Nothing beats a tough week of school and studying better than a nice little slice of entertainment! You normals might go hang out with friends (whatever that is), watching an inane (or just possibly very, very witty) sitcom, or drink slash smoke hookah or pot (in which case there's no hope for you). No, I'm a film geek dammit, and as such I'm liable to find my own ways of entertaining myself.
During my YouTube searches a came across a BBC TV adaptation of the Noel Coward play A Song at Twilight. Produced in 1983, it stars Deborah Kerr, Paul Scofield, Bruce Lidington and June Tobin. It tells the story of a night in the life of prolific author Sir Hugo Laytmer (Scofield), who is given an unexpected shock when his ex-lover, actress Carlotta Gray (Deborah Kerr), arrives at his mansion with unwelcome news. She wants possession of his private letters, detailing their affair, for her memoirs. Hugo rather rudely declines the offer, after which Carlotta drops the bombshell: she has letters showing his homosexual affair with his deceased secretary, and more importantly Hugo's cruel, dismissive treatment of him. The situation goes from bad to worse for Hugo when his wife Hilde (June Tobin) arrives, revealing that she knows Hugo's secret and feels their marriage is loveless. The question onhand, however, isn't Hugo's sexuality, but rather his hollowness as a person: he is arrogant, dismissive, mean, and loveless, incapable of true affection towards anyone or anything - or so his lovers think.
What can be said, besides that this is an excellent, fabulous piece? (I could do an in-depth thematic analysis of course, but it's 12:30 AM on a Thursday. Gimme a break.) As stated, it's a filmed play, but that's certainly not a bad thing in this case. In fact, this may be the best literally "filmed play" I've seen to date. The dialogue is witty, sharp, and concise - as one would expect from Noel Coward, one of the great playwrights of the 20th Century. The trio of stars is fabulous, and it's quite simply a lot of fun to watch Kerr and Scofield go at it with such relish. Scofield is, as always, a wonder to watch; if nothing else, you've got to love his voice and his use of his eyes. He could read the London Municipal Phone Book on camera from cover to cover, and I'm sure he'd find a way to make it interesting. Kerr, for her part, takes Coward's urbane dialogue and snaps it up, chewing it with relish. Not to imply her performance is hammy, rather that she's having fun with the material and happily lets it show. Tobin contributes some nice pathos around the edges as Hugo's long-suffering wife. (Liddington's role as Hugo's servant isn't much, but it's not the actor's fault.) I've seen many TV plays drown out great actors and creditable performances due to poor production design and too much ambition for the alloted budget (Alec Guinness and Genevieve Bujold's Caesar and Cleopatra, which can also be tracked down on YouTube, is a prime example), but that simply doesn't happen for this show, since it doesn't try to be anything more than a drawing-room "dramedy". It's a real treat, and at under 80 minutes it doesn't have the time to overstay its welcome or become dry and stale.
Here is part one on YouTube. If it sounds up your alley, follow the links until the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV1sbfKfHeY
Rating: 10/10 - Must See
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