Nicol Williamson, R.I.P.

RIP indeed to one of the great acting talents of the British theatre and cinema. Nicol Williamson burst on the scene in the '60s - like the young David Warner he was a mesmerising Hamlet, he and Warner (whom I have been meaning to write about too, along with Alan Bates and Peter Finch) are together in the '68 drama THE BOFORS GUN, long unseen.
By all accounts a difficult man, as the respectful obituaries put it: "his prickly temperament helped derail what might have been one of the great theatrical careers" as he was "touched by genius" and "the greatest actor since Brando". Heady praise to live up to ...

He died aged 73 in December but his family have only released the information now. His 1968 HAMLET was filmed by Tony Richardson, with Marianne Faithfull as his Ophelia, and Richardson also directed him in his film of Nabokov's LAUGHTER IN THE DARK, where Williamson replaced another ailing hellraiser Richard Burton. This film is too little seen now, but I remember a tv showing if it ... His initial stage success was in John Osborne's INADMISSABLE EVIDENCE where his ranting solicitor (a rather more raging BUTLEY as played by Alan Bates) was a tour de force, he also played the role in the film. Other films included THE SEVEN PER CENT SOLUTION as Sherlock Holmes (above with Vanessa Redgrave), and as Little John with Connery and Audrey Hepburn in Richard Lester's smashing ROBIN AND MARIAN in 1976 - which also co-starred Robert Shaw - another of those actors like Stanley Baker, Laurence Harvey and Stephen Boyd who died too young. Williamson too had alcoholic problems, like Robert Stephens who also never became quite the star people thought he would and made too many dud movies, as did the hellraiser in chief Richard Burton. Peter O'Toole seems to have survived all that ... It seems now that a lot of the hellraisers of the 60s like Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins became, if they survived, old hams in dud movies. Nicol Williamson didn't quite go that route having got bored with acting eventually and turning to music. What a fascinating man. He is fun too in my favourite snake-on-the-loose-with-people-trapped-in-a-house-under-seige movie VENOM with his ex-lover Sarah Miles (review at Sarah Miles label), and then of course there was his Merlin in John Boorman's EXCALIBUR!

The actor, who was known as a straighforward, private man, leaves his son, Luke. "He was the most honest, funny and intelligent man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing," writes Luke on Williamson's official website. "He was my father and words cannot adequately express how proud I am of him."

Absolutely delicious ....

The new AB FAB and that Christmas GLEE ....

Above is Jeanne Durand the famous glacial French movie star who has deigned to appear in the new tv series of ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS, the BBC's long-running series of comedies by Jennifer Saunders with her and Joanna Lumley as Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone - the fashion, PR and media stars. [That episode "The End" with Patsy in New York and that flashforward to them just as disgraceful 25 years later is my particular standout favourite, it always creases me up...].

In order to impress her daughter Saffy, Edina decides to take on Jeanne as her new client and books her a concert at the Albert Hall - then it turns out that Durand can't sing! This is of course blissfully funny, and the campest thing you will see on tv this new year! It is fleshed out with all the usual AB FAB trimmings, Jane Horrocks as Bubbles, June Whitfield as mother, and guest stars Lulu and Emma Bunton - and yes, its "champagne for Lulu" once again! There are 3 new episodes of AB FAB and they are well up the quality of the previous.

Jeanne is of course wickedly played by Lindsay Duncan, that esteemed British actress who turns up everywhere: DR WHO, MERLIN, ROME, SPOOKS (she was stunning in that), and of course LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES with Alan Rickman, her breakthrough theatre role in '87. She plays 2 roles in the 1999 MANSFIELD PARK, which I saw over the holidays, as per review below, and was Isherwood's icy mother in CHRISTOPHER AND HIS KIND (gay interest label). Here (below) she channels the Jeanne Moreau of BAY OF ANGELS, latterday Deneuve or maybe Dunaway doing Dietrich. Its slyly wickedly funny. I will be seeing her on stage in a month or so in a new production here in London of Coward's HAY FEVER where she will be playing Edith Evans's old role as Judith Bliss, with Jeremy Northam.

