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thisbluespiritMore things, updating from the last report of things!
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yuletide assignments have gone out! I have an excellent one, but obv no more can be said. Good luck to everyone else also starting the writing in secret portion of the Yuletide experience.
2. (a) Re. my resolution to Watch More Rattigan, which is progressing, or at least half progressing. I realised after making my last post about it, that such an animal as the BBC Rattigan Collection existed on DVD and was currently going too cheap not to snag, so I used lingering b'day/Christmas money.
Now it has arrived and it is mine, all mine! I have my mitts on not only ones I haven't seen but also the lovely 1976 BBC French Without Tears that YT provided the other week, and the Ian Holm and Judi Dench Browning Version that I haven't seen more than brief clips of since about 1993. \o/
(b) However, in the meantime, I looked at my Royal Exchange Theatre book to see if James Maxwell had directed or performed in a Rattigan play, and resolved that, if so, I would start with that one. It turned out that he did, directing While The Sun Shines (1943), a wartime comedy. I had a feeling this wasn't included in the BBC set, and I was right, so what I am doing currently is listening to a BBC 1969 Radio production via RadioEchoes of While the Sun Shines (also on YT). (Even the absence of the Internet Archive could not hinder my Rattiganisation.)
I think of the Rattigan productions I've experienced so far this is my least favourite, but given how stellar those have been, that is not really much criticism. I'm enjoying it, but I haven't got to the end, so I won't make any final judgments on the play itself yet, although it is more like French Without Tears than the later two. I am curious to know how it will wrap up, and it's not hard to see some of the aspects that might have interested James Maxwell as a director.
So far, though, Rattigan keeps making the hero sleep with other servicemen, for Reasons, and also the French Lt, talking about talking to people on trains, said that usually, When in Rome... so on English trains "I act as if I had died in my seat" which. Amazing. Accurate to this date. (Exceptions only in events on things going terribly wrong on the train, which was what happened to him.)
(c) YouTube noticed my interest, and threw me this little Part One of introduction to Rattigan by the National Theatre, which helpfully covered exactly the three plays I had seen. It's very short, but I really thought the director (directors?) talking about The Browning Version at the end (and calling it a perfect play ♥) absolutely got it. (And incidentally the photos they showed along with it suggested that the NT have done a version that had Anna Chancellor as Millie! With what looked like Nicholas Farrell, to me. Which made me go !!!!)
(d) And then also Talking Pictures turned out to be showing the film of Cause Celebre with Helen Mirren last night, which is another play not included on the BBC Boxset, so I recorded it. I feel like the world at large has just gone: at last! And is queuing up to shove three decades of long overdue Rattigan at me.
I will go slowly though and just watch one every so often as a treat. (WHICH PLAY NEXT THO???! XD)
(e) re. French Without Tears and my (now lapsed again) BNA subscription, I realised I'd claimed the 1987 one I had snagged a review of was directed by Sue Wilson, but actually I misremembered: she directed the next play Jeremy Northam did at Salisbury that year, and this one was by Lynn Wyfe. But The Stage did pause to vindicate my feeling that a v young JN would have been an ideal Kit Neilan, as the review singled him out for first praise: "Jeremy Northam produced all sorts of little tricks to make his portrayal of Kit Neilan touchingly appealing..." (although everyone else was good, too, they said.) Ha.
3. Talking my BNA sub, and finally escaping Rattigan's clutches for a moment, I did a quick search for my granddad's cousins, George & Bill Partleton, who were make-up artists on films, and retrieved this very random pic that should also pleaseliadt, so I had to share it:
This is the earliest mention I've got of either of them in this profession. Even if it is, of course, not as good as the OTT "he uses real blood in horror films!" piece of fake news I found before.)
From the Daily Express WEds 22 April 1936.
1.
yuletide assignments have gone out! I have an excellent one, but obv no more can be said. Good luck to everyone else also starting the writing in secret portion of the Yuletide experience.2. (a) Re. my resolution to Watch More Rattigan, which is progressing, or at least half progressing. I realised after making my last post about it, that such an animal as the BBC Rattigan Collection existed on DVD and was currently going too cheap not to snag, so I used lingering b'day/Christmas money.
