Harry Heuser in Broadcastellan:
"Well, I know, we generally don't regard our movie-comings and-goings as once-in-a-lifetime events, no matter how extraordinary the experience. In fact, we are inclined to opt for a rerun if a film manages to make us wax hyperbolic in our enthusiasm for it. To be sure, not many moving images have this force; nowadays, they are so readily reproduced, so instantly retrieved, that many of us won't even bother to sit down for them, knowing that they can be had whenever we are ready for them. We miss out on so much precisely because we are comforted into apathy by the thought that we do not have to miss anything at all. When I write 'we,' I do number myself among those who are at-our-fingertipsy with technology. Last weekend's screening of The Life Story of David Lloyd George at the Fflics film festival here in Wales was a reminder that films can indeed be rare; that they are fragile and subject to forces, natural and otherwise, that cause them to vanish from view."
Additionally, Harry H. talks about other Fflics flicks he's watched, including Proud Valley, starring Paul Robeson ("'Why, damn and blast it,' one of the miners protests, 'aren't we all black down it that pit?'"), and he discusses some of Deborah Kerr's little-known radio work.
Harry,
Check out the George Cukor version of "The Corn Is Green." And then please let me know what you think of it.
(I enjoyed it.)
Now, wasn't John Dall very effeminate? Perhaps we were supposed to read between the swishing? Rapper himself was into guys, so I wonder if there are any hidden clues in the film. I really can't remember.
I gotta watch that one again. If only for Joan Lorring's masterful performance.
Thank you for the mention. As I said, the DVD is done, but has not been released; Neil Brand is providing the score.
I thought of you during the screening of The Corn Is Green. No need for Bette, Claudette (or anyone else playing Miss Moffat) to attempt a Welsh accent. Moffat is thoroughly English, which is hard enough to pull off for most Americans. You're right, Davis is miscast; the entire romance subplot is unconvincing. Worse still is John Dall, so effective in Rope. It is a strangely coded play about love and shame (of one's origins and longings); but there was not much left of queer Emlyn Williams in the quaint Rapper version. Cheers, Harry