DICKENS IN LUST: THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (2013) starring Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones.

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THE INVISIBLE WOMAN is a film directed by Ralph Fiennes with a screenplay by Abi Morgan, starring Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones and is based on the book of the same name by Claire Tomalin. It seemed the kind of period Victorian thing I'd probably like. The film centers on the story of how Charles Dickens, rightly beloved by all and sundry for his brilliant literary gifts, behaved caddishly towards his wife (she'd dared put on weight after giving birth to ten children in 22 years - horrors!), caused a public separation (scandalous in those tight-laced Victorian times) by 'carrying on' with an eighteen year old girl who would later become his mistress for the rest of the aging author's life.

Or so the story goes. Of course we weren't there and much of the correspondence was burned by those involved so who knows what really happened.

Felicity Jones and Ralph Fiennes - source

The film, directed by Ralph Fiennes is a major disappointment and you know how I love to write about Major Disappointments.  Hence, today's post to call attention to a film I'm NOT recommending. (I'm quirky that way.)

To be fair, there are one or two well done moments: One is the racing scene, the grouping (and costumes) of which is apparently based on a painting by the British genre artist, William Powell Frith.

'Derby Day' by William Powell Frith (Detail) - source

The second scene is the wrenching train wreck in which Dickens is forced by the strictures of convention to maintain he is traveling alone even as Nelly lies hurt at his feet. Not a proud moment.

The film's costumes and sets are, of course, perfection (the Brits excel at this) and the actors are pretty good except for one thing: Felicity Jones in the lead playing Nelly Ternan - The Woman. She is actually invisible, that is, she is so boring, so bland, so self-effacing, so laid back, so pale, so...yes, dare I say it? - so INVISIBLE! (Sad to say, the camera doesn't love her.) Well, okay, in keeping with the symbolic title of the film, you might say that that was the director's point. (Dickens did keep his personal drama behind the scenes as much as possible in those scandal loving/scandal abhorring days. Mistresses were not the sort of thing one generally paraded about in public.)

'the invisible woman' Felicity Jones as Nelly Ternan - source

But to make the woman such a non-entity beggars the point of what Dickens saw in her to begin with. (Yes, yes, actresses then had to be self-effacing and fearful of their reputations since they were regarded as little more than prostitutes.) But ladies and gents: what about this particular woman turned the elderly genius on? Merely the fact that she was young and thin and his wife was fat? Maybe. Wouldn't be the first time. Certainly there was nothing about Nelly's personality (as shown in the film) which would cause a man of a certain age to flaunt convention, create scandal and fall madly in love -  even if he was close friends with scandal-prone fellow author Wilkie Collins. (A tale for another day.)

You know as well as I that most Victorians were one thing in public and quite another behind closed doors - but it's hard to imagine - I really can't conjure it up - Charles Dickens in bed with anyone. Come on, try it - see if you can do it. That's one of the film's problems as well.

And yet the man had ten children, at least. So there is that to ponder on if we must.

But the fact is that some stories are better left to the imagination - or not, as the case may be. This is definitely one of them.

To paraphrase an old Victorian chestnut: I don't care what people do behind closed doors as long as they don't do it in the street and scare the horses.

Yeah, I'm down with that.

Have you seen this film? Do we agree or disagree? Come on, speak up. I can take it.

P.S. I haven't read the book. Source

Tuesday Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film: Tom Conway as The Falcon

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Apropos of nothing much (except that I'm very fond of Tom Conway (1904 - 1967), I'm declaring today Tom Conway Day primarily because I ran across two terrific blog posts lauding the Falcon movies in which he starred.

Back at the dawn of time when I had cable (and even before then on good old, plain old, television Channels 11 and 5 and 9 - New York) I was always on the look-out for Falcon movies, most especially those with Tom Conway as the star. Though the series began with the more famous George Sanders in the lead, it's really Tom (Sanders' real-life brother, playing the Falcon's film brother) who made the role his own.

