Seasons Greetings !

I never tire of David Lean's classic 1946 GREAT EXPECTATIONS and that great double act of the great Martita Hunt and Jean Simmons as Miss Havisham and Estella. I never saw that 1974 version which was meant to be a musical and then wasn't but Margaret Leighton [right] must also have been a terrific Havisham [and favourites Sarah Miles a spiteful Estella, Michael York an earnest Pip and James Mason suitably grim as Magwich - Ray Winstone in this new version]. The jilted Miss Havisham has also been played by Charlotte Rampling in 1999 (left below) and now by Gillian Anderson [left] in a new BBC production this christmas, as a much younger almost alluring recluse - Jean Simmons in her later years even played her for some long forgotten tv version! Happy holidays!

Coming up: more Italian and French rarities, more gay interest titles, more cult classics, more trash, more 'people we like' [Peter Finch, Alan Bates, David Warner, Vera Miles, George Sanders, Brandon De Wilde], more on Deneuve, Romy Schneider, Anouk Aimee, Gerard Philipe and some new movies too - starting with those popular choices BRIDESMAIDS and THE INBETWEENTERS MOVIE! How I spoil you.

Showpeople (13): Friends, rivals - and the glamorous life

Anouk Aimee looks in on pal Dirk Bogarde with Jean Simmons on the set of SO LONG AT THE FAIR, 1950. Dirk at the 1965 premiere of DARLING with co-star Julie Christie and Monica Vitti (they were filming MODESTY BLAISE at the time).
Below: Joe Losey and Visconti at the Cannes festival in 1971, both promoting their wares: when Visconti heard that Losey got the Palme D'Or for THE GO-BETWEEN he set off for the airport, but was called back when the Jury invented a special 25th anniversary prize for him, for DEATH IN VENICE!
Coming attractions: lots more French flicks - Francois Ozon, 3 Claude Sautet avec Romy Schneider, Andre Techine avec Catherine Deneuve, and back to Chabrol and Melville with those Belmondos and Delons, that Techine boxset (including WILD REEDS), Chabrol's LE CEREMONIE, Assayas' SUMMER HOURS, Deneuve in A CHRISTMAS TALE and others.

Great Nights in the Theatre, continued

Staying with theatre a bit longer, I have been rummaging among my programmes which go back to the mid-60s. There really though doesn't seem much point in discussing past shows, as they only matter to those who saw them. One can always find a rare movie, but once a show is over ... here are a few favourites from a lifetime of theatre-going...

MUSICALS

I was 20 when FUNNY GIRL arrived in London in 1966 as the hot new show, with that amazing new star Barbra Streisand (with Michael Craig as her Nicky Arnstein) - a friend, Frank, and I got tickets and got to see it from the front row! Streisand wore a little mike which was the first time we saw one of those. The show was changed a lot for the movie - as usual (ditto with CABARET) some songs removed and replaced by others. On the stage her final number "The Music that Makes Me Dance" was a perfect solo, but it was "My Man" in the film! Craig had a nice number too: "I Want To Be Seen With You".



Best ever night in the theatre? A CHORUS LINE at Drury Lane on my 30th birthday, in 1976.



Right: Vanessa Redgrave, Jeremy Brett & John Stride in the sublime 1973 DESIGN FOR LIVING.
3 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSICS: the 1975 one with Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold / a late 80s revivial with Peter McEnery, Dorothy Tutin, Susan Hampshire and Lila Kedrova / and that great National Theatre one, maybe 15 years ago now, with Judi Dench and Sian Phillips - I was at a preview [thanks, Tony] with Sondheim a seat but one away, furiously taking notes.
Then there was that FOLLIES with Eartha Kitt and Diana Rigg, and CHICAGO when Chita Rivera was in it
- and recent revivals [with Donal] of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, CABARET, LE CAGE AUX FOLLES and of course the pure theatre of THE LION KING and LES MIZ, plus those giddy pleasures HAIRSPRAY and LEGALLY BLONDE, and two great productions of SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM and being taken backstage [thanks, Pamela] to meet Julia McKenzie and Millient Martin, and there was Bacall in the awful APPLAUSE in '73 [with Franco] (Bacall label) , and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA [with Catriona, I had to get the CD next day].

STARS ON STAGE - among those I liked: (click images twice to enlarge)

