Great performances: Olivier's Richard III

Great performances come in various shapes, few as stunning at the spider-like, stunted king who dominates Laurence Olivier's 1955/56 film of RICHARD III, which he produced and directed, as well as starring as the much-maligned monarch. Now that Richard's remains have been found (under a car park in Leicester!) and authenticated there is revived interest in the fate of this king - was he really as dastardly as Shakespeare painted him? 

Yes, this is the work of a ham in full overdrive mode - all rubber nose and moptop wig and a cushion up the back of his shirt, but nobody before or since has told the tale with greater clarity. By making Richard so comical and witty and clever and running rings around everybody else as he exacts revenge for his deformed body by killing his way to the Throne of England, Olivier's performance still resonates now. The stellar cast Olivier surrounded himself with - Gielgud, Richardson, the silent Pamela Brown as the old king's knowing mistress, Stanley Baker, Laurence Naismith, Cedric Hardwicke and particularly Claire Bloom as Lady Anne - none of them steals Larry's thespian thunder. 

From his first approach to the camera as he draws us into his confidence with those lines: "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York" - to that final "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" on the battlefield before he is hacked to death - this is a performance for the ages. I saw it as a child when most of the verse would have been over my head, but that scene where the murderers (Michael Gough and Michael Ripper - both very appropriately scary) drown Clarence (Gielgud) in the vat of wine is one moment that stayed with me, they also get the princes in the tower. It all looks great too, with fascinating costumes, music score by Sir William Walton, production design by Roger Furse, 

There was though another King that year: Yul Brynner, also mesmerising, in THE KING AND I and it was he who won the Best Actor Oscar (the others nominated were Kirk Douglas for LUST FOR LIFE and both Dean and Hudson for GIANT. It must be tough for an actor to have maybe one's greatest role the same year as a standout turn - but this was Brynner's breakout year (he also had his imposing Rameses in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and ANASTASIA out there), like 1954 was Brando's. 

This though was Olivier's greatest decade - he went on to direct and star in THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL with Marilyn, his icy Crassus in SPARTACTUS, his great THE ENTERTAINER, TERM OF TRIAL and running the new National Theatre and that other towering Shakespeare role in OTHELLO and blacking up again for KHARTOUM (see Olivier label); his energy must have been prodigious. 

Ian McKellan's modern-dress 1995 version which I did not see seems unobtainable now (unless for very silly money). 

A lot more Shakespeare to investigate over the coming months: 6 cinematic HAMLETs: Olivier again with his Oscar-winning 1948 version, the Russian 1964 one by Grigori Kozintsev with the brooding Innokenty Smoktunevsky as the Dane (that impressed me once at the BFI and I have now got the dvd); then there's Tony Richardson's 1969 one with Nicol Williamson, Derek Jacobi for the BBC in the 80s, Zeffirelli's with Mel Gibson (it also features Bates and Scofield) in 1990 and the 1996 Kennth Branagh all-star one (Julie Christie as Gertrude!) - then there's 6 Hamlets I saw on the stage: Peter McEnery (1968), Michael York (1970), Alan Bates (in '72 with Celia Johnson as Gertrude), Jonathan Pryce (Jill Bennett was his Gertrude in 1980), Stephen Dillane in the '90s and David Tennant's understudy, a few years ago. Couple of MACBETHs too: Orson Welles in '48, Nicol Williamson for the BBC, Polanski's in 1972 and another television one with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench. and of course Welles' 1966 CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT is stunningly marvellous, as is his OTHELLO, both made on very shoestring budgets ..... Its going to be a winter of drama then .... I imagine Zeffirelli's HAMLET should look as good as his TAMING OF THE SHREW and ROMEO AND JULIET.

Those good companions

Two versions of THE GOOD COMPANIONS: That 1933 musical by Victor Saville with Jessie Matthews headlining, and - a real oddity now - the 1957 English musical, directed by J. Lee Thompson. Both versions are adapted from J.B. Priestley's famous novel charting the ups and downs of a struggling touring concert troupe "The Dinky Doos" - The future looks bleak for them when their manager runs off with the funds and dwindling audiences force the theatre owner to close their show. Young Susie Dean is particularly disconsolate: the talented singer and dancer is sure the setback will mean an end to her theatrical career. However, a chance meeting of three strangers could bring about a big change in the fortunes of the little company... 