There's no topping Conway's insouciant screen presence as the charmingly witty, wily, happy go lucky solver of mysteries, catcher of criminals and chaser of dames. Sanders apparently found it all a dead bore, but Conway didn't. It shows.

Check out The Nitrate Diva's post on The Falcon series here.

And Classic Movie Guys' Falcon post here.

Both are terrific.

Also, don't forget to look in at Todd Mason's blog, Sweet Freedom to see what other Forgotten (or Overlooked) Films and/or Television, other bloggers are talking about today. We're a lively bunch.

And Oh, By the Way: For you movie mavens out there...

That guy standing sure looks like Cecil B. DeMille. source

100 FAMOUS DIRECTORS RULES OF FILM-MAKING. So intriguing to read. I'm always fascinated by how creative people do or think about their work.

FFB: THE ENGLISH AIR (1940) and SARAH MORRIS REMEMBERS (1967) by D.E. Stevenson

D.E. Stevenson (1892 - 1973) - source

You all know that lately I've become a VERY ENTHUSIASTIC D.E. STEVENSON FAN GIRL - right? Well, even if you didn't know it before, please be aware of it now and forever more. Dorothy Emily Stevenson was a talented and prolific English author who created some of the most satisfying, engaging, endearing and gently bred stories and characters in the history of the English language. How's that? No, no  exaggeration - I NEVER exaggerate.

I've been reading all the Stevenson books (a sojourn begun a couple of months ago with THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF ) in my library and now it appears I've come to the end and must begin looking far afield - online, probably.

In the meantime, and finishing up my library's stash, I've just happened to read two of the very best Stevenson books - one, THE ENGLISH AIR, is highly recommended by Lyn at I PREFER READING and one, SARAH MORRIS REMEMBERS, a book I knew nothing about but fell madly in love with almost from the first, is highly recommended by me. Well, both are equally highly recommended, but you know what I mean.

My library actually has this copy. 

Both books feature events which take place at around the same time and both books feature two young and attractive German speaking male characters. SARAH MORRIS REMEMBERS begins as a gentle coming-of-age story in which Sarah recounts an idyllic childhood in the English countryside where her father was the much loved village vicar. Sarah is one of those coltish young English girls in literature whom we instantly like and want the best for.

Time passes.

In later years, we meet Ludovic Charles Edward Reeder (called Charles), a charming Austrian friend come down from Oxford with one of Sarah's older brothers, to visit the vicarage. The fourteen year old Sarah unknowingly charms Charles with her naturally direct manner and as time goes by, they become good friends, exchanging letters and such.

How you may imagine an English vicarage to be is exactly how the author imagines it as well - that's one of the things about Stevenson that I like so much, she always seems to be on a similar wavelength with her readers. Or more likely, we readers were on a similar wavelength with her. The best of D.E. Stevenson's books resonate with a capital R.  There is so much familiar imagery. There was a world once upon a time, that sort of thing.

Any way, back home in Austria, Charles's father (the family owns a huge estate) is an outspoken opponent of Hitler and the son worries that father will get into trouble as war looms on the horizon. But he (Charles) is not the favorite and not the heir (he has an older brother) so Charles must fend for himself though the entire family appears to depend on his good common sense - something they apparently lack. Though he'd rather stay in England, Charles returns to Austria to temporarily take charge of the estate which has been foundering under the auspices of his father and hapless brother.

Time passes.

When Charles finally returns to England and begins the naturalization process, he and Sarah decide to marry since she is now of age. He wants to give her a diamond, she prefers his signet pinky ring. Stevenson heroines will always prefer the signet pinky ring.

But before they can be married, fate interferes once again.

After the Anschluss in 1938, Charles' imprudent father is taken into custody and Charles must once again head back to Austria to see what he can do, insisting that he will return soon. Not so unexpectedly, he disappears as war is officially declared.

In England, Sarah's father, the vicar, insists on giving up his 'living' and the two head to London to see what he can do to aid in the war effort as the city faces nightly bombing. All the while Sarah, working as an interpreter, fears she'll never see Charles again. These chapters set in war-torn London are especially effective as Sarah, doing her best in a city under siege, is thrown in with a new set of intriguing characters.

