they put Harrison in mortal danger then get him out again; Harrison is very engaging; there is plenty of action at the end including a shoot-out on a cable car.

Movie review - "The Man in Grey" (1943) ***

The film that launched the Gainsborogh costume cycle and deservedly so, because it still holds up well down the track. Of course at the time there were special reasons for its success - namely, the war, which made a tale of sexual rebellion, passion, oppressive societies and traumatic life all the more resonant.

They were spot on with the casting, though - Margaret Lockwood had been around for a while as a "nice" heroine, but playing a bad girl she really came alive (the black hair, the peaked nose and the eyebrows, I think); James Mason makes a glowering intense villain (Mason was one of those really unique individual actors who, like Bogart and Wallace Berry, executives seem to think are too unique and individual to be stars - but then become stars because they are so unique and individual), and Stewart Granger, all height and booming voice, also makes an impressive hero debut (he holds his own with the others). Phyllis Calvert, an Elisabeth Shue look-alike, is perhaps less memorable (I would always get her confused with Pat Roc) but she's still very good. 

Has any film ever launched four stars with one stroke and prompted a whole genre?

Although it feel a bit short on plot, the whole construction of the film is very clever: the really good girl and the bad girl (Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny characters) to give the female audience an option to decide who they want to relate to: beautiful, cheery Calvert who everyone likes and whom Granger loves, but who nonetheless has a horrible life and dies miserable, and Lockwood, who is born poor and resents and fights her way to almost the top only to be denied the love of a man who loves her because of society.

It's good how Lockwood isn't totally evil, she is totally empathetic (you understand why Clavery wants to be her friend, too - she simply has more life than other girls at the time) and I think a lot of the audience would have identified with her. You've got James Mason for the Bad Boy, but also Granger as a bit of a bad boy, too (kicked off his slave plantation in the West Indies by the locals who were encouraged to riot by those pesky French). 

 On the topic of race relations, a key character is a little boy Toby - with black boot polish painted on his face - who is Calvert's servant. No wonder this film is beloved by academics - you can look at it in terms of relations between the sexes, the war, race, British cinema, stardom, etc. Its done with flourish and sincerity, with a great climax.

Book review - "Stewart Granger: The Last of the Swashbucklers" by Don Shiach

Stewart Granger was one of those actors who seemed destined for stardom. Tall,good looking, masculine, with lots of presence and a deep speaking voice, he was just so incredibly easy to cast in things, especially being British. 

It didn't take him long to get his acting career going - he started to get jobs pretty soon after deciding to become an actor, and it wasn't long before he was working for Olivier and Robert Donat. Shiach argues (correctly I think) that this may not have been the most healthy thing for him - a bit more struggle and he might have had more respect for his profession. 

Nonetheless, he had a burgeoning career - which was interrupted by war service. He was invalided out of the army,which sounds cool until you discover he was invalided out because of stomach ulcers, which I'm sure were painful but sounds like such a wimpy thing to have.But it was a boon to his career - he started to get work regularly in films and launched to fame in The Man in Grey.

Granger's career as a star falls neatly into several categories:

(a) 1943-46 Gainsborough tosh costume dramas, which proved very popular and are still watchable today

(b) 1945-48 costume dramas made by other filmmakers which were a bit better than Gainsborough but not as popular
(c) 1948-49 some dud films and an arty theatre venture which helped almost send him broke

(d) 1950-58 MGM star

(e) 1958-1970 international star of European films

(f) 1972 onwards - mainly a businessman.

My main interest with Granger is the MGM period, to whom he was contracted for most of the Dore Schary period. His association with the studio started with a bang with King Solomon's Mines, but almost collapsed with Soldier's Three and The Light Touch but recovered with two other remakes, Scaramouche and The Prisoner of Zenda. He never found another film which touched the popularity of the remake "trilogy", though sometimes he came close eg Bhowani Junction. 

 

To be frank, a lot of this was Granger's fault: he turned down roles in A Star is Born, Ben Hur, Ivanhoe, From Here to Eternity, not to mention the London version of A Streetcar Named Desire (the role was taken by someone called Bonar Colleano). MGM made several big budget swashbucklers during this time with Robert Taylor, and everyone one of them is a part Granger should have played: Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe, Knights of the Round Table, The Adventures of Quentin Durward. He wanted to play Mogambo but the studio insisted on Clark Gable. Granger surely must have the worst knack of part-picking since George Raft (which I think is part of the appeal of his career to me - its inherent tragic-ness).

He kept his screen presence right up til the end - for instance, he looked terrific in The Wild Geese - but I think people just got sick of him. He was difficult and got along badly with directors. He didn't have an eye for talent or scripts - turning down Messala in Ben Hur because it wasn't the lead, I mean, really. He was never happy with anything he was in, always grumbling or whining about his scripts (even for Scaramouche he complains in his memoirs about his injuries). How about enjoying your art, Stu? Or just life? He was a bit of a wanker. No wonder Jean Simmons eventually left him (though she wound up with another grump, Richard Brooks).

This book has copped it on the net reviews I have read. I really enjoyed it -mostly I guess because I'm a Granger fan, but its well written, Shiach does good analysis of Granger's films (he admits Granger wasn't a great actor but still admires him - for instance, he prefers Granger's performance to Ronald Colman's in The Prisoner of Zenda) and makes decent guesses as to his subject's personality (mostly culled from his memoirs i.e. his desire to prove himself as a brave man, misogyny, fact that he annoyed so many people who worked with him).

 

The lack of research is irritating and seems mostly to consist of reading a few biographies/autobiographies (especially Granger's) and watching the films. This is annoying at times, especially when it comes to the post 1960 period not covered by Granger himself. I would have enjoyed reading a bit more about his business ventures and the films he made in Europe. As a result what could have been an important book is merely a polished stop gap.

Movie review - Hitchcock #24 - "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) *****

Wonderful thriller that looks even better over the years. Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood aren’t among Hitchcock’s better known pair of stars, but they work marvellously in a jolly-good-chaps 1930s kind of way. He has a good natured, wet, intellectual quality which is perfect for the part (Robert Donat in 39 Steps mode would have been too dashing – although not Donat in Goodbye Mr Chips mode, if that makes sense). Lockwood is terrific fun and they make a spirited, youthful couple – you can imagine them spending their honeymoon hiking in the Cotswolds or something.

The piece glories in its Englishness – you’ve got cheery sensible Lockwood, slightly eccentric Redgrave, glorious Dame May Whitty having a ball as a very useful senior citizen, adulterous Cecil Parker and his stressed out partner, the magnificent Basil Radford and Nauton Wayne, the very likeable cockney nun in high heels who works for the baddies until she realises they’re trying to kill an English lady. (It’s not all rah-rah Royal Britannia, though – it makes fun of British hypocrisy and the slipperiness of their foreign office.)

An extremely well acted movie – so many of the roles were open to caricature but the actors don’t take that option (well, not all of them – the suave European types do their European thing). It helps that this is more of an ensemble piece than a star vehicle; most of the Brits get a chance to shine, even at the end.

Many wonderful moments: the nun wearing high heels; Dame May Whitty making a dash for it across the forest as people try to shoot her; pretty much everything Radford or Wayne say (eg “I say you can’t go about tying up nuns”); Redgrave’s “I went to Cambridge line”; the realisation only the British passengers are left on the train because it’s tea time. I love it.