Enter Miss Trant, Inigo Jollifant and Jess Oakroyd, three people on the road and changing their circumstances. Miss Trant is a spinster with a car, which Jess mends for her - he has left home and his nagging wife when he was laid off at work; Inigo is a school-teacher who has rebelled and walked out and has a talent for writing songs ... They meet up with the travelling players The Dinky Doos, a pierrot group, and soon re-vitalise them. Inigo and Susie Dean become an item, but she wants to be a famous star, and thinks Inigo "feeble". He shows her by getting famous impressario Monte Mortimer (Finlay Currie, bluff as ever) to visit to see her act, the very evening a rival theatre-owner decides to wreck their performance. It all comes right in the end of course. Susie and Inigo are a success, Miss Trant finds her lost love, Jess gets off to Canada to visit his daughter and The Dinky Doos are a success again.

This is a delicious entertainment and the English 1930s in aspic. Jessie Matthews (rather shrill at first) is totally perfect as Susie singing that song "Let Me Give My Happiness To You", and is like an art deco figure as she flings her legs about and dances (see 1930s label for her FIRST A GIRL). The young John Gielgud in that hat and raincoat  has just the right gravitas for Inigo, and Edmund Gwynn is Jess to the manner born.

The 1957 remake by comparison is a nightmare where nothing looks or feels right. It may be in Cinemascope and Colour but in its way is more dated than the '30s version. The young lovers here are to the forefront, and as played by Janette Scott (cloyingly winsome) and John Fraser they look like any ordinary '50s teenagers. Scott is the daughter of veteran Thora Hird (who also plays here) and was a good Cassandra in HELEN OF TROY in 1955, Fraser was an effective Bosie in the Peter Finch TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE in 1960, and that warring prince in EL CID among other good parts. They are totally nondescript here though.
 
There's also Rachel Roberts as a brassy showgirl (her "The Gentleman is a Heel" number is a camp riot), Hugh Griffiths, Shirley Anne Field, Joyce Grenfell, Marjorie Rhodes, Mona Washbourne, Fabia Drake, John LeMesurier, Anthony Newley, Carole Lesley; with Celia Johnson good as Miss Trant, and Eric Portman as Jess. It tries hard to copy those Hollywood big production numbers (like right) which fall very flat here ...theres also that very camp number "Where There's You, There's Me" sung by the very camp lead dancer ...

I saw this 1957 version as a kid and could barely remember it, it never appeared anywhere since until this new dvd. Curiosity value certainly for anyone who likes the '50s, but the original 1930s version is the real deal. I do not know much of J.B. Priestley's work, but remember a good BBC serial of his ANGEL PAVEMENT which would be good to see again. 
J. Lee Thompson did some terrific action movies (NORTH WEST FRONTIER, GUNS OF NAVARONE, TIGER BAY, CAPE FEAR) as well as comedies like my favourite AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY, and interesting dramas such as YIELD TO THE NIGHT, WOMAN IN A DRESSING GOWN, THE WEAK AND THE WICKED as well as this GOOD COMPANIONS misfire.
Right: Rachel lets rip ...

'60s comedy: The Loved One / Lord Love A Duck

Finally, Tony Richardsons's THE LOVED ONE - MGM's 1965 comedy "with something to offend everyone" that I never caught until now and I saw it on a Spanish dvd with Spanish sub-titles I could not remove. Fascinating stuff though - it may have opened briefly here in London at the time (it was reviewed in "Films & Filming" magazine) and then shoved out on release for a week,. but I somehow never saw it and it has never surfaced since as it seems MGM either forgot about it or locked it away.

Newly arrived in Hollywood from England, Dennis Barlow finds he has to arrange his uncle's interment at the highly-organised and very profitable Whispering Glades funeral parlour. His fancy is caught by one of their cosmeticians, Aimee Thanatogenos. But he has three problems - the strict rules of owner Blessed Reverand Glenworthy, the rivalry of embalmer Mr Joyboy, and the shame of now working himself at The Happy Hunting Ground pets' memorial home.