Incidentally, Duncan also played a stunning Margaret Thatcher in a BBC play: MARGARET in 2009 - so Meryl is not the first IRON LADY ! Duncan's was a deadly serious look at Thatcher's divisive reign and policies and the bids to topple her and shows how disliked she was. Stirring stuff!

On a different tack, the Christmas episode of this season's GLEE was a madly camp delight too as Klaine (Kurt and Blaine - how about "Blurt"...) had their "Let It Snow" number done as a perfect recreation of an early 60s black and white tv show such as those Judy Garland shows circa '63 (below). They are joined too by Mercedes and Rachel and swop gifts. It is a delightful parody or recreation of that time. Internet comment though on the boys has been fascinating. I watch GLEE without liking it too much, as rock anthems like the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" are steamrolled and homogenised into teen musak, but hey, it sells - and there is always characters like Sue Sylvester to keep things humming, as well as guest stars like Gwynneth Paltrow! So it is at least always watchable - but I agree, their singing "Do They Know Its Christmas?" while feeding the homeless at the shelter was a tad too condescending and smugly self-satisfied.

Comments include:
"The happiest and highest-profile gay couple on television has a new video, and in fitting holiday form it's for the song "Let It Snow." Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) from Glee, a.k.a. "Klaine" as the kids on Twitter and fan sites call them, are featured in a magical video that resembles a grand old MGM musical number. The two young men are slick, sophisticated and super cute in their performance.

I applaud Glee for highlighting a gay couple as happy, healthy, and absolutely adorable. I found that this episode most definitely showed that they were together.
Adding close friends Rachel (Lea Michele) and Mercedes (Amber Riley) for "My Favorite Things" is smart, because it feels comfortable, and the grouping is totally believable.

And "Do They Know it's Christmas?" comes off as extremely condescending when sang to homeless people's faces. Why are the less fortunate enjoying this? They live in America! Of course they know it's Christmas!

The same goes for this video. It's just Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire to me and if seen by someone unaware of Klaine they would have no idea this scenario is that these two young men are 'living together' in this fabulous 50's house and having a fabulous singing/dancing Christmas get-together (I don't want to say party because it never came off as a party...)
it could just as easily be Rock Hudson and Tony Randall singing about their lonesome holiday not two seconds before Doris Day and her perrenially toasted housekeeper walk in from the cold. Charming but dated. Where is the real gay romance?

Creating prancing, limp-wristed, lisping Gays for entertainment is just as horrifying as having black-faced entertainers."

So, lots of varied opinion there then! - and Rachel gets to sing a bit of Joni Mitchells "River" too ... well it is a classic Christmas lyric: "Its coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees, singing songs of joy and peace ...."

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.

More R.I.P.'s

Maureen Swanson, The Countess of Dudley (1932-2011). Maureen was a glamorous Rank Organisation starlet in the 50s - Dirk Bogarde's Spanish girlfriend in THE SPANISH GARDENER in 1956, and opposite Peter Finch in ROBBERY UNDER ARMS in '57. Other films included Huston's MOULIN ROUGE, A TOWN LIKE ALICE and KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. She gave up show business on her marriage into the aristocracy in 1961.

Jonathan Cecil (1939-2011) could trace his ancestry back to Tudor times. Although rarely the star, he had more than four decades of constant employment in theatre, film and television. He excelled in Chekhov and Shakespeare, and four times played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in TWELFTH NIGHT. Other theatre successes include Peter Ustinov's HALFWAY UP THE TREE, Peter Barnes's THE RULING CLASS (in 1969), a new adaptation of Frank Wedekind's LULU (1971) and a revue, COWARDY CUSTARD (1972).

