Vintage - CINEMA - Classics

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"The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"
"Black Narcissus"
"Major Barbara"
"The Adventuress"
"King Solomon's Mines"
"Tea and Sympathy"
"The King and I"
"An Affair to Remember"
"Separate Tables"
"The Sundowners"
"the I N N O C E N T S"
"The Night of the Iguana"

1947s
"Black Narcissus"

A party of nuns are invited by the local ruler to start a school
in a disturbing, deserted palace perched on a steep ledge in
the Himalayan Mountains where a former Rajah had kept his
women. Once again, Powell and Pressburger present the real
and the romantic as a harmonious yet disturbing dichotomy.
Mr. Dean (David Farrar) is the handsome Englishman whose
presence may be reviving Sister Clodagh's (Deborah Kerr)
unsettling memories of a long-ago love affair, and inflaming
passion and murderous jealousy in the unstable Sister Ruth
(Kathleen Byron). At the same time, their unease is amplified
by the mystical suffusioin of pagan spirituality in the thin air,
beatinrums, perfumed aromas, and incessant winds, while the
budding courtship between a young native general (Sabu)
and an intoxicating native girl (Jean Simmons) unfolds in their
midst. Of all their films, "Black Narcissus" comes closest to
Powell's goal of creating a fully "composed film." Though it
transports us to a foreign place, it was shot entirely on sets
in England. Powell's ability to completely control all the natural
and cinematic elements, Alfred Junge's astonishingly exotic,
authentic-feeling art direction, and Jack Cardiff's Oscar-winning
Technicolor cinematography produced a uniformity of atmosphere
that keeps us spellbound from beginning to end.
It's the Himalayas of our dream.

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Deborah Kerr's Hollywood - follow the times of this glamourous star - and all those other wonderful
emotion picture players - through this town of enchantment, tracing their life, film and stage career.

A PICTORIAL GALEXY and Generality - Writings of the LIFE - TIMES and FILM CAREER of Deborah Kerr | Filmography 1940 - 1950s NOTES and FACTS | Filmography 1960 - 1980s NOTES and FACTS | Biographies | JUNGLE Films | News and Gossip in BLOOM | Addle an Addict and Baffle a Buff | Vintage - CINEMA - Classics | COMEDY and ROMANCE Films | Gallery of PHOTOS | COSTUME Films | HIGH and SOCIAL DRAMA Films | CRIME and HORROR Films | RELIGIOUS and MUSICAL Films | Emotion Pictures | OBITUARIES | Legacy of a L A D Y - End of a Legend

THE
MOVIES

O s c a r s WILDLY unpredictable!

The Academy Award nominations are due out as they are every year - what better time for the film community to bestow its best wishes on its favoured peers. The only trouble every year is finding five finalists who are deserving of such love and effection. As a forinstance, 1989 may have been a banner box office year - 5 billion! - but it sure didn't set any records for artistic achievement. Just the same, with 12 months of movies to choose from, Academy voters should be able to find five respectable contenders in each category. Cream d o e s rise to the top, after all.

BEST PICTURE: "All the King's Men" - 1949
BEST DIRECTOR: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, "A Letter to Three Wives"
BEST ACTRESS: - Olivia de Havilland, "The Heiress"
OTHER 1949 NOMINEES:
Jeanne Crain, PINKY
Susan Hayward, MY FOOLISH HEART
Deborah Kerr, EDWARD, MY SON
Loretta Young, COME TO THE STABLE
BEST ACTOR: Broderick Crawford, "All the King's Men"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mercedes McCambridge, "All the King's Men"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Dean Jagger, "Twelve O'Clock High"

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BEST PICTURE: "From Here To Eternity" Columbia - 1953
BEST DIRECTOR: Fred Zinnemann, "From Here To Eternity"
BEST ACTRESS: Audrey Hepburn, "Roman Holiday" - Paramount
OTHER 1953 NOMINEES:
Leslie Caron, LILI
Ava Gardner, MOGAMBO
Deborah Kerr, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
Maggie McNamara, THE MOON IS BLUE
BEST ACTOR: William Holden, "Stalag 17" - Paramount
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Donna Reed, "From Here To Eternity"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Frank Sinatra, "From Here To Eternity"