Deborah Kerr, THE DAY AFER THE FAIR, 1972
Jean Simmons, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, 1975
Julie Christie, OLD TIMES, 1997 - being able to gaze at her for 90 minutes; Liv Ullmann too in a 70s production of OLD TIMES.
Faye Dunaway, CIRCE AND BRAVO, 1986 - directed by Harold Pinter
Claire Bloom, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, 1974 (Claire Bloom label)
Julie Harris, THE BELLE OF AMHERST, 1977 (see Julie Haris label) [with Les]
Lee Remick, BUS STOP, 1975 (photos and more at Lee Remick label)
Angela Lansbury & Peggy Ashcroft, ALL OVER, 1972 [with Stan]
Cyd Charisse, CHARLY GIRL, 1985 [with Rory]
Vanessa Redgrave, DESIGN FOR LIVING, 1973 & A MADHOUSE IN GOA, 1998
Maggie Smith: PRIVATE LIVES, HEDDA GABLER, NIGHT AND DAY, LETTICE AND LOVAGE, THE BEAU'S STRATEGM
Judi Dench, LONDON ASSURANCE, 1973, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, 1997
Sian Phillips, MARLENE, 1997, PAL JOEY, RIDE A COCK HORSE
Marlene herself in concert in 1973 - a masterclass in audience manipulation!
Ralph Richardson & John Gielgud, HOME, 1970 which I saw twice !
Ingrid Bergman just perfect with Michael Redgrave, Emlyn Williams, Jeremy Brett, A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, 1965, CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND's CONVERSION (with Kenneth Williams) in '71
Peter O'Toole, Sian Phillips, RIDE A COCK HORSE - my first London show in 1965 [with Mike and Gina]
Robert Stephens amazing as the Inca king in ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN, at the Old Vic, 1966
Glenda Jackson, Marianne Faithfull, THE THREE SISTERS, in the front row of the Royal Court, 1968
Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, Vivien Merchant, THE MAIDS [with Les].
Alan Bates, BUTLEY, '73, HAMLET, 1970 (with Celia Johnson as Gertrude) [other Hamlets I saw include Michael York, Peter McEnery, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Dillane, David Tennant - as per Theatre Hamlets label)
Jill Bennett, SEPARATE TABLES, PRIVATE LIVES and another splendid HEDDA at the Royal Court (where she was also Gertrude to Jonathan Pryce's acclaimed HAMLET)
Sarah Miles & Eileen Atkins: VIVAT REGINA
Joan Greenwood and Gladys Cooper: a revival of THE CHALK GARDEN, 1971 [more at Greenwood, Cooper labels]
Edith Evans in her one woman show, 1974.
I saw Ingmar Bergman's HEDDA with Maggie Smith twice, it was so spellbinding, blood red sets and the cast in black, in 1970 - a look he followed in CRIES & WHISPERS in 72. Ditto HOME with Richardson and Gielgud, and they signed the programme afterwards.




The 'real' Marlene, and Sian Phillips's Marlene.

GREAT CONCERTS ?
Aretha Franklin, at her peak in both 1968 and 1970 - she wouldn't fly after that! [with Stan]
Otis Redding and the Stax Soul Tour, 1966 (before that fatal flight), (with Stan).
The Doors at the Roundhouse, 1968 (and I am in the concert video footage,aged 22!) as per Doors label [with Clive and those stoned hippies]
4 Joni Mitchell concerts [Joni label for when I met her in Chelsea in 1972).
4 Pet Shop Boys concerts [their residency at the Savoy Theatre in 1997 was Very Pet Shop Boys], and that Scissor Sisters concert in Trafalgar Square in 2006 [with Donal]
Marlene Dietrich at Wimbledon,1973 [with Bryan]
Peggy Lee at the Albert Hall, 1970
Bette Midler at the London Palladium, 1979 [with Les]
Liza Minnelli at The Royal Opera House, circa 1980
Joan Armatrading, Cleo Laine, Dionne Warwick (1970 & 2005), Petula Clark - several times each, and Nancy Wilson.
Great concerts too by The Band, Blood Sweat & Tears, Van Morrison, The Who.
Divine on stage at Rory's club in Brighton, 1986, and all the hi-energy divas!

And, just to recap, those early '70s National Film Theatre Q&A sessions [as reported on previously at labels with photos] with the likes of Bogarde, Mason, Remick, Davis, De Havilland, Huston, Harrison, Lansbury, Bergman, Niven, Heston and the like, and those book signings with Loren, Bacall, Arthur Miller, Michael York and others, and that screening of A STAR IS BORN at the Starlight Cinema in Mayfair, with Gary [my 1963 "Films and Filming" penfriend] over from Australia, in 1970.






The shows I would love to have seen: Coward's HAY FEVER at the National in '63 with the classic cast of Edith Evans and the young Maggie Smith and Sarah Miles / and Coward himself in his last London outing SUITE IN THREE KEYS with Lilli Palmer and Irene Worth, in 1965 - just before my time!
and now, back to the movies ...

Black Narcissus, again

Perfect for an Easter afternoon: a repeat of that excellent documentary on ace cameraman Jack Cardiff - it includes lots of his portraits too of the likes of Monroe, Loren, both Hepburns, Ava Gardner, Anita Ekberg etc not seen elsewhere, plus home movies on the set of films like LEGEND OF THE LOST, WAR AND PEACE, PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN etc. following by repeats of BLACK NARCISSUS and THE AFRICAN QUEEN (though I think that one should be given a rest for a while, one may have seen it too often...).



