BLITHE SPIRIT (1956).

Noel Coward and Claudette Colbert

BLITHE SPIRIT on Ford Star Jubilee Season One, episode five (1956). Director: Noel Coward. LIVE. 

Charles Condomine (Noel Coward of The Astonished Heart) and his second wife, Ruth (Claudette Colbert of Thunder on the Hill), invite the medium Madame Arcati (Mildred Natwick of A Woman's Vengeance) to their home for a seance. Unwittingly the somewhat vague Arcati summons up the ghost of Charles' first wife, Elvira (Lauren Bacall of Sex and the Single Girl), who can be seen by Charles but is invisible to Ruth. Eventually Ruth acknowledges that Elvira truly exists and is occupying their home, and schemes to send her back to the ether. Meanwhile Elvira is scheming to have Charles join her forever in the "hereafter," but her plans may go awry ... 

Coward with Lauren Bacall

This live TV adaptation of Noel Coward's famous very dark comedy is worth seeking out as it's quite funny and wonderfully acted by all. Coward, of course, knows just how to handle this material, and while she might seem like a lightweight in this company, Bacall is much better than expected as Elvira. Then we have Colbert, proving again what an acting powerhouse she is as Ruth -- she nearly walks off with the whole show. In one of her earliest roles Marion Ross of Happy Days and Lizzie is wonderful as the frenetic maid, Edith, and there are fine turns by Philip Tonge as Dr. Bradford and Brenda Forbes as his wife. Mildred Natwick is so good as Madame Arcati that she almost makes you forget Margaret Rutherford's superb portrayal of Arcati in the 1945 film version. Can one detect a definite if unintentional note of misogyny in this play -- possibly -- as at least one of these women certainly doesn't deserve her fate. One can imagine Condomine going off to the nearest gay beach when the play is over!

Verdict: Exciting, beautifully-acted live theater on TV! ***1/2. 

BLITHE SPIRIT

Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati

BLITHE SPIRIT (1945). Director: David Lean. Based on the play by Noel Coward, who also produced the film.

To do research for his next book, writer Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) and his wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) invite well-known psychic Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) to dinner and a seance. Everyone at the dinner party thinks the madame is slightly nuts, and definitely a phony, but to Charles and Ruth's surprise she inadvertently manages to call back the spirit of Elvira (Kay Hammond) -- Charles' first wife, leading to expected -- and a few unexpected -- complications! 

Rex Harrison

One critic called the source material for the movie, the play of the same title by Noel Coward, "a wearying  exhibition of bad taste" and indeed it is the sort of dark comedy/farce in which tragic situations are milked for laughs and characters sort of suppress natural human emotions for the sake of the story. Many will feel there's a definite streak of (probably benign and possibly unintended) misogyny running through the movie as well. Harrison and Cummings are fine as the husband and his second wife, but Kay Hammond -- although her performance isn't bad -- has so affected and unnatural a voice, with its jutting lower lip and distasteful inflections, that she becomes positively repulsive as Elvira. Margaret Rutherford, on the other hand, is as delightful as ever as the medium and steals the movie from everyone else. Blithe Spirit is not exactly a laugh-riot (although any pathos the situations might have had goes unexplored) but it is amusing and entertaining. A bonus on the remastered DVD of the film is an interview with Coward scholar Barry Day, who provides much interesting information  on the background both of the play and movie, and also explores the many differences between the two -- and Coward's reaction to the film as well; Day is marvelous. The play was also turned into the cute if mediocre musical "High Spirits." 

Verdict: Certainly worth a look. ***.

BRIEF ENCOUNTER -- Another Viewing

Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard

BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945). Director: David Lean. Produced and written by Noel Coward from his play. 

"So easy to lie when you're trusted implicitly. So easy -- and so degrading."

"Thank you for coming back to me."

Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) is happily married to husband Fred (Cyril Raymond), with whom she has two children. One afternoon at a train station a helpful doctor -- also married with children -- Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) gets something out of her eye for her. They meet again quite accidentally, but sparks strike, and romantic feelings develop. Although the relationship remains emotional and never becomes sexual -- although it almost does -- both Laura and Alec are convinced they are in love. But the guilt they are feeling over their respective spouses almost ruins whatever happiness the relationship is giving them. Finally a choice has to be made. But will Laura be able to accept it?