Now it has arrived and it is mine, all mine! I have my mitts on not only ones I haven't seen but also the lovely 1976 BBC French Without Tears that YT provided the other week, and the Ian Holm and Judi Dench Browning Version that I haven't seen more than brief clips of since about 1993. \o/
(b) However, in the meantime, I looked at my Royal Exchange Theatre book to see if James Maxwell had directed or performed in a Rattigan play, and resolved that, if so, I would start with that one. It turned out that he did, directing While The Sun Shines (1943), a wartime comedy. I had a feeling this wasn't included in the BBC set, and I was right, so what I am doing currently is listening to a BBC 1969 Radio production via RadioEchoes of While the Sun Shines (also on YT). (Even the absence of the Internet Archive could not hinder my Rattiganisation.)
I think of the Rattigan productions I've experienced so far this is my least favourite, but given how stellar those have been, that is not really much criticism. I'm enjoying it, but I haven't got to the end, so I won't make any final judgments on the play itself yet, although it is more like French Without Tears than the later two. I am curious to know how it will wrap up, and it's not hard to see some of the aspects that might have interested James Maxwell as a director.
So far, though, Rattigan keeps making the hero sleep with other servicemen, for Reasons, and also the French Lt, talking about talking to people on trains, said that usually, When in Rome... so on English trains "I act as if I had died in my seat" which. Amazing. Accurate to this date. (Exceptions only in events on things going terribly wrong on the train, which was what happened to him.)
(c) YouTube noticed my interest, and threw me this little Part One of introduction to Rattigan by the National Theatre, which helpfully covered exactly the three plays I had seen. It's very short, but I really thought the director (directors?) talking about The Browning Version at the end (and calling it a perfect play ♥) absolutely got it. (And incidentally the photos they showed along with it suggested that the NT have done a version that had Anna Chancellor as Millie! With what looked like Nicholas Farrell, to me. Which made me go !!!!)
(d) And then also Talking Pictures turned out to be showing the film of Cause Celebre with Helen Mirren last night, which is another play not included on the BBC Boxset, so I recorded it. I feel like the world at large has just gone: at last! And is queuing up to shove three decades of long overdue Rattigan at me.
I will go slowly though and just watch one every so often as a treat. (WHICH PLAY NEXT THO???! XD)
(e) re. French Without Tears and my (now lapsed again) BNA subscription, I realised I'd claimed the 1987 one I had snagged a review of was directed by Sue Wilson, but actually I misremembered: she directed the next play Jeremy Northam did at Salisbury that year, and this one was by Lynn Wyfe. But The Stage did pause to vindicate my feeling that a v young JN would have been an ideal Kit Neilan, as the review singled him out for first praise: "Jeremy Northam produced all sorts of little tricks to make his portrayal of Kit Neilan touchingly appealing..." (although everyone else was good, too, they said.) Ha.
3. Talking my BNA sub, and finally escaping Rattigan's clutches for a moment, I did a quick search for my granddad's cousins, George & Bill Partleton, who were make-up artists on films, and retrieved this very random pic that should also please
liadt, so I had to share it:This is the earliest mention I've got of either of them in this profession. Even if it is, of course, not as good as the OTT "he uses real blood in horror films!" piece of fake news I found before.)
From the Daily Express WEds 22 April 1936.
no subject
Date: 20 Oct 2024 05:37 pm (UTC)Though the plot made me spit!
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Date: 20 Oct 2024 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 Oct 2024 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 Oct 2024 07:28 pm (UTC)Well, that is the more sensible course of action! I don't know why I get like that on occasion, but I mean to stop it now and actually enjoy some more Rattigan instead. <3
no subject
Date: 20 Oct 2024 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 Oct 2024 09:00 pm (UTC)Mazel tov! Have a wonderful time.
and it's not hard to see some of the aspects that might have interested James Maxwell as a director.
I would ask you about that.
talking about The Browning Version at the end (and calling it a perfect play ♥) absolutely got it. (And incidentally the photos they showed along with it suggested that the NT have done a version that had Anna Chancellor as Millie! With what looked like Nicholas Farrell, to me. Which made me go !!!!)
Yes! I read a review of it in 2011 and complained vociferously to the internet that I could see a livecast of One Man, Two Guvnors but not The Browning Version? Then of course I loved One Man, Two Guvnors, but I still wish I'd been able to see Nicholas Farrell as Andrew.