BLACK NARCISSUS though from Rumer Godden's novel in 1947 is one one never tires of, and is a film one can live with and see quite often - every frame and scene are just spellbinding, as the heated melodrama of the nuns living in the abandoned harem high in the Himalayas - and it was all done at Pinewood after the war! then that cast: 26 year old Deborah Kerr as Sister Clodagh (a decade later in '57 she would be a much simpler nun in Huston's HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON - at least she got to go to Tobago for that!); Kathleen Byron, an unjustly neglected actress, as Sister Ruth; teenage Jean Simmons, Sabu, Flora Robson, David Farrar as the agent Mr Dean ... somehow I always love that final scene at the end between him and Sr Clodagh and then the rain falls on those giant leaves, as the convent is obscured by clouds. The scenes too of Sr Ruth now demented as sunset falls on the chapel and Sr Clodagh goes to ring the bell are endlessly fascinating. Sr Clodagh (like Audrey Hepburn's Sister Luke in THE NUN'S STORY) may also be over-reaching her authority as she has to maintain order and discipline in this hostile environment, with the winds blowing, as feelings of jealousy, anger and madness surface ... and the presence of Mr Dean in his short shorts does not help...

Then there are those 4 luscious flashbacks to Sr Clodagh's life in Ireland, in Cardiff's perfectly '40s Technicolor: fishing on the lake, hunting, the gift of the emeralds and the carol singing where Kerr looks radiant. It may well soon be my favourite movie of all time!

Women in the '50s: Hilda and Claudelle ...

Two interesting movies on women's roles in the '50s - the independent [or is she?] Hilda and the trampy Claudelle: Take it away girls:

HILDA CRANE – I knew nothing about this 1956 film [a rarity indeed!] apart from that it starred Jean Simmons, so it was a complete surprise for me. We are back in those repressive, square mid-’50s as Hilda returns to her small town, defeated after her years in New York. This begins like a mix of CLASH BY NIGHT with Stanwyck also returning to her hometown, and ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS with the mother going to meet the train in another viciously small-minded town.

It turns out Hilda has two failed marriages behind her while still in her 20s, and of course like all women then dresses just like her mother: fur coat, gloves, little hats, and of course smokes incessantly. It makes for a fascinating social document. This is a small-scale story, with basically only 5 characters, but gets the full Fox Cinemascope and De Luxe Colour treatment, as directed and scripted (from a play – its very talky with reams of dialogue) by Philip Dunne. Simmons though, just after GUYS AND DOLLS seems too fresh and young, Hilda Crane is really a Stanwyck type (though she was too old by then – a year or two later it surely would have gone to Fox’s new favourite, Joanne Woodward).

This though should be much better known by those who study these things as a key woman’s film of the ‘50s depicting how they feel about themselves and their place in society. Hilda though she dresses like her mother sees herself as modern woman but her choices are limited (and don’t seem to include work). Luckily her old boyfriend Guy Madison is on hand and stills want to marry her – marriage number three for Hilda! – while her old college professor, French Jean-Pierre Aumont, now a successful writer, also wants her but not to marry her. His type don’t marry “experienced” women like Hilda, but he wants her as a mistress or as he puts it “a courtesan”. Hilda though is honest and does not want that, or the life her mother chose, to settle for respectability and keeping up appearances and an ordered existence. Mother is Judith Evelyn and her disappointed face explains everything about her – while Guy’s mother is a monstrously vile creation by Evelyn Varden who does not want her son to marry Hilda and will do anything to stop the wedding – she certainly succeeds in spoiling the big day! Guy is pure teak here as the solid boyfriend while Aumont plays the cad, and Jean is certainly at her peak.

I just had to include this lovely picture of Jean:
CLAUDELLE INGLISH (now called YOUNG AND EAGER on it’s IMDB page! – though WILD IN THE COUNTRY would be the perfect title…) – is a more modern (1961) look at a liberated (or is she?) miss and it follows on from the success of those teen hits like PARRISH and SUSAN SLADE. This though is Erskine Caldwell territory set in the backwoods where the local yokels (and their fathers!) are all agog over young Claudelle, and the local rich landowner who is depicted as an oaf (Claude Akins) also wants her. Claudelle starts out pure and virginal as she is courted by Chad Everett, but after he goes into the army he jilts her, and she seeks her vengeance by going out with all and sundry and receiving presents from them. Mom and Dad are reliable Arthur Kennedy and Constance Ford (re-united from A SUMMER PLACE). It is a good role for Kennedy which he inhabits nicely, and Ford depicts another of her nightmare mothers, here as the dreary fed-up wife tired of being poor, so she pushes Claudelle into the arms of Akins, and tries to take her place (in a toe-curling scene) when Claudelle is not interested in him. Things come to a climax with a gun, but it is all hilariously melodramatic and way over the top. Diane McBain, a starlet of the era, is nice as Claudelle but if she such a vamp perhaps a more exotic type, perhaps a young Ann-Margret, would be more suitable. McBain really seems a poor man’s Sandra Dee. It is all assembled by reliable studio hack Gordon Douglas (who also entertained us with his Carroll Baker movies SYLVIA and the HARLOW abomination - see my reviews at Trash label).