Category Archives: Screening and Discussion

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 11th of March, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us for the fifth of this term’s melodrama screening and discussion sessions. We will be showing Tiger in the Smoke (1956, Roy Ward Baker, 95 mins) on Wednesday the 11th of March, 5-7pm, Jarman 6.

 

The film is based on Margery Allingham’s 1952 novel – the 14th in her series of books featuring enigmatic detective Albert Campion.

The review from the 22nd December 1956 issue of UK fan magazine Picturegoer helpfully outlines the film’s plot and asks some insightful questions:

“a pretty war widow, movingly played by Muriel Pavlow, is led to believe that her war-hero husband is still alive. It turns out to be a hoax. Why? Who is the man masquerading as her dead husband? What is the secret? And who is the man, the killer, masterminding the whole operation?”

Picturegoer further describes the film as possessing a ‘nerve-wracking grip’ and ‘creepily sustained’ tension (p. 16).

This fits with fits with US trade paper Variety’s designation of the film as a ‘thriller’ (5th December 1956, p. 24). The publication’s review comments on how the ‘fog laden’ London city streets setting stresses ‘mystery and suspense’ and the performance of Pavlow conveys tension and anxiety. The film’s plot, its fogbound atmosphere, and Pavlow’s suffering woman, can all be usefully connected to our interest in melodrama.

Do join us if you can.

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 26th of February, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us for the fourth of this term’s screenings. We will be showing The Franchise Affair (1951, Lawrence Huntingdon, 95 mins) on Wednesday the 26th of February, 5-7pm, in Jarman 6.

The Franchise Affair is based on Josephine Tey’s 1948 novel of the same name. The third of Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant series of novels, it directly follows 1936’s A Shilling for Candles, adapted as Young and Innocent (1937). (You can see our discussion of this film here: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/melodramaresearchgroup/2020/01/21/summary-of-discussion-on-young-and-innocent/ )

Grant once more briefly appears, this time played by John Bailey, but the top-billed stars are Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray. Denison, as local lawyer Robert Blair, comes to the aid of Gray’s Marion Sharpe, and her mother (played by Marjorie Fielding). They have been accused of kidnapping and torturing a local young woman, Betty Kane (Ann Stephens). Tey’s plot was inspired by the real-life case of 18th Century maidservant Elizabeth Canning.

The New York Times considered both Tey’s novel and the film to belong to the melodrama genre. On the film’s release in the United States a very brief note labels the film ‘a British-made melodrama’ (3rd June 1952). Two months later, James Kelly reviewed Tey’s The Privateer (written under the name Gordon Daviot) for the same newspaper. In his review, Kelly applies the term ‘melodrama’ to The Franchise Affair and Brat Farrar – Tey’s 1949 non-Alan Grant novel (24th August 1952). Kelly provides more detail, claiming that Tey’s ‘vivid characterization, dispassionate reporting, and crisp writing can lend conviction to improbable melodrama’. Kelly’s view of melodrama is therefore pejorative – it is not believable, and praise is due to Tey for surmounting it.

We can perhaps discuss this in relation to the novel and/or film. In particular, it may be worth considering if the fact that the New York Times labelling of the film as ‘British melodrama’ has additional significance, commenting not just on its country of production, but its treatment of melodrama.

Do join us if you can.

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 12th of February, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us for our third melodrama screening of the term. We will be watching Green For Danger (1946, Sidney Gilliat, 91 mins) on Wednesday the 12th of February 5-7pm, in Jarman 6,

Green For Danger is the product of the well-known British team of producer Frank Launder and director Sidney Gilliat. It was an adaptation of Christiana Brand’s 1944 novel of the same name, her second to feature Inspector Cockrill

Alastair Sim stars as Cockrill, who is called in to investigate a murder at a hospital where the suspects include both Doctors (Leo Genn and Trevor Howard) and Nurses (Sally Gray, Rosamund John, and Megs Jenkins).

British fan magazine Picture Show’s review described it as a ‘murder mystery melodrama with a war-time emergency hospital setting’ (8th March, 1947, p. 8). It also noted that it was ‘extremely well acted and directed’, especially singling out Sim for praise ‘as the inspector whose drole comments on his own action provide many amusing moments.’

Do join us, if you can, for this entertaining British classic.

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 29th January, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us for the second of this term’s melodrama screenings. We will be showing Busman’s Honeymoon (1940, Arthur B Woods, 99 mins) on Wednesday the 29th of January, 5-7pm, in Jarman 6.