On film, Jonathan had a long and distinguished career that included appearances in Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON (1975), Mel Brooks's HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART ONE (1981), Fellini's AND THE SHIP SAILS ON (1983) and LITTLE DORRIT (1988). He starred opposite Peter Ustinov's Hercule Poirot in three television films, as Hastings, the Belgian detective's baffled foil. Jonathan was in constant demand whenever a comic toff or a bumbling cleric was called for on TV. He appeared in several PG Wodehouse adaptations and became a master of the audio book, recording more than 40 of Wodehouse's novels and stories. A Man of The Theatre indeed.

Showpeople: Stars at shows

When in London in 1956 for THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL Monroe and Miller attended the opening of his play A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE at the Comedy Theatre, causing a commotion. They also attended that historic first production of John Osbourne's LOOK BACK IN ANGER at the Royal Court - I saw the photo in some Marilyn book, or maybe an Arthur Miller book? but I can't find it now.










Also at the Royal Court, in 1959, were Kay Kendall and Lauren Bacall - I wonder what they were seeing? They don't seem to be enjoying it ...

I did see Arthur Miller in his later years when he was signing a new book of his at Hatchards bookshop in 1995. There was of course a huge crowd and we were instructed not to speak to him or ask him any questions, but I got a signed copy of "Plain Girl"!

Vanessa

How good to see Vanessa Redgrave continuing to work into her '70s both in cinema and currently on the stage. Two fascinating new projects awaiting release are her Elizabeth I in ANONYMOUS about Shakespeare and his works, and CORIOLANUS by Ralph Fiennes, and that she continues to be as admired as Dames Maggie and Judi et al.

She has been a fixed presence in my moviegoing since the mid-60s: MORGAN, BLOW-UP, THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR, ISADORA, CAMELOT, THE DEVILS, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, JULIA, THE TROJAN WOMEN and through to cameos in HOWARD'S END, THE WHITE COUNTESS, ATONEMENT etc, not to mention her delirious A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY in '69 with Franco Nero (now her husband). I have only caught a few of her stage performances but she was astounding in a delicious '70s DESIGN FOR LIVING (photo at Vanessa Redgrave label) and A MADHOUSE IN GOA sometime in the 80s. She is very lucid too on the making of BLOW-UP in a BBC documentary showing how Antonioni showed her how he wanted her to sit and move and stand. Her autobiography is a revealing read too covering not only her theatrical heritage, the Tony Richardson years and later. Her late sister Lynn was also a particular favourite of mine, as per Lynn Redgrave label.

Update 26 October: a busy week for Vanessa, she has been on morning television twice, on different days, promoting ANONYMOUS as well as CORIOLANUS and DRIVING MISS DAISY - must be tiring doing a play at night and then up early for morning tv! Good to see Joely with her, as Vanessa is as busy as ever - ANONYMOUS looks like a must-see with mother and daughter both playing Elizabeth I. Franco Nero also popped up in LAW & ORDER, SVU as the (Italian here) diplomat accused of rape by a hotel maid, in a topical take on that recent headline grabber!



Coming up: return visits to MORGAN and ISADORA.

R.I.P: Some more obits & 1982

JOHN HOWARD DAVIES (1939-2011) - Oliver in David Lean's 1948 classic, when he was 9. He grew up though to produce (and direct) some of Britain's finest comedy classics during the golden age of television. FAWLTY TOWERS and the early MONTY PYTHONS for the BBC, (he directed the first 4 episodes). He produced THE GOOD LIFE for it's entire run, THE WORLD OF BEACHCOMBER in the early days of BBC2. He became Head of Comedy at BBC lauching series like YES MINISTER, NOT THE 9 O'CLOCK NEWS, ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES. It is a great legacy.

RICHARD PEARSON (1918-2011) Richard Pearson was one of the most distinctive English actors, on stage, television and cinema since the 1940s. He was the kind of actor on which the British theatre has always relied: utterly dependable and totally distinctive. He could always be counted on to play doctors, accountants, politicians, policemen and churchmen: anyone, in short, who seemed to embody professional solidity. Pearson always managed to invest these characters with an inner life and a look of wounded dignity.