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BEST PICTURE: "Around the World In 80 Days" United Artists - 1956
BEST IRECTOR: George Stevens, "Giant"
BEST ACTRESS: Ingrid Bergman, "Anastasia" - 20th Century-Fox
OTHER 1956 NOMINEES:
Carroll Baker, BABY DOLL
Katharine Hepburn, THE RAINMAKER
Nancy Kelly, THE BAD SEED
Deborah Kerr, THE KING AND I
BEST ACTOR: Yul Brynner, "The King and I" - 20th Century-Fox
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Dorothy Malone, "Written On The Wind"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Anthony Quinn, "Lust For Life"

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BEST PICTURE: "The Bridge On The River Kwai" Columbia - 1957
BEST DIRECTOR: David Lean, "The Bridge On The River Kwai"
BEST ACTRESS: Joanne Woodward, "The Three Faces Of Eve" - 20th Century-Fox
OTHER 1957 NOMINEES:
Deborah Kerr, HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON
Anna Magnani, WILD IS THE WIND
Elizabeth Taylor, RAINTREE COUNTY
Lana Turner, PEYTON PLACE
BEST ACTOR: Alec Guinness, "The Bridge On The River Kwai" - Columbia
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Miyoshi Umeki, "Sayonara"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Red Buttons, "Sayonara"

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BEST PICTURE: "Gigi," Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - 1958
BEST DIRECTOR: Vincent Minnelli, "Gigi"
BEST ACTRESS: Susan Hayward, "I Want To Live" - United Artists
OTHER 1958 NOMINEES
Deborah Kerr, SEPARATE TABLES
Shirley MacLaine, SOME CAME RUNNING
Rosalind Russell, AUNTIE MAME
Elizabeth Taylor, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
BEST ACTOR: David Niven, "Separate Tables" - United Artists
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Dame Wendy Hiller, "Separate Tables"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Burl Ives. "The Big Country"

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BEST PICTURE: "The Apartment" United Artists - 1960
BEST DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder, "The Apartment"
BEST ACTRESS: Elizabeth Taylor, "Butterfield 8" - Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer
OTHER 1960 NOMINEES:
Greer Garson, SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO
Deborah Kerr, "The S u n d o w n e r s"
Shirley MacLaine, THE APARTMENT
Melina Mercouri, NEVER ON SUNDAY
BEST ACTOR: Burt Lancaster, "Elmer Gantry" - United Artists
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shirley Jones, "Elmer Gantry"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Peter Ustinov, "Spartacus"


 

Film


SEPARATE TABLES
(1958) * * * *
Burt Lancaster
Rita Hayworth
David Niven
Deborah Kerr

Brilliant acting and excellent direction smooth the transition of Sir Terence Rattigan's play from the stage to the screen. Under Delbert Mann's direction, the characterizations are sensitive, and the emotional conflicts are deftly portrayed in this story about the guests at a British seaside resort. Among the stars are Deborah, who plays a spinster; David, a troubled ex-colonel; and Dame Wendy Hiller, the owner of the resort and Lancaster's mistress. Rita is surprisingly good as Lancaster's ex-wife who begs him for another chance. Also with Dame Gladys Cooper, Cathleen Nesbitt, Sir Felix Aylmer, Rod Taylor, Audrey Dalton, and May Hallat.
Academy Awards - David Niven, best actor; Hiller, best supporting actress. Nominations - best picture; Deborah, best actress; Rattigan and John Gay, best screenplay (based on material from another medium); Charles Lang Jr., cinematography (black and white).
approx. film running-time 98 minutes

