Charles Laughton

 I was looking for a good movie on Netflix the other night and ran across one with Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power.  But more of that later.

For movie fans of my generation, Charles Laughton was one of the truly larger-than-life character actors.  He had been trained as a stage actor (played "Lear" in his native England)
but turned to movies in the 1930s.


Here he is in "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933) for which he won the Academy Award as best actor.

 He was the "original" Captain Bligh in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935) with Clark Gable as "Fletcher Christian".  I still prefer this version, even though Brando's and Gibson's versions would probably play better today.

He brought genuine pathos to "Quisimodo" in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1939) with the beautiful  Maureen O'Hara.  There are at least three later versions (not counting an animated one) but this one is by far my favorite.

He was in several other great films, way into the 1960s.
Played a great greedy senator in "Advise and Concent" in 1962.
And if you ever get a  chance to see "Tales of Manhatten" his segment is one of the more moving ones.

Which brings us to Netflix and the good movie I was looking for.

Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution"
is one of Laughton's best.  He plays the defense attorney for Tyrone Power, charged with murder.

Marlene Dietrich plays Power's wife.


I highly recommend watching it to see how Laughton commands the camera in every scene. There's the added pleasure of seeing Elsa Lanchester (Laughton's real life wife) as the nurse who tries in vain to get the crotchety old barrister to take his pills.

Watch for an early scene when Laughton uses his monocle as a way of testing a person's honesty.

The ending is something to remember, too.  I think you'll like it.

"Brigadoon"

In March, 1959 (that's 54 years ago) I directed "Brigadoon" at EOC.

                                                                Here's our program cover

Here's the cast (most of them college freshmen or sophomores)

Page 3 - We included the lyrics of the prologue (sung off stage by the ensemble)

                                          Printing the lyrics helped the audience get involved.

And here's the back page of the program. (We had a finale at the end.)

The college newspaper article the week before we opened for a fabulous 4 day run.

We double cast the female lead: Here's Jan Robertson as "Fiona"

"Tommy" and his sophisticated New York girl friend.  (Admit it--she's gorgeous)

Two of the dancers

"Tommy" and the other "Fiona"

The ballet number

The finale  (The backdrop is a scrim, behind which "Fiona" and others appeared and disappered.

 

                                  I have very fond memories of that production; it looked a lot better
                                                                     in color.

Last Saturday 13 of us saw the Hale Theatre's closing night performance of
"Brigadoon".  These two remember the 1959 show.

Some of those 13 weren't even alive in 1959.

Theatre fan congratulating one of the leads. 

                                          

And here's the Hale Theatre program cover.

 

 

 

Their production was fabulous, from the opening solo by a bagpiper, to the reappearing of "Fiona" and "Mr. Lundie."  Great voices (solo and chorus), great dancers, imaginative use of theatre in the round staging.  We all loved every minute of it.

But I still have a nostalgic preference for the one from 1959.  We didn't need to use microphones to be heard.  Our actors projected.  Is that becoming a lost art?   I know, I know --get with it, Hiatt.