This continues our focus on film adaptations of detective novels written by women. Busman’s Honeymoon is based on the 1937 novel of the same name by Dorothy L Sayers. It was the last in her 11 book series to feature her popular amateur gentleman detective Lord Peter Wimsey.

The film, which starred the Americans Robert Montgomery as the English sleuth and Constance Cummings as his Oxford educated mystery novelist wife, Harriet Vane, was released as Haunted Honeymoon in the United States.

Melodrama is less obvious in both the novel and the film than was the case for last time’s screening, Young and Innocent, whose man on the run theme related to male melodrama. Sayers’ subtitle to the book, ‘a love story with detective interruptions’, suggests it belongs to both the romantic and detective genres, but downplays its  mystery elements. The US lobby card pictured above suggests a more even division as the main couple, in wedding gear, is drawn straddling a gun.

Do join us if you can.

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 15th of January, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us for the first of this term’s screening and discussion sessions.  We’ll be showing Young and Innocent (1937, Alfred Hitchcock, 83 mins) on Wednesday the 15th of January, 5-7pm, in Jarman 6.

This film is part of our new focus on film adaptations of detective novels written by women. It is based on Josephine Tey’s second Inspector Alan Grant novel, A Shilling for Candles, which was published in 1936.

 

In addition to comparing the film to Tey’s novel, we will, of course, be focusing on how it relates to melodrama. The UK fan magazine Picture Show is helpful in this regard. Its preview, written by Maud Hughes, opens by noting that ‘romance runs through the warp of crime’ (25th of December 1937, p. 5). Hughes then briefly recounts some crucial aspects of the characters and the plot. In edited form (for the sake of spoilers!) the summary is that ‘Nova Pilbeam is the daughter of a Chief Constable [who] helps a…man wanted by the police on a charge of murder’.

The man on the run (played by Derrick de Marney) may be related to some Dirk Bogarde melodramas we have screened over the last couple of years. These showed Bogarde as a suffering figure and also contained the Mystery, Violence and Chase  aspects of the male melodrama (see especially Hunted: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/melodramaresearchgroup/2018/10/18/summary-of-discussion-on-hunted/  ) .

Meanwhile the main female character is potentially the ‘woman in peril’ we have often seen in gothic films, as well as the ‘suffering woman’ of melodrama. The US title of the film, The Girl was Young, further underlines this, suggesting that it is she who is the ‘young and innocent’ (and therefore the most vulnerable character) of Hitchcock’s film.

Hughes comments following her plot summary that ‘cynical’ critics may consider the film to be ‘sheer melodrama’ are very instructive. They demonstrate that ‘melodrama’ is often a pejorative term, especially when it is undiluted (‘sheer’). But Hughes argues for its historical popularity: it is the sort of the story which has ‘held the interest of the big public for hundreds of years’.

Hopefully we’ll enjoy it too. Do join us if you can.

Timetable for Spring 2020 Melodrama Screenings

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All are welcome to attend our screening and discussion sessions in the Spring term. These will take place on ‘odd’ Wednesdays from 5-7pm in Jarman 6, starting on the 15th of January.

This term we will be turning our attention to film adaptations of detective novels written by women from the UK. This gives us the chance to compare melodrama on the page (from the 1930s to the 1950s) and the screen (with films dating from 1937 to 1963).

15th January 2020  Young and Innocent (1937, Alfred Hitchcock, UK, 83 mins) based on the 1936 novel A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey.

29th January 2020 Haunted Honeymoon (1940, Arthur B Woods, Richard Thorpe, UK 99 mins), an adaptation of the final entry in Dorothy L Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey series, Busman’s Honeymoon, published in 1937.

12th February 2020 Green For Danger (1946, Sidney Gilliat, UK, 91 mins), from Christianna Brand’s 1944 Inspector Cockerill novel of the same name.

26th February 2020 The Franchise Affair (1951, Lawrence Huntingdon, UK, 95 mins), adapted from Josephine Tey’s 1948 novel of the same name, which in turn was based on a real-life case. This is the 3rd of Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant series, immediately preceded by A Shilling for Candles (see 15th January 2020 entry above).

11th March 2020 Tiger in the Smoke (1956, Roy Ward Baker, UK, 94 mins) based on  Margery Alingham’s ‘Campion’ novel of the same name, the 17th of the series, from 1952.

25th March 2020 Murder at the Gallop (1963, George Pollock, UK, 81 mins), a very free adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1953 Hercule Poirot novel, After the Funeral, which was altered to star Margaret Rutherford as Christie’s other best-known detective – Miss Jane Marple.