Johnson and Howard

Brief Encounter is no cheap soap opera but a brilliant examination of a difficult situation that is all too common now as it was back then. Laura and Alec are decent people who do love their spouses, but who can't help but react to a sudden and intense romantic infatuation that seems to come out of nowhere and is nearly overpowering. (Is it really true love? Possibly not.) The movie neither accepts nor judges, but merely presents this situation and its joys and agonies primarily from Laura's point of view. This is not about the heartbreak of the spouses because they don't know what's happening. This is one movie in which the narration is not intrusive but only adds to our understanding. What makes Brief Encounter a masterpiece is not only the sensitive direction, the superb performances from Johnson and Howard and indeed the entire cast, but Robert Krasker's first-rate cinematography. It doesn't hurt that everything is soaked in the strains of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. 

Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey

The humor in the film comes from the antics of station master Stanley Holloway and the lady who runs the food and drink counter, Myrtle (Joyce Carey). Holloway does his best to charm the lady, who is rather common but tries her damnedest not to appear that way. There is also fine work from Everley Gregg as Dolly, the chatty and annoying woman who ruins Laura's last moments with her lover, and Valentine Dyall has a splendid scene with Alec as his friend Stephen, whose flat Alec is using temporarily. "I'm not angry," Stephen tells Alec when he realizes a woman ran out of the flat just before he entered, "just disappointed." One of the film's most trenchant observations is when Laura realizes that even if she were to only tell Fred about Alec decades later when they were both old and gray, it would still hurt him horribly. The movie has a lovely and moving conclusion. 

Verdict: Truly another great movie that just seems to get better and better each time you see it. ****. 

THE ASTONISHED HEART

THE ASTONISHED HEART (1949). Director: Terence Fisher.

"The capacity to love is stronger in some people than in others and it's dangerous to deny it or to encourage it -- for the wrong reasons."

Put on film four years after Brief Encounter, this play was probably meant to look at infidelity from the husband's point of view instead of the wife's, but it is no way in the league of Brief Encounter. Psychiatrist Christian Faber (Noel Coward, pictured) treats patients who are tormented by affairs then winds up having one himself with an old friend of his wife's. The wife, Barbara, is played by Celia Johnson, who also appeared n Brief Encounter; the other woman, Leonora, is played by Margaret Leighton. Although there are some good scenes and interesting dialogue in the movie, it is generally much too talky and Coward proves (in this at least) a much better writer than actor. His performance as the husband isn't terrible but it's often stilted and passionless, and one can't imagine what on earth the very pretty and vivacious Leonora would have seen in the comparatively boring Christian. Johnson and Leighton are more on the mark. The film's final moments are bolstered by Coward's own heavy scoring, and the last scene is somewhat poignant. Coward's observations about married life and love are often on the money, but the framework is just too insufficient. As for director Terence Fisher, he had better luck with some of his zesty Hammer horror films some years later. 

Verdict: Watch Brief Encounter instead. **1/2.

CHANGE LOBSTERS AND DANCE

CHANGE LOBSTERS AND DANCE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Lilli Palmer. Macmillan; 1975.

Apparently without a ghostwriter, Lilli Palmer [Body and Soul] writes affectingly of her life and a bit of her career and writes so well that she proves as talented an author as she was an actress. Palmer tells of growing up a Jew in Berlin, leaving the country for France and then England when Hitler reared his ugly head, her early struggles to have a career as an actress and winding up as part of a singing act in sleazy nightclubs, her work in theater and films, and her marriage to Rex Harrison. From an insider's pov, Palmer tells of the effect Harrison's affair with Carole  Landis [Out of the Blue], a suicide, had on her and her husband's lives -- they essentially had to flee Hollywood for New York until My Fair Lady changed everything -- as well as the major impact of his affair with co-star Kay Kendall [Les Girls] , whom Harrison had to take care of as she was dying, a fact that was kept from her.  It was difficult for Palmer to continue co-starring with Rex Harrison in "Bell, Book and Candle" in London after he fell in love with Kendall, but the producer wouldn't let her out of her contract. She lied and told Harrison that she would return to him after Kendall's death, but told him the truth afterward. Palmer then had a happier marriage to Argentinian actor and author Carlos Thompson [Raw Wind in Eden]. Palmer provides interesting portraits of such folk as co-stars Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and close friend Laurence Olivier, as well as of Noel Coward, Greta Garbo, Helen Keller, and the malicious Hedda Hopper, but the best sections relate her impressions as anti-Semitic feelings grew in Germany, and her reactions when she returned to make films in her homeland many years later, wondering which of her co-workers were Nazis and which weren't.

Palmer goes behind the scenes of a couple of her movies, but most of her film work is only mentioned in passing. (She doesn't even mention stuff like The House That Screamed.) Interestingly, second husband Thompson did not want her appearing on the New York stage because, as she puts it, "I couldn't possibly ask him to sit around and twiddle his thumbs for a whole year ... " this coming not long after Thompson spent two years away from Palmer researching a book! Sadly, Palmer died of cancer about ten years after this book was finished, and Thompson committed suicide four years later.

