Noel Coward Exhibition at the Academy
Noel Coward with Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Boom! (top); with Marlene Dietrich, 1937 (bottom)
Noel Coward — playwright, composer, director, actor, (purported) spy, nationalist, propagandist, semi-closeted gay guy — is the subject of an exhibition currently being held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward,” which runs until Sunday, April 18, in the Academy’s Fourth Floor Gallery in Beverly Hills. Admission is free.
The son of a piano salesman, Coward became the embodiment of the affected, stiff-upper-lip, upper-class Englishman. Among his stage classics are Hay Fever, Private Lives, Cavalcade, Design for Living, Blithe Spirit, and the operetta Bitter Sweet. His compositions [...]
by Andre Soares | February 9, 2010
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Tags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Boom!, Classic Movies, Elizabeth Taylor, Gay Interest, In Which We Serve, Los Angeles Screenings, Marlene Dietrich, Noel Coward, Photos
BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard – d: David Lean
Brief Encounter (1945)
Direction: David Lean
Screenplay: David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan; from Noel Coward’s play Still Life
Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond
Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter
Synopsis:
A married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a housewife (Celia Johnson) have an adulterous (platonic) affair.
The Pros:
Shadow-bathed, smoke-enshrouded railway stations (cinematography by Robert Krasker) to the strains of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
David Lean’s delicate direction, and Lean, Ronald Neame, and Anthony Havelock-Allan’s sensitive adaptation of Noel Coward’s play Still Life. No Hollywood ending here, and no syrupy, cutesy moments, either.
Best actress Oscar nominee and New York Film Critics winner Celia Johnson’s über-British performance as the sympathetic, adulterous, stiff-upper-lipped, and most sad-eyed housewife in all of England, and [...]
by Andre Soares | November 26, 2009
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Tags: Anthony Havelock-Allan, Brief Encounter, Celia Johnson, Classic Movies, Cyril Raymond, David Lean, Film Reviews, Noel Coward, Oscar 1946, Oscar Movies, Rachmaninov, Ronald Neame, Trevor Howard
CAVALCADE – Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard
Cavalcade (1933)
Direction: Frank Lloyd
Screenplay: Reginald Berkeley, Sonya Levien; from Noel Coward’s play
Cast: Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, Herbert Mundin, Una O’Connor, Beryl Mercer, Irene Browne, Merle Tottenham, Frank Lawton, Ursula Jeans, Margaret Lindsay
Synopsis:
Upstairs (Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard) and downstairs (Herbert Mundin, Una O’Connor) in a British household, from 1900 to 1933.
The Pros:
Cavalcade won best picture and best director Oscars for the period 1932-33 (basically from Aug. 32-Dec. 33) and was reportedly the biggest box-office hit of the year. That makes it a historical curiosity.
Best actress Oscar nominee Diana Wynyard has one good moment, walking among armistice revelers but not feeling at all like celebrating after having lost a son to the Great War. (Noel Coward, for his part, called [...]
by Andre Soares | November 25, 2009
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Tags: Cavalcade, Classic Movies, Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, Film Reviews, Frank Lloyd, Noel Coward, Oscar 1933, Oscar Movies, Reginald Berkeley
Best Films – 1945
Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter
FILM
Blithe Spirit
d: David Lean; scr: Noel Coward
Boule de suif / Angel and Sinner
d: Christian-Jaque; scr: Henri Jeanson
Brief Encounter
d: David Lean; scr: Noel Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Ronald Neame
Dead of Night
d: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer; scr: John Baines, Angus MacPhail
Les Enfants du paradis / Children of Paradise
d: Marcel Carné; scr: Jacques Prévert
Leave Her to Heaven
d: John M. Stahl; scr: Jo Swerling
Love Letters
d: William Dieterle; scr: Ayn Rand
Mildred Pierce
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Ranald McDougall, Catherine Turney
A Royal Scandal
d: Otto Preminger; scr: Edwin Justus Mayer
State Fair
d: Walter Lang; scr: Paul Green, Oscar Hammerstein II, Sonya Levien
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
d: Elia Kazan; scr: Tess Slesinger, Frank [...]
by Andre Soares | August 31, 2004
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Tags: A Royal Scandal, A Song to Remember, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Alberto Cavalcanti, Aldo Fabrizi, Alexis Smith, Along Came Jones, Angel and Sinner, Ann Blyth, Anna Magnani, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ayn Rand, Basil Dearden, Best Films, Blithe Spirit, Boris Karloff, Boule de suif, Brief Encounter, Caesar and Cleopatra, Casey Robinson, Catherine Turney, Celia Johnson, Charles Coburn, Charles Crichton, Children of Paradise, Classic Movies, Claude Rains, Confidential Agent, Constance Cummings, Cyril Raymond, David Lean, Dead of Night, DeWitt Bodeen, Donna Reed, Dorothy McGuire, Douglas Slocombe, Edward Cronjager, Edward G. Robinson, Edwin Justus Mayer, Eleanor Parker, Elia Kazan, Ernest Haller, Eve Arden, Federico Fellini, Frank Davis, Franz Waxman, Gary Cooper, Gene Lockhart, Gene Tierney, Harry Stradling, Henri Jeanson, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Ivan the Terrible, Jacques Prevert, James Dunn, Jennifer Jones, Jo Swerling, Joan Blondell, Joan Crawford, Joan Lorring, John Cromwell, John M. Stahl, Kay Hammond, Leave Her to Heaven, Lee Garmes, Leon Shamroy, Les Enfants du Paradis, Love Letters, Marcel Carne, Margaret Rutherford, María Casarès, Max Steiner, Michael Curtiz, Michael Redgrave, Micheline Presle, Mildred Pierce, Nob Hill, Noel Coward, Open City, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Preminger, Pavel Kadochnikov, Peggy Ann Garner, Pierre Brasseur, Pride of the Marines, Ranald McDougall, Rhapsody in Blue, Richard Rodgers, Robert Hamer, Robert Krasker, Roma citta aperta, Ronald Neame, Scarlet Street, Sergio Amidei, State Fair, Tallulah Bankhead, Ted Tetzlaff, Tess Slesinger, The Body Snatcher, The Corn Is Green, The Enchanted Cottage, The House on 92nd Street, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Southerner, The Woman in the Window, They Were Expendable, Tony Gaudio, Trevor Howard, Victor Young, Vincent Price, Walter Lang, William Dieterle, Zachary Scott