Time passes.

Of course, this being a D.E. Stevenson book, idyllic scenes set in Scotland will be slipped in and probably a happy ending. But it's the journey, you know. It's the journey. I loved this book.

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THE ENGLISH AIR (1940) features a young German character name Franz Von Heiden who arrives in England in 1938 to stay with his English cousins at their family home, Fernacres. Sophie Braithwaite and her daughter Wynne are prepared to welcome the son of Sophie's favorite long ago cousin Elsie even if, as it turns out, his father is currently a Nazi. The Braithwaites live with Sophie's brother-in-law (he has his own suite of rooms in the house), the elegant and enigmatic Dane Worthington who, apparently involved in some sort of espionage, decides to keep a careful eye on their guest.

Cousin Elsie was a lively and beautiful English girl who unadvisedly married Franz's father and went off to live with him in Germany a few years before WWI. As you may imagine, the marriage did not have a good outcome and Elsie passed away, sad and disillusioned.

Now, years later, Elsie's widower is a devoted Nazi party member. He's sent his son to England to find out about the English - how they live and behave. At first, Franz is gun-ho to do his father's bidding, but as he begins to learn the freedom of English ways, and befriends his cousins, all the while growing closer to Wynne, Frank (as he's now called) is torn between his parental duty and his duty to himself.

Refusing to believe that Hitler really wants war with England, Frank views as proof, English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's fateful words, '...peace in our time.'  Naturally enough, Frank (and everyone else) is devastated when Hitler breaks his word and marches into Poland.

The effect of war from the German point of view is briefly but unflinchingly depicted as Frank goes back to try and reconcile with his father - but then determines that there will be no place for him in this 'new' Germany. He must return to England somehow and do what he can to aid the British cause. All very well written and imagined  by D.E. Stevenson at a time (1940) when England and Germany were actually at war.

How Franz and Wynne finally end up together (at least briefly before Frank is shipped off to Finland to work for the Allies) makes for a very satisfying story

One evening per book is just about right. You know how that goes. Sleep can wait.

Since it's Friday, don't forget to check in at Patti Abbott's blog, Pattinase, to see what other forgotten or overlooked books other bloggers are talking about today.

Tuesday (Not so) Forgotten Film and/or Television: FOYLE'S WAR - Series 8 - Starring Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks

I don't know how certain series do it, but do it they do: keep getting better and better, I mean. FOYLE'S WAR is a long running ITV series created by Anthony Horowitz and begun all the way back in 2002. The ambience was, then, the approach to WWII in England followed by the turbulent war years. Lots of policing to be done: murder doesn't stop for war.

The indescribably wonderful Michael Kitchen (where do the Brits come up with these intriguing actors?) stars as Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, a widower, a decent man, and a stalwart, intuitive and very canny cop, whose territory, in the earlier series, is the green countryside of Hastings, Sussex, England. (You know how the hedgerows of England fairly reek with murder and chicanery.)

Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell and Michael Kitchen

Honeysuckle Weeks (she of the adorable name and equally adorable mien) also returns as Foyle's young driver and kind of, sort of, fellow cop. In the earlier series, Foyle had an associate, a wounded vet played by Anthony Howell, but so far he doesn't seem to be in the new series 8, currently available on Netflix.

Hadn't even realized the series had returned until recently and now it seems that there's another three episodes in the works for next year. Great news for Foyle Fan Girls (of which I am one).

It's 1946 and the fighting war is technically over, but as one of the characters pronounces, '...now the real war begins.' Meaning of course, the cut-throat espionage, reconstruction and the Soviet menace. As Sam says in one scene "We did win the war didn't we?" She's exasperated by bread rationing and other economic privations, but the question speaks volumes about life in this 'new' England.

Foyle has been roped in (reluctantly) to serve with MI5 who recognize Foyle's intuitive genius for this sort of work - even if he is a bit of a loose cannon. In the meantime, Samantha has married a nice young man who is running for local government. But when Foyle, in the course of his first case with the intelligence agency (a case which hits very close to home), meets up with Sam once again - as a suspect -  she is soon back in her old role at Foyle's side.