I did a quick search for my granddad's cousins, George & Bill Partleton, who were make-up artists on films, and retrieved this very random pic
That's lovely! Your granddad's cousin has a good face himself. That was for The Man Who Changed His Mind?
no subject
Date: 21 Oct 2024 07:41 pm (UTC)I would ask you about that.
I don't know what he did with it as yet, but as it also does explore the nature of Englishness (in a rather positive WWII context) and international relationships, and the war is a constant factor, plus there's a potential class angle, depending on how you went for it. And I could see him in particular having his own relevant angle on the first part, but all of those things are potentially things that would work for the Royal Exchange. And, of course, he was the one who tended to do the comedies and lighter pieces, and was supposed to be very good at it.
Yes! I read a review of it in 2011 and complained vociferously to the internet that I could see a livecast of One Man, Two Guvnors but not The Browning Version? Then of course I loved One Man, Two Guvnors, but I still wish I'd been able to see Nicholas Farrell as Andrew.
Yes, I could see him being a great choice, and Anna Chancellor is just obviously perfect for a Millie. I'm sorry you couldn't see it, but at least the other option was good!
That's lovely! Your granddad's cousin has a good face himself. That was for The Man Who Changed His Mind?
I don't know. What I have posted there is all the context the Express offers - they had a photographer roaming the studies who snapped that as being of interest to their readers. But it is very cool, and while Billy does not look like my Granddad in obvious ways, when I see pics of him, I often get odd echoes of familiarity nevertheless - I think it's the shape of the face, something in the stance, presumably.
no subject
Date: 21 Oct 2024 07:46 pm (UTC)Check. That just happens to be a film I know was made at Gainsborough starring Boris Karloff in 1936.
But it is very cool, and while Billy does not look like my Granddad in obvious ways, when I see pics of him, I often get odd echoes of familiarity nevertheless - I think it's the shape of the face, something in the stance, presumably.
It's wonderful to be able to catch that kind of ghost as well as all the other cinematic kinds.
no subject
Date: 21 Oct 2024 11:02 am (UTC)Hey, I think doing make-up work for Boris Karloff is pretty cool :D
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Date: 21 Oct 2024 05:47 pm (UTC)Yes, I believe he is in one of them - possibly one of those written for TV, I'm not sure? (I'll know soon, heh.) He's a mid 20th C playwright, very much about character observation & repression, got rather unfairly dismissed as too lightweight drawing room stuff in the Look Back in Anger revolution of the 50s and 60s, but has been revived & revalued a lot since. I studied The Browning Version for A-Level and loved it, & also adored the 1999 film of The Winslow BOy more recently, but equally that low-key stuff isn't to everyone's taste.
Hey, I think doing make-up work for Boris Karloff is pretty cool :D
He did all sorts of people! He and his brother George have quite impressive IMDB entries between them. I never knew either of them, but George looks quite a lot like my Granddad, and Billy does not, but yet every time I see a pic of him the ghost of something inexplicably familiar clutches at me. It is nice to have some relatives on the tree who did something so interesting, too! They had a family East End hairdressers and somehow got into the movies out of it. My Granddad apparently used to tell my Dad that we were related to someone in films, but my Dad had no idea who, and used to look for our surname, rather than the right one. (They were the sons of Granddad's aunt.)
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Date: 21 Oct 2024 02:31 pm (UTC)Blimey the Universe is raining Rattigan down on you.
Nice to remember the times when Nicholas Farrell wasn't in ads!
All the best with your Yuletide endeavors:)
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Date: 21 Oct 2024 07:16 pm (UTC)Aw, my pleasure! I'm not sure if 7.30 was the start time, or rather when the photographer took the pic - the Express just seem to have sent a roaming photographer round and that was the Interesting Thing they snapped for the film page.
And, heh, thank you!
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Date: 22 Oct 2024 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 Oct 2024 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 Oct 2024 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 Oct 2024 09:03 pm (UTC)I'm glad you treated yourself to all that Rattigan! And that photo of your granddad's cousin and Boris Karloff is so cool, what a great find! Archives! <3
no subject
Date: 23 Oct 2024 08:13 am (UTC)I'm glad you treated yourself to all that Rattigan!
Me too! What took me so long? I've started watching After the Dance now - and then I must watch something non-Rattigan and space them out.
And that photo of your granddad's cousin and Boris Karloff is so cool, what a great find! Archives! <3
It was a fun thing to land on! Archives are very cool indeed.