Richardson after the "kitchen sink" dramatics of LOOK BACK IN ANGER, A TASTE OF HONEY, THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER had that enormous success with TOM JONES in 1963 which (as per my previous post on him - that book on the Redgraves, Trash label, and the "Hollywood UK" tv series, TV label) gave him carte blanche for his next films. THE LOVED ONE has an impeccible pedigree: a Martin Ransohoff production, from Evelyn Waugh's novel satirising the American way of death, scripted by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood. Richardson, who despite being married to Vanessa Redgrave, was also gay or bi, juices it up with a great cast of cameos:

James Coburn, Roddy McDowell, Margaret Leighton, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter as tour guide, Liberace as a casket salesman. We follow naive Englishman Robert Morse arriving in L A and staying with his actor uncle, John Gielgud (quietly hilarious), who is part of the English colony. We also get Robert Morley, Jonathan Winters in 2 roles and Rod Steiger does another outrageous turn as chief embalmer Mr Joyboy, looking after his grotesque elderly mother. Anjanette Comer is startlingly odd as the love intererst, the first lady embalmer with her unfinished home in 'the slide area'. If you are disturbed or offended by the funeral business, death in general, dead pets, or slightly veiled hints at necrophilia then you might want to give this one a miss. It is though a fascinating oddity now, and probably ahead of its time, as black comedy is much more acceptable now.

LORD LOVE A DUCK, 1966 - where writer George Axelrod treats one social sacred cow after another with amused disdain, skewering religion, motherhood, education, and matrimony, in gleaming monochrome images. Axelrod of course wrote plays like THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH and WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER, as well as scripting THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS, HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE among others, LORD LOVE A DUCK is his first as  director. Another under-rated '60s comedy then, this 1966 production was treated as a second feature here in the UK and also vanished without trace. I remember "Sight & Sound" raving about it though, particularly that scene where Tuesday Weld gets her father to buy her all those cashmere sweaters, its dizzylingly funny as she recites the names of the colours: 'Peach Put-On', 'Periwinkle Pussycat' etc, its a scene most actresses of her era just could not carry off . The following commentators describe it much better than I can:

Andrew Sarris in "The Village Voice" said:

"Tuesday Weld is Nabokov’s grown-up nymphet come to life in a cavalcade of cashmere sweaters, and closer to Nabokov’s original conception that Sue Lyon could ever be".

John Landis: 

"George Axelrod’s unclassifiable satire is one of the oddest Hollywood movies, which over the years has engendered passionate support and derision. For some it’s an incisively bizarre portrait of sixties America, for others it’s a sloppily made, undisciplined mess (with more boom mikes visible in full frame than even Play It Again Sam). However, nothing can dim the luster of the incredibly perverse scene where Tuesday Weld’s horny dad (Max Showalter) practically ejaculates while watching his sexy daughter try on sweaters."

Geoff Andrew (London):

"Axelrod’s patchy but often brilliant first attempt at direction: a kooky fantasy, very funny in its satire of contemporary teen morals and mores. McDowall plays a high school student of enormous IQ and fabulous powers, which he exercises in order to grant a pretty co-ed (Weld) her every heart’s desire, starting with the thirteen cashmere sweaters she requires to join an exclusive sorority, and ending with a husband whom he obligingly murders to leave her free to realise her true dream of movie stardom. Whereupon, realising he did it all for love, he ends up in the booby-hatch, happily dictating his memoirs. Taking in some delicious side-swipes at the ‘Beach Blanket’ cycle, Axelrod reveals much the same penchant (and talent) for cartoon-style sight gags as Tashlin, and coaxes a marvellous trio of variations on the American female from Tuesday Weld, Lola Albright and Ruth Gordon. Daniel Fapp’s stunningly cool, clear monochrome camerawork is also a distinct plus."

and Pauline Kael:

"This satire on teenage culture, modern education, psychoanalysis, and what have you was the best American comedy of its year, and yet it’s mostly terrible. The picture is bright and inventive, but it’s also a hate letter to America that selects the easiest, most grotesque targets and keeps screaming at us to enjoy how funny-awful everything is. Finally we’re preached at for our tiny minds and our family spray deodorants. Tuesday Weld has a wonderful blank, childlike quality as a Los Angeles high-school student who lusts after cashmere sweaters and wants everybody to love her. The director, George Axelrod, drew upon the novel Candy, which he beat to the movie post, as well as WHAT’S NEW, PUSSYCAT? and the Richard Lester movies; there is eating à la TOM JONES and there are other tidbits from all over, even from NIGHTS OF CABIRIA. Roddy McDowall plays a genie; Lola Albright is spectacularly effective as Tuesday’s cocktail-waitress mother; and Ruth Gordon does her special brand of dementia."

Quite a zany mid-60s double feature then - Tuesday is delightful and Lola Albright and Ruth Gordon are indeed formidable - and Martin West (above) as Tuesday's husband Roddy keeps trying to bump off, is eye-catching too. 

People we like: Michael Redgrave

Sir Michael Redgrave always seemed the least prominent or flamboyant of England's acting knights [though his film career was as good as any of theirs]. In the haphazard way one watches movies, I have been watching quite a few of his films recently, the very enjoyable KIPPS being on television yesterday afternoon. Redgrave senior was certainly a cinema natural. He is also a very attractive presence in Hitch's THE LADY VANISHES, THUNDER ROCK in '42, and in THE WAY TO THE STARS in '45, DEAD OF NIGHT in '49 and of course his Jack Worthing in the immortal THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

He also excelled throughout the '50s with those standout roles in THE BROWNING VERSION, and in Mankiewicz's THE QUIET AMERICAN ('57), Losey's TIME WITHOUT PITY and as the prison governor in Richardson's THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER in '62. One of his best later roles was the older narrator in THE GO-BETWEEN.

I am currently reading the biography by his son Corin [who died last week] which elaborates a lot on Michael's acting and private life. It seems to be well known that he was bisexual and had various other relationships as well as founding that acting dynasty.

Those other knights: My one regret is that I never saw Olivier on stage, but did see Gielgud and Richardson several times, as well as Michael Redgrave in A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY with Ingrid Bergman, a big hit in 1965, as well as seeing Alec Guinness (mainly in drag!) in the 1968 oddity WISE CHILD, and Paul Scofield in THE TEMPEST in the 80s. Back in 1970 I was totally entraced by the double act of Gielgud and Richardson in David Storey's play HOME (where they are two decripit inmates chattering aimlessly in an old folks home, paired with Mona Washboune and Dandy Nichols) so I saw it twice, onced at the Royal Court and then when it transferred to the West End in London. Being 24 at the time I decided to get the programme signed by them - Sir Ralph exited from the stage door and imperially scrawled "Richardson" across the programme page and then, in his leather outfit, sped off on his motorcycle, while Sir John with a twinkle in his eye and wearing his cravat and sporting a glittering diamond ring (quite a contrast to his drab appearance on stage) held my hand and chatted as he signed the programme, while his limousine waited. Back in '65 the cast of the Bergman-Redgrave play also signed that programme [below].

Corin's book is an engrossing read about a complicated life, Michael not only was involved with the likes of Noel Coward and Edith Evans while married to Rachel Kempson, but also discovered Stephen Boyd who was a cinema doorman at the time. It's a fascinating life in the theatre and cinema during those great decades from the '30s onwards. As the blurb says "Michael Redgrave was a great actor in an age of great acting. Working alongside Edith Evans, Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson, he succeeded both in the classical theatre and as a popular film actor." Its a shame his theatre career was curtailed by ill-health. I would have liked to have seen his production of Henry James' THE ASPERN PAPERS, and his role in Michael Powell's film OH ROSALINDA!. Good to recently get that '60s BBC production of HEDDA GABLER with Ingrid Bergman, Michael, Ralph Richardson and Trevor Howard - a powerhouse cast! (click images to enlarge).