Verdict: Absorbing and very well-written memoir. ***1/2. 

THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN

Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr

THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN  (1969). Director: Joseph McGrath.

Wealthy Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) has no son and heir, so he picks up a tramp he calls Youngman (Ringo Starr) and adopts him. Grand and son enjoy seeing how much people will do for money, and it turns out to be quite a lot. The last third of the film takes place on the title ocean liner, where there are riotous -- but, unfortunately, not very funny -- proceedings on board. The climax has Guy putting cash in a pool of literal crap and watching men dive for the loot while Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" plays over the action. Meant to tackle sacred cows of the period, The Magic Christian is merely awful and tedious, although there are times when you just can't turn your eyes away. The picture has the distinction of being the one Peter Sellers movie in which he clowns around but just isn't funny, and Starr, while adequate, is just along for the ride. There's a lot of homo-eroticism in the picture -- such as two dancing gay bodybuilders, and two boxers who begin making out instead of punching one another (for such a "daring" movie it's strange the way the camera cuts away before they actually kiss) -- and, alas, Leonard Frey of The Boys in the Band is forced to play a character named Laurence Faggot (pronounced Fag- go). What's meant to be shocking and sarcastic is just silly and asinine. Wilfrid Hyde-White [The Browning Version] is fine as the captain of the Magic Christian; Laurence Harvey [Life at the Top] seems to be having fun doing what might be called a Shakespearean striptease; Raquel Welch wields a mean whip in a galley scene; and Patrick Cargill and John Cleese are somewhat amusing as discombobulated employees of Sotheby's. Christopher Lee even shows up wearing his Dracula teeth and threatening to put the bite on a lady passenger. But the best cameo hands-down goes to Yul Brynner [Westworld], who is frankly astonishing as a somewhat odd-looking songstress warbling Noel Coward's "Mad About the Boy" in a cocktail lounge. Otherwise, this is a criminal waste of time! The whole film looks as if everyone involved was completely stoned all during filming.

Verdict: One of the worst movies ever made -- aside from a "fabulous" Brynner. *.

DEEPLY SUPERFICIAL: NOEL COWARD, MARLENE DIETRICH AND ME

DEEPLY SUPERFICIAL: NOEL COWARD, MARLENE DIETRICH, AND ME. Michael Menzies. Magnus/Riverdale Avenue; 2012.

Michael Menzies, born in New Zealand, wanted a more fabulous life and convinced himself that he was the [highly unlikely] figurative and literal love child of two celebrities he admired, Noel Coward and Marlene Dietrich. Coming out and moving to London, then New York and Hollywood, he recognized he had no performing talent [although he has had some success as a writer] and took jobs on the fringes of show biz, such as working for film's DeLaurentiis family. Menzies did manage to meet Coward in the early days, but never did catch up with Dietrich, although he tried to model himself on their style and behavior. Frankly, Deeply Superficial, while a quick and basically well-written read, has a somewhat dated quality, as in these days of gay bears and increased knowledge of the diversity of the large gay male community, self-described "queens" who model themselves on divas are just a little passe, however amusing and likable. Most of the biographical notes on the two legends seem cobbled together from many, many bios on Coward and Dietrich, and Menzies admits that if the facts are dull he just elaborates a bit, therefore you have to take what he says about these celebrities with a grain of salt. The best chapter has to do with Menzies' friend who loves the same music as he does and dies of AIDS -- the book is temporarily transformed from a, yes, superficial tome to a trenchant and moving one -- but alas that is only one chapter. Still the book can be read in under an hour and has its fair share of entertaining moments, and his notes on his real parents can be poignant. This is similar to other books that link unknown show biz types to the much more famous, such as Under the Rainbow by John Carlyle.

Verdict: Superficial look at two major stars by an appealing supporting player. **1/2.

BRIEF ENCOUNTER

BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945/British). Director: David Lean. Written by Noel Coward from his play Still Life.

Superb drama is one of the finest romantic films ever made. A married woman (Celia Johnson) meets a married man (Trevor Howard) at a train station, and the two soon realize they've found the soul mates that they haven't found in their spouses, whom they nevertheless love. Will they find a way to find happiness with each other or face a certain bleak reality? A sort of secondary love story is played out between the station agent (Stanley Holloway) and the lady who runs the tea shop (Joyce Carey) where the other two lovers first meet. Beautifully directed, acted and photographed, with appropriate background music from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto # 2, this is no mere soap opera but but a finely realized and uncompromising adult drama. The supporting cast is excellent right down to the smallest roles.

Verdict: A poignant, not-to-be-missed masterpiece! ****.