Happy B'Day to Jane!
Jrand, regards your Burton Jimmy Porter question about LOOK BACK IN ANGER...Jimmy Porter is pretty much that disagreeable in the play. When the John Osborne play first premiered at the Royal Court, it was the one that ushered in the "Angry Young Man" movement of British plays and playwrights in the fifties. Though even I find the amount of "Welsh honking" that Burton does in the movie a tad over the top, it's still strangely compelling. I just picked up a DVD of the film for three bucks at my local Big Lots.
Judi Dench directed a television version of the play a few years back, with Ken Branagh and Emma Thompson, that I remember liking quite a lot. It can be found in the BBC's boxed set of Judi Dench, along with a lot of other terrific stuff. If you want to know more about "the angry young man" movement...a fascinating time in British theatre...I recommend John Heilpern's excellent biography, JOHN OSBORNE, THE MANY LIVES OF THE ANGRY YOUNG MAN. I couldn't put this book down. What a fascinating, self-destructive talent!
BK & I shared many a good time at the late Beverly Garland's hotel when it hosted the Ray Court Memorabilia Shows. RIP, Ms. Garland.
BK, I'm glad to hear the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh series from Disney is out on DVD. I shall try to track it down. I've never seen it; but in the last few years I've become interested in the novels on which it is based. There are probably a half dozen of them, written in the early part of the twentieth century by Russell Thorndyke (Does he spell it Thorndike?), who was an occasional actor (I think he plays the priest in Olivier's HAMLET) and also the brother of the great actress, Dame Sybil Thorndyke. All the books are in public domain and can be downloaded right off the internet. I haven't read any of them yet.
