rosemary franzese

I love this film. James Mason was going to play Torquil but he demanded that his wife, Pamela Kellino be allowed to accompany him to Scotland for the filming. Powell and Pressburger refused to pay the extra cost and Mason left the production. Talented as Mason was l am glad this happened. Roger Livesey played the part of Torquil with so much charm that l fell in love with this character too. Ironically, Roger Livesey was not able to leave London so the producers used a body double for the genuine Scottish locations. Wendy Hiller is magnificent as the determined young English woman who travels to the Scottish island of Killoran to marry a wealthy businessman but finds herself reluctantly falling for the impoverished laird Torquil. The cast is wonderful and the whole film is delightful. Another triumph for Powell and Pressburger.

I watched this back in 1977 when it was first televised. It’s hard to believe that it had such a troubled production, itv were dissatisfied with the early product and lost a considerable amount of money on a new writer and production team. The result was a beautiful, sensitive tv drama shown over a thirteen week period that would have no chance of being made today with the constraints imposed now. Christopher Blake and Mel Martin played the leading roles of Richardson and Lydia and they could not have been improved on. The strong cast included Jeremy Irons, Peter Davison, Ralph Arliss, Michael Aldridge, Sherrie Hewson, Beatrix Lehmann, Rachel Kempson and David Ryall. The course of true love between Richardson ( author H.E. Bates never reveals his first name although the tv programme chose Edward although it rarely used) and Lydia doesn’t exactly run smooth mainly due to their immaturity. The story is set in the late 1920s, the era of Bates own youth and is partly autobiographical. A series of setbacks and a few tragedies haunt their relationship until eventually the mutually reach an understanding of each other’s own insecurities. In the course of the story their friends Alex (Irons) and Tom (Davison) both meet tragic and unnecessary deaths whereas in real life both Irons and Davison had extremely good careers and this series was a fine showcase for both of them. This was the best role of Christopher Blake’s career, he later appeared in the comedy series Mixed Blessings and That’s my Boy but there was nothing of the calibre of Love for Lydia again. Blake turned to screen writing and had success in this area but sadly died died in 2004 aged only 55. Mel Martin has enjoyed a successful career but this was also her best role. For modern audiences Love for Lydia might seem a little slow and overlong in places but it evokes a sense of time and places and the joys and pain of young love. I never forgot this series and l am not sure it was shown again until Talking Pictures TV screened it this years. It’s very beautiful and rewarding to watch and l was grateful for the opportunity to see it again.

This is a gem from director David Lean. Based on the Harold Brighouse play, it stars Charles Laughton as Henry Hobson the owner of a boot making business in Victorian Salford. Brenda de Banzie plays his determined and highly intelligent oldest daughter, considered an old maid at 30 Maggie Hobson has plans for her future. Robert Donat was meant to play the role of Willie Mossop the illiterate but highly gifted boot maker that Maggie is determined to marry but his chronic asthma prevented him from playing the role. John Mills replaced Robert Donat and made the role his own. Laughton, Mills and DeBanzie are perfectly cast and give fabulous performances. The wonderful supporting cast includes Prunella Scales, Daphne Anderson, Richard Wattis, John Laurie, Helen Haye, Julien Mitchell and Raymond Huntley. The role of Hobson’s shop hand, Tubby is played by Jack Howarth who became a household name a few years later when he became one of the original stars of Coronation Street. This is a very enjoyable film and one of my favourites

Apparently this British horror film had only limited theatrical release in US cinemas and bizarrely an even more limited one in the UK. It resurfaced a few years ago on Talking Pictures tv channel. It’s not easy to understand why it wasn’t more widely shown, Made in 1955 it was perhaps a little ahead of its time. A trio of separate stories in one film was rare but not unknown to cinema audiences but maybe the subject matter was too different. Actor Alan Badel appears in all three stories in different roles. The first story ‘In the Picture’ directed by Wendy Toye is my personal favourite, it’s truly unsettling and I don’t think l have ever seen anything quite like it. Alan Badel plays the mysterious Mr X and Hugh Pryce plays Mr Jarvis a guide in an art gallery who meets a terrible fate. The second story ‘You Killed Elizabeth’ is a more traditional whodunnit stars John Gregson, Emrys Jones and Elizabeth Sellars. Badel plays a sympathetic barman. It’s less remarkable but stylishly done with a satisfying ending. The final story Lord Mountdrago stars Orson Welles as the pompous politician of the title. Mountdrago destroys the argument of a young Welsh MP name Owen, again played by Alan Badel who appears to exact a strange, mysterious revenge. This is a psychological story which benefits from a magnificent, barn storming performance from Welles and a slyly sinister one from Badel. I would have thought Welles appearance in this film would have been enough to have guaranteed a wider theatrical release but sadly it didn’t. At least two of these stories wouldn’t have seemed out of place on ‘The Twilight Zone’ tv programme. It’s well worth watching and all the stories are very good but it was ‘In the Picture’ that lingered in my mind. Many people brought up in the era of slash and gore horror films may not be impressed but this story shows that subtlety can be more effective and genuinely chilling.