TEA AND SYMPATHY (1956) * * *
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Deborah Kerr and John Kerr - they're not related - both give extremely sensitive performances in this movie about a troubled schoolboy's affair with a teacher's wife. This film version of Robert Anderson's successful Broadway play drags at times, but the superior acting and characterizations more than justify the pace of the production. Leif Erickson, Edward Andrews, Norma Crane, Dean Jones, and Darryl Hickman also star.
Director -
Vincente Minnelli.
approx. film running-time 122 minutes

TM Photo from the Hugh Miles-Hutchinsen/Hiller Collection c2003 All Rights Retained Hereto

In 1955 this lavish production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway hit THE KING AND I, starring Yul Brynner as the King of Siam and Deborah Kerr as the governess sent to look after his children, was the most expensive film ever mounted by 20th Century-Fox. The 40 sets in ripe decors by Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox included a ballroom of black marble with jade and silk tapestries and a banqueting scene with a table that gives the impression of stretching to infinity. The costumes by Irene Sharaff, notably the hoop ballroom gown for Deborah Kerr and those for the ballet "The Small House of Uncle Thomas," dazzle the eye in their delineation of Western manners and Oriental splendour. Mr. Brynner remains impressive as the King but his pidgin dialogue, inherited from Hammerstein's book, with the dropping of the definite article takes some adjustment. Alfred Newman put his unique stamp on the music: the Overture offers an example of his luminous divided string sound, the climactic ballroom scene a full bodied orchestral reprise of "Shall We Dance?" as the camera pulls away to a high angle producing an exultant visual finish to this celebrated polka. 


1932/33 - Charles Laughton, "The Private Life of Henry VIII
1934 - Clark Gable, "It Happened One Night
1937 - Spencer Tracy, "Captains Courageous"
1938 - Spencer Tracy, "Boys Town"
1939 - Robert Donat, "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"
1941 - Gary Cooper, "Sergeant York"
1952 - Gary Cooper, "High Noon"
1953 - William Holden, "Stalag 17"
1954 - Marlon Brando, "On the Waterfront"
1955 - Ernest Borgnine, "Marty"
1956 - Yul Brynner, "The King and I"
1958 - David Niven, "Separate Tables"
1960 - Burt Lancaster, "Elmer Gantry"
1963 - Gregory Peck, "To Kill a Mockingbird"
1965 - Rex Harrison, "My Fair Lady"
1971 - Gene Hackman, "The French Connection"
1972 - Marlon Brando, "The Godfather"

Academy Award Winning BEST ACTRESS:

1942 - Greer Garson, "Mrs. Miniver"


"BLACK NARCISSUS" * * *1/2
DIRECTOR: Michael Powell
CAST: Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons, David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Flora Robson, Sabu

Worldly temptations, including those of the flesh, create many difficulties for a group of nuns starting a mission in the Himalayas. Superb photography makes this early postwar British effort a visual delight. Unfortunately, key plot elements in this unusual drama were cut from the American prints by censors. This exquisite film combines elements of fairy tale with the fregrance of the perfume which gives the film its title and tone. The horns which open each section, voices that ring in the heady air of the convent set in a disused harem, the threat of male voices and conflict between duty and emotion blend into a brilliantly constructed cinema.
G.B. 1947

Deborah Kerr shines as a nun who deals with the tormenting problems of isolation and harsh climate in an effort to maintain a mission in the Himalayas.
The film, based on Rumer Godden's novel, is exquisitely appointed and packs an emotional wallop. Sabu and Jean Simmons are excellent in supporting roles. You N E E D to see this cinema if only for the superb strangeness of Kathleen Byron and Dame Flora Robson !
approx. film running-time 100 minutes


Film

Specials

Major Barbara
Edward, My Son
Black Narcissus
I See a Dark Stranger
The Life and Death of Col. Blimp
Perfect Strangers
King Solomon's Mines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Deborah Kerr Curtain Call Playhouse
A Fellowship League Foundation
For The Performing Arts
( The Miles Diaries and Journals )