Spies are everywhere in this often bleak, post war England and now it's up to Foyle and MI5 to settle their hash and keep the country safe from communism. The country couldn't be in better hands.

Since it's Tuesday, don't forget to check in at Todd's blog, Sweet Freedom (he's running a little late today) to see what other films, television and/or whatnot other bloggers are talking about today.

A bit off youtube about Michael Kitchen in his role as Foyle:

Saturday Salon: Messing About in Boats

French painter Raoul du Gardier  (1871 - 1952) - source

American painter Scott Burdick - source

British painter Harry Leith Ross (1886 - 1973) - source

French painter Claude Monet  (1840 - 1926)- source

American painter Scott Burdick - source

French painter Raoul du Gardier - source

Irish painter Sir John Lavery (1856 - 1941) - source

Colliers cover art: Walter Appleton Clark (1876 - 1906)

American painter Victor C. Anderson (1882 - 1937) - source

French painter Raoul du Gardier - source

American painter William J. Aylward (1875 - 1956) - source

British painter Thomas Henslow Barnard (1898 - 1992) - source

Austrian painter Egon Schiele (1890 - 1918) - source

American painter Edward Alfred Cucuel (1875 - 1954) - source

American painter Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855 - 1919) - source

Uruguayan born American painter Francis Luis Mora - source

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Tuesday Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film: SIN TAKES A HOLIDAY (1930) starring Constance Bennett, Kennth MacKenna and Basil Rathbone

It's difficult to take a movie seriously in which the two male leads are named Gaylord and Reggie. But, it was 1930 and these were thought to be the kinds of 'sophisticated' names which appealed to women in the audience I suppose. Hard to believe, I know.

SIN TAKES A HOLIDAY (1930) is a film directed by Paul L. Stein, starring Constance Bennett, Kenneth MacKenna and the utterly suave as suave can be, Basil Rathbone, in his non-Sherlock days. This is a pre-code release so the actors are free to talk about 'affairs' and 'having lovers' and that sort of thing. Although the leading lady never actually takes the plunge, she just pretends to.

So even pre-code, the bride must be pure and true on her wedding night even if that wedding night doesn't come until the very end of the movie many months after a spur of the moment marriage of convenience and a trip (the bride sails alone) to Paris and other assorted whatnot.

But let's back up a bit:

Constance Bennett - 'plain jane' secretary. I'm surprised she didn't have glasses.

The impromptu marriage was set up by Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna), a New York divorce lawyer with a steady stream of female clients and friends who think of marriage as a game of revolving beds. Stanton is unmarried and having a fine time cynically squiring divorcees and about-to-be-divorcees around town. But lately he appears caught in a snare set up by a female dragon-lady hell-bent on marrying him just as soon as she's divorced from her fourth husband - naming Gaylord as correspondent, of course. Ah, the good old days of divorce by correspondent.

Constance Bennett and Kenneth MacKenna apres wedding. The bride doesn't look very thrilled.

At any rate, Gaylord, you see, doesn't want to marry the vampish man-eater, he just enjoys going to bed with her (implied airily of course). So he comes up with a devious plan: he asks his secretary Sylvia (who, unbeknownst to Gaylord, is secretly in love with him) to marry him - in name only. At first she resists, but then what the heck, it's better than 75 bucks a week and sharing a tiny apartment with two other girls. (One of the girls is played by a very young ZaSu Pitts.)

Now Sylvia is supposed to be 'plain' because she's a mere 'secretary' and not as glamorous as the women who flitter in and out of Stanton's life. But since she's played by Constance Bennett, how plain could she be? Answer: not plain at all. Especially once she's changed into expensive French frocks and begins living it up in Paris in the company of Reggie Durant (Basil Rathbone) whom she meets  on board the ship sailing to France.

Coincidentally, Reggie is a friend of Gaylord's and an equally cynical unmarried man about town who at first glance doesn't recognize Stanton's once plain-jane secretary - got it? (He has to ask the steward who the lady is.)