This film scores 18 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the 1937 non musical version scores 93 percent. Producer of the musical version, Ross Hunter ruined his reputation on making this film. The decision to make a musical version was somewhat unwise, big flashy musicals were not really fashionable at the time and the Bacharach/David score fails to evoke the other worldy type setting of the film, a writing team like Rodgers and Hammerstein who’s scores could evoke time and place were needed. The choreography is also poor, surprisingly the talented Hermes Pan who had often worked with Fred Astaire was responsible, I can only assume he was past his best. Even without the musical element I doubt the film would have measured up to Frank Capra’s 1937 film. Peter Finch who could be very good telephones in a performance here whereas Ronald Colman who played the same role in the earlier film was incapable of giving a poor performance regardless of the calibre of the material. Liv Ullman seems out of place. Bob Van at least gave the musical numbers some welly and Sally Kellerman was likeable in her part. John Geilgud admitted that he disliked his role but did it to pay off a large tax bill. Perhaps Ross Hunter should have been wary of this project, the far superior 1937 version lost a considerable sum of money for Columbia pictures so it’s not surprising that the musical lost much more. Some films are reassessed years after their release and grow in reputation, this one hasn’t.

This is by far the best dramatic version ever made of Daphne duMaurier’s popular novel. It is an excellent novel well worth reading but this film is even better. Laurence Olivier apparently wanted Vivien Leigh to star as the young Mrs deWinter and she was tested for the part but fine an actress as she was, Vivien would have been miscast, the problem no one seemed to have picked up on was that Rebecca was a dark beauty and Vivien was a dark beauty, Vivien was simply too much like Rebecca. In order to help the young and still inexperienced Joan Fontaine Hitchcock instructed the other cast members to be aloof with her in order to help her performance as the out of her depth second wife, it worked because Joan Fontaine was perfect in the role and was nominated for an Oscar which she was unfortunate not to win. In the novel Mrs Danvers was a much older woman and doesn’t feature much in the story, Hitchcock’s decision to cast Judith Anderson and make her a more character really works. Mrs Danver’s devotion to Rebecca is more pronounced in the film and the reason for her excessive devotion is not entirely clear but I think maybe she lived her life through the dazzling woman who made her a favoured confident. The entire cast are excellent but Fontaine and Anderson are standouts.

This unusual 1950 crime drama tells the story of a murder victim and the people who knew her best but each has a very different view of the woman’s character. Jean Kent plays Agnes Huston generally known as Astra, a fairground fortune teller who was found strangled at her home. We learn about her through a series of flashbacks. Her neighbour Mrs Finch, brilliantly played by Hermione Baddeley, paints a picture of a gentile woman who had problems with her aggressive younger sister. The sister Catherine, Susan Shaw, says that it was Agnes that was unpleasant and frequently drunk, neglecting to visit her terminally ill husband in hospital. Catherine’s boyfriend, Bob Baker who is a magician had offered Agnes the opportunity to become his assistant in a Mentalist act but Agnes tried to seduce him and became hostile when he turned her down. Bob is played by a young Dirk Bogarde. Albert Pollard the pet shop owner, a strong performance from Charles Victor, falls for Agnes and according to him she was a gentle, sweet natured lady. Finally Michael Murray an Irish Sailor played by John McCallum had begun a relationship with Agnes and although realising that fortune telling is not her only means of earning a living believes that she cares for him and that a future together is possible. Five different people with very different views on Agnes Huston. Inspector Lodge played by Duncan Macrae believes that the answer to who killed the woman in question will be solved by working out what Agnes was truly like. Anthony Asquith does a fine job of directing and Jean Kent is excellent as Agnes Huston, successfully presenting five different versions of the same woman throughout the course of the film. In the same year the Japanese film Rashamon caused an international sensation, this film also dealt with a crime which was told from several different perceptions. Interestingly, The Woman in Question was released first and although it has not been as famous or celebrated as Rashamon, it remains a well crafted and well acted piece of cinema that is well worth watching