Additional details will be posted in due course.

Christmas Screening and Discussion Session, Tuesday 10th of December, 4pm-8pm, Jarman

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All are very welcome to join us for a Christmas Screening and discussion session on Tuesday the 10th of December, 4-8pm, in Jarman.

We will be screening The Bat Whispers (1930, Roland West) and Night of the Demon (1957, Jacques Tourneur). We have previously screened the former at Halloween (https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/melodramaresearchgroup/2018/11/08/summary-of-discussion-on-the-bat-whispers/) Night of the Demon seems especially appropriate, however,  for the season. (I have indeed Christmassifed the images from the films to make both seem more festive!)  Night of  the Demon is an adaption  of MR James’ short story ‘The Casting of the Runes’. We screened a TV adaption of James’  ghost story ‘Number 13’ two years ago:

https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/melodramaresearchgroup/2017/12/21/summary-of-discussion-on-number-13/

 

Do join us if you can.

 

 

 

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 3rd of April, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us for the last melodrama screening session of the term. We will be screening Doctor in the House (1954, Ralph Thomas, 92 mins) and/or Doctor at Sea (1955, Ralph Thomas, 93 mins) on Wednesday the 3rd of April, 5-7pm, Jarman 6.

Including films from the popular ‘Doctor’ comedy series in our season of Dirk Bogarde melodramas may seem an odd choice. While it would be a stretch to describe the films as melodrama, they are hugely significant to Bogarde’s screen image. Bogarde appears as Simon Sparrow, a medical student in the first instalment, but then a qualified doctor who develops and climbs the career leader as the series progresses – he appears in 4 of the 5 films made between 1954 and 1963 (in 1954, 1955, 1957 and 1963).

As well as the cumulative effect of Bogarde appearing in several films, the series, especially the first film, was hugely popular. The BFI’s list of the top 100 films at the UK box office (adjusted for inflation) places Doctor in the House at no. 36, with an estimated audience of 12.2 million, roughly a quarter of the UK population at the time. Bogarde had previously been listed on the trade paper Motion Picture Herald’s survey of the stars which exhibitors through brought in audiences at no.5 (in 1953). But Bogarde ranked higher during the 50s each year he appeared in a Doctor film: no. 2 in 1954, no. 1 in 1955, before dipping to no. 3 in a non-Doctor year, back up to no. 1 in 1957.

The ‘Doctor’ films therefore provided audiences with an alternative to some of Bogarde’s darker or more challenging roles which we have screened – such as Cast a Dark Shadow (1955), Libel (1959), Victim (1961), The Singer Not the Song (1961). While the Doctor films have garnered less critical attention, they are arguably more central to Bogarde’s screen image, and especially worthy of our attention.

Do join us for these enjoyable films if you can.

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 20th of March, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us when we continue our Dirk Bogarde season by screening Death in Venice (1971, Luchino Visconti, 130 mins) on Wednesday the 20th of March, 5-7pm, in Jarman 6.

Like our previous film, Victim, Death in Venice tackles a controversial subject, and is much written about in film studies. Based on German writer Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella, it stars Bogarde as composer Gustav von Aschenbach. Aschenbach has travelled to Venice for his health, and the film depicts his growing obsession with an adolescent Polish boy, Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen), as  Venice becomes gripped by a cholera epidemic.

The decision to change Death in Venice’s  protagonist from a writer to a composer of music is especially interesting, and the film’s famous score may be a particular point of discussion in relation to melodrama.

Do join us if you can, for one Bogarde’s early European films.

Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 6th of March, 5-7pm, Jarman 6

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All are very welcome to join us for our next melodrama screening and discussion session. We will be showing Victim (1961, Basil Dearden, 96 mins) on Wednesday the 6th of March, 5-7pm, Jarman 6.

Victim stars Dirk Bogarde as barrister Melville Farr, a man whose apparently happy marriage to Laura (Sylvia Syms) and professional reputation are jeopardised when a compromising photograph of him comforting a young man is exploited for criminal purposes.

The film’s concern with male homosexuality at a time when this was illegal in the UK made it controversial with contemporary audiences (including the British Board of Film Censors) and its bravery for tackling the subject is still recognised today.

US trade paper Variety described the film as both ‘thriller-drama’ and ‘social probe’ (6th September 1961, p. 6 ). It also applauds the fact that the film lacks ‘sensationalisation of the homosexual problem’. It will be useful to assess whether we concur with this assessment in the current day, and how this fits with a view of melodrama privileging exaggeration and excess.

Do join us if you can.