Basil Rathbone wooing Constance Bennett in Paris

Long story short, after several months in Paris, with everyone assuming she and Reggie are lovers sharing a gorgeous villa, Sylvia gets a surprising proposal - from Reggie. You guessed it, he's fallen in love with her and wants to marry her - for real. But first of course she must divorce her hubby who is back in New York still carrying on with the same femme for whom the marriage to Sylvia was contrived in the first place.

In the end, Sylvia and the patient Reggie return to the states so she can make her final decision. Gaylord, now jealous of Reggie, decides he's in love with Sylvia after all and somehow or other (not very convincingly to my eyes) convinces her to take a chance and stay married to him.

Reggie gets to act very sophisticated and has the last say. To my mind Basil has rarely looked so attractive. Sigh.

Personally, I would have stayed with Basil...uh, Reggie.

This is the sort of not-very-daring, light-weight, light-hearted (despite the cynical talk) film Hollywood was known for back in the day. A romantic bit of entertaining fluff made palatable by the three leads in the cast.

I'm kind of surprised it wasn't re-made later, this would have been right up Carole Lombard's alley.

Since it's Tuesday once again, don't forget to check in at Todd's blog, Sweet Freedom, to see what other films, television or whatnot, other bloggers are talking about today. We're a gregarious bunch.

Saturday Salon: By the Sea, By the Sea...!

British painter Dame Laura Knight (1877 - 1970) - source

German born painter Raoul de Gardier (1871 - 1952) - source

American painter John Asaro - source

American painter Eric Zener  (b- 1966 ) source

American painter Anne Leone - source

American painter John Asaro - source

American painter Anne Leone - source

American painter John Asaro - source

American painter Anne Leone - source

American painter Anne Leone - source

American painter Anne Leone - source

Danish painter Peder Severin Kroyer (1851 - 1909) - source

Have a Great 4th of July!

J.C. Leyendecker

Tuesday Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film, Television: A query for you movie and television mavens.

Thanks to you all-knowing, all-seeing movie experts extraordinaire! This is the movie! I also discovered that Warner Bros. Archive has it (or had it) on demand as well as other terrific stuff from 80's television including two unsold pilots from Gene Roddenberry: GENESIS II and PLANET EARTH, and a show I'd long thought I'd never see again, THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS with Patrick Duffy in gills! Ah, memories. Check out this link for more titles. 

Okay, I'm trying to find (if it still exists and I don't see why it shouldn't) a made-for-television 'film' done several years ago (more than 20 I think) about a nuclear incident which takes place at the NYC harbor.

(I was wrong - it was Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.)

The thing was shot on tape, on location, to give it a newsy verisimilitude, make it seem as if it were actually happening in the moment and the bulletin had just broken in to your regular nightly viewing. Fascinating and very ahead of its time. I remember being glued to the television set. If you weren't paying attention you might, for a few moments anyway, had thought it was really happening.

The film begins with a bulletin from a young gung-ho reporter who excitedly speaks to us as events unfurl. It seems a group of young anti-nuclear (I think) terrorists, definitely not Middle Eastern (those weren't the times) have somehow gotten their hands on an A-Bomb which they've tucked away on a ship in the harbor. At least that's how I remember it.

They want something or other from the government or they'll blow up part of Manhattan.

Well,there's some tension (as you may imagine) among the terrorists about whether they're actually going to do this - release the bomb, I mean - and then I lose track of the story.

Well, the bomb is set off - I think, accidentally, and the reporter (among many others) is killed and then we have the aftermath and what happens next. Heart-stopping. VERY dramatic especially on video tape.

I sort of remember that the whole thing has a rather bitter deflating ending of the 'get over it and move on' variety so prevalent today.

I surely would like to see this again, but damn if I can remember any more about it.

Any takers? Ring a bell anyone?

Since it's Tuesday, don't forget to check in at Todd Mason's blog, Sweet Freedom, to see what other forgotten or overlooked films, television and/or other audio visuals other bloggers are talking about today. We're an engaging bunch.