The Razor’s Edge has a rating of 56 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, this may be because of the religious element that doesn’t meet the approval of a secular society. Tyrone Power came from an Irish acting dynasty that stretched back to his great grandfather, he was also distantly related to Laurence Olivier. In Hollywood he was under contract to 20th Century Fox and the studio was mainly interested in his astonishing looks but Power wanted to take on more challenging roles and the character of Larry Darrell appealed to him. Power fell in love with his stunning co star Gene Tierney and this is apparent in some of their scenes together, both give fine performances. I read Somerset Maugham’s novel after watching the film and I felt Power and Tierney were well cast but Clifton Webb was born to play Elliot Templeton and no one else could have filled the role better than he did. In the novel Sophie came across as a slightly less sympathetic character, many people in real life go through circumstances as tragic without going off the rails and she seemed drawn powerfully to a life of degradation than she could have escaped from, of course censorship made it necessary to soften the character. I like Maugham’s work and film adaptations never seem quite able to capture the nuances of his writing. The film was a bit hit when it was released in 1946. The following year Power would give his greatest screen performance in Nightmare Alley but 20th century Fox didn’t give the film the publicity usually given to major releases, it wasn’t the sort of role Daryl Zanuck wanted the handsome star to play and Power rarely had the chance to play the kind of meaty and challenging roles he wanted to play. Power died prematurely at age 44 from a heart attack in 1958, unlike Larry Darrell he never quite found what he was looking for.

One of Bette Davis’ best films, directed by William Wyler who was always good for her. The letter was based on W. Somerset Maugham’s story which was in turn inspired by the story of Ethel Proudlock. Herbert Marshall plays her cuckolded husband, he had also appeared in the 1929 film playing the lover of Jeanne Eagel’s Leslie Crosbie. Bette is superb. English actor James Stephenson was justifiably Oscar nominated for his role of the defence lawyer. Victor Sen Young and Gale Sondegaard also give fine performances. The film is slightly weakened by the ending imposed upon Warner Brothers by the censors. Alternative endings were also filmed and I feel the wrong one was chosen. The censors were anxious that Leslie should not be seen to get away with murder but they missed the point, of course she doesn’t.

One of my favourite films, The Barefoot Contessa was written and directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz. It tells the story of Spanish dancer, Maria Vargas played by Ava Gardner, a Spanish dancer who becomes a Hollywood star. The character was said to be based on Rita Hayworth who was half Spanish and had been her father’s dance partner before her film career, however Maria seems to have much in common with Ava. The film opens with Maria’s funeral, top billed Humphrey Bogart as Harry Dawes, a writer/director who had a warm platonic friendship with Maria begins to tell her story in flashback. This sets the tone of the film, the story of a breathtakingly beautiful but ultimately doomed woman and why and how her life ended tragically. Edmond O’Brien won best supporting actor for his role of Oscar Muldoon, the sweaty, insincere publicist. Warren Stevens played the business tycoon, Kirk Edwards who has ambitions to produce films, there is a hint of Howard Hughes, who had a relationship with Gardner in the 1940s, about this character. Marius Goring with his red hair dyed black plays Alberto Bravano, a South American playboy and Rossano Brazzi is the Italian count who is the only man Maria genuinely falls in love with. The very strong International supporting cast also includes Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Mari Aldon and Bessie Love. Although it’s a story partly about Hollywood, it was filmed partly on the French Riviera and the Italian resorts of Sanremo and Portofino. It has been suggested that the film was originally intended to star Rita Hayworth and that Linda Darnell desperately wanted the part of Maria but no one could have been better suited to the role than Ava Gardner and she gives one of her best performances. Ava’s only Oscar nomination was for her performance in Mogambo but I think that she should have had a nomination for this film.