Young Cassidy - a John Ford film directed by Jack Cardiff

YOUNG CASSIDY Or: SEAN O'CASEY IN LOVE ? One of 1965's under-rated gems is this biopic of Irish writer Sean O'Casey, a perfect example of American film-making in England in the '60s. It was a project dear to John Ford, but he only spent a few weeks on the film due to illness, so esteemed photographer Jack Cardiff took over, having directed the successful D.H. Lawrence adaptation SONS AND LOVERS himself in 1960.



Ford may only have directed a couple of scenes - the pub fight and meeting Daisy Battles (the radiant young Julie Christie) and the death of Sean's mother, the noble Flora Robson. The cast here is the thing: Rod Taylor is an agreeable presence, ideal in THE BIRDS etc, and certainly makes for a brawling playright! Maggie Smith is Nora, the bookshop girl he loves, but she cannot deal with his growing success and the world he wants to live in. Julie (just before DARLING and DR ZHIVAGO that year) is the happy prostitute he meets a few times, Dame Flora is perfect as the ailing mother, Sian Phillips his poverty-stricken sister - and then theres Edith Evans as Lady Gregory who runs the Abbey Theatre, and Michael Redgrave as W.B.Yeats - heavyweights indeed. Add in Pauline Delaney as the randy landlady, Donal Donnelly, Joe Lynch, Jack McGowran and other assorted Irish characters.


Ford and Cardiff on set, above right.

The Easter Rebellion of 1916 plays out in the background as O'Casey steals books from Maggie's shop and gets his first play written and staged, but he cannot cash his first cheque to pay for his mother's funeral! Finally, he leaves for England and the successes waiting for him. The Dublin backgrounds are nicely staged along with the poverty of the time and its all a breezy romp touching certainly on events in the early O'Casey's life. O'Casey's plays are still being revived, I am off to a National Theatre revivial of JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK in the new year.

A touch of class: The Nun's Story

THE NUN’S STORY. Zinnemann’s 1959 classic was on in the middle of the night, so I recorded it, despite having the dvd, and what a transfixing experience it is. I had not seen it for decades but remember what a big hit it was at the time. It is surely Audrey Hepburn’s crowning achievement. One hardly sees classic movie-making on this scale any more, as Zinnemann orchestrates it all – the early scenes in the convent as the young novice adjusts to the religious life, the faces of all those nuns, and then the Congo scenes, her recovery from tuberculosis, and back to wartime Europe, based on a best-selling true story. as scripted by Robert Anderson. While not as austere as a Bresson or a Dreyer or indeed Melville's LEON MORIN, PRIEST (reviewed here at Belmondo label) it does convey the rigours of the religious life and the demands it makes (and of course complements those nuns perfectly portrayed by Deborah Kerr in BLACK NARCISSUS and HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON).

It is totally absorbing and the players are so perfect for their roles: Hepburn as the strong-willed and fiercely independent Sister Luke, whose very psyche is torn asunder by the battle between her own innate, personal pride and a sincere desire to live a life of obedience to the Church and its rules; Peter Finch as Dr Fortunati, Edith Evans as Mother Superior (doing marvels with very little screen time), Peggy Ashcroft, Dean Jagger as her father, Mildred Dunnock, Coleen Dewhurst, etc. A totally marvellous achievement and Franz Waxman's score complements the visuals perfectly.

1959 was not only a key year both in cinema and for me, aged 13, and loving all those big hitters of the year, as lots of key directors produced their late classics: BEN HUR, SOME LIKE IT HOT, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, ON THE BEACH, RIO BRAVO, IMITATION OF LIFE, PILLOW TALK, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, SOLOMON AND SHEBA etc, THE NUN'S STORY was up there with them as one of the key dramas of the year and it was of course an enormous hit, for such a solemn film, and it is certainly one of Hepburn's key roles, ably supported by Finch's skilful portrayal of the doctor. After the Congo episode we are back in wartime Europe as Sr Luke tries to settle back into the religious life, but her rebellious spirit will not let her.... The complexities of the religious life are nicely demonstrated when she is asked to fail an essential examination to help another nun go to the Congo. The interiors were actually shot at Cinecitta so just how much of it was shot in Africa I wonder? The seemingly now under-rated Fred Zinnemann showed his mastery again the next year with the wonderful THE SUNDOWNERS and that great re-teaming of Mitchum and Kerr, and of course his 1953 hit FROM HERE TO ETERNITY among others.

I find it incredible that London's National Film Theatre in their Audrey Hepburn season a year or so ago did not include THE NUN'S STORY or indeed the chance to see King Vidor's WAR AND PEACE, 1956, another key Audrey role, on the big screen, as they were focusing on Audrey as the fashion icon and not the actress!

Soon: an appreciation on Peter Finch.