I would have seen him on the stage as William Cecil opposite Eileen Atkins' Elizabeth I in Bolt's VIVAT REGINA in the 70s, and in the 80s he co-starred with Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack in the hit LETTICE AND LOVAGE. He also played in LOVE AMONG THE RUINS in '75 for Cukor with Katharine Hepburn and Olivier. Other films include CHARLIE BUBBLES, THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE, SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY and Polanski's PIRATES. It was a long enduring career - he was in the original production of Pinter's THE BIRTHDAY PARTY in '58 - and he had a good innings at 93.

STAN BARSTOW (1928-2011). Barstow was one of those new "kitchen sink" novelists who burst on the scene in the late 50s and early 60s, along with John Braine (ROOM AT THE TOP), Keith Waterhouse (BILLY LIAR), Shelagh Delaney (A TASTE OF HONEY) and Alan Sillitoe (SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING). Barstow's best known book A KIND OF LOVING was an enormous, likeable hit, its transends its period in it's timeless tale of a young couple falling into lust and then having to get married when she is pregnant - AND having to move in with her disapproving mother. John Schlesinger made a marvellous move from it in 1962, with great performances by Alan Bates, June Ritchie and Thora Hird. The book has always been in print, and is just one in Barstow's long career.



1982
Re-reading "Sight and Sound"'s partwork "Chronicle of Cinema" which they gave away some years ago, it is fascinating reading the lists of who died in each year - 1982 would have been of particular interest for me - as it saw the departure of several of my favourites: Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly's fatal car crash and Romy Schneider's mysterious early death, as well as the suicides of Patrick Dewaere and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (or accidental overdose, like John Belushi), as well as the likes of stalwarts and vererans Celia Johnson, Kenneth More, Henry Fonda, Eleanor Powell, Jacques Tati, Isa Miranda [whom I have just discovered], Curt Jurgens, Alma Reville (Mrs Hitchcock), directors Charles Walters, Elio Petri, Valerio Zurlini, King Vidor - and that great comedian Arthur Askey!

More R.I.P.s

Two distinguished British actresses, and a lively Hollywood starlet !

Anna Massey, aged 73. She began as the debutante in the original '50s production of THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, her first movie role was as Jack Hawkins' daughter in John Ford's GIDEON'S DAY in '58. Then of course there was Michael Powell's notorious clasic PEEPING TOM in 1960, and her role as Babs in Hitch's FRENZY in 1972 - that chilling moment when the camera backs away down the stairs and out of the building from what is going on upstairs ... Anna was very prolific with lots of other movie roles in films like BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, DE SADE and a tv REBECCA as Mrs Danvers, with her ex-husband Jeremy Brett as Max. She had a happy late second marriage and was always among the first to be called for a costume drama where she excelled as aunts and spinsters of every type. She was the daughter of Raymond Massey, and sister of Daniel Massey - she and Daniel must have had great fun doing their segment of VAULT OF HORROR. RIP indeed.

Margaret Tyzack,79, so memorable in so many BBC productions like THE FORSYTH SAGA, the still terrific I CLAUDIUS as Antonia, that very noble Roman matron - and as COUSIN BETTE, the malevolent heroine (?) of the 1971 adaptation of Balzac's great novel. I also saw her on stage a few times, as Elizabeth I in Robert Bolt's VIVAT REGINA and with Maggie Smith in the hit comedy LETTICE AND LOVAGE. Margaret kept going to the end and did a few episodes of the soap EASTENDERS recently. Below, with Helen Mirren in COUSIN BETTE.



Elaine Stewart, 81, had a few bright spots in the '50s, in Minnelli's THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and that memorable scene in Vincente's BRIGADOON when we are back in that nightmarish New York, as the ritzy girlfriend Gene Kelly is not listening to .... her other roles included a rather good James Stewart western I liked as a child, 1957's NIGHT PASSAGE.