Anna Neagle

[jenny1977]

Hello all, I am undertaking some research on the reception of the films of Anna Neagle and Herbert Wilcox, particularly 'Spring in Park Lane' (1948). I was wondering if any of you would like to share your memories of watching her films, or discuss the reasons for her appeal. Any of your opinions and thoughts on her would be most appreciated.



I am new here so please excuse my ignorance if this topic has been covered before. If it has I would be post grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.



Thank you :-)

[DB7]

It was a roaring success when released and recently appeared in one of those CH4 film polls (I presume 'most bums on seats')



Personally I struggle to watch the majority of Wilcox/Neagle films.

[dpgmel]

For me I think the popularity of Dame Anna's post-war films e.g. Spring in Park Lane, PIccadilly Incident, Courtneys of Curzon Street etc is that when they were relleased they offered escapism and an insight into a world of " privilidge " . Britain had just come out of WWII and austerity was the word of the day rationing etc and Anna's films tended to reflect a more easy going age " when the world was gay "



IMHO opinion her films fall in the main into two distinct categoreis the escapist films such as SIPL and her worthy biographical films e.g. Nurse Edith Cavell, Lady With The Lamp, Odette etc and both sets of films struck a chord with cinemagoers at the time and Anna was viewed as a " true Brit ".



Then there are her films like Lilacs in the Spring which I will leave others on here to comment on.

[CaptainWaggett]

Lilacs in the Spring, is, as all sensible people know, completely splendid. Errol Flynn singing, David Farrar dancing - what's not to like? Plus, watching it means you're excused viewing Dame Anna's other historical films

[darrenburnfan]

And don't forget No Time For Tears, which I went to see at the age of ten in 1957. It was set in an NHS children's hospital with Anna as the best matron anyone could wish for, was in CinemaScope and Eastman Colour and co-starred George Baker; Sylvia Syms; Anthony Quayle and Flora Robson. It was a bit of a tear-jerker, too, as were most hospital films featuring a very sick child.



Oh, yes, and the nurses really cared for their patients and had plenty of time for them; the wards were always spic and span, so they obviously had cleaners who could really clean and there wasn't a trace of C-Diff or MRSA anywhere. Oh, for the NHS of fifty-two years ago!

[wadsy]

name='CaptainWaggett']Lilacs in the Spring, is, as all sensible people know, completely splendid. Errol Flynn singing, David Farrar dancing - what's not to like? Plus, watching it means you're excused viewing Dame Anna's other historical films

Apparently it included the (uncredited) debuts of both Stephen Boyd & Sean Connery.

[CaptainWaggett]

name='wadsy']Apparently it included the (uncredited) debuts of both Stephen Boyd & Sean Connery.

Sean is supposedly one of the silhouetted chorus boys in the tango number so I'd be surprised if even he could spot himself! But Stephen Boyd has lines and everything in the poolside scene with Errol.

[Mark O]

Anna's appeal to me is that she represents an England that once was, as well as her fine acting ability of course........



I attemped to take a pic of the plaque outside the Wilcox's Apartment block last year but it was obscured by scaffolding!



http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/ac...na-neagle.html

[julian_craster]

Why not visit a local old folks home and chat to some of the ladies aged over 75 ?



After all, they were the ones that made these films so successful at the box office.......many went to see the films several times in the same week...

[cornershop15]

Hello Jenny and welcome to the Forum.



If Spring In Park Lane is the film where Michael Wilding played her butler, then I saw it on Channel 4 many years ago and liked it a lot. Apart from that I'm ashamed to say that I've missed all the others, although I do know the titles of many of her films. I remember Sixty Glorious Years being screened on BBC2 one summer weekday - not sure why as I didn't see it!



You'll be surprised to know that when Dame Anna's death was announced, in 1986, I actually wasn't aware she'd been an actress (long retired). She was such a familiar face on TV during my childhood, like the similar Dame Isobel Barnett, but I only knew her from appearances on Stars On Sunday and quiz show Celebrity Squares.



Have you seen the array of pictures of her at Jamd - Search - Search for "anna neagle"?



Intrigued to discover Anna made a one-off comeback in Tales Of The Unexpected in 1983.

[Marky B]

Hi Jenny,

Anna Neagle's father was a captain of one of my dad's ships during the war.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[CaptainWaggett]

name='Marky B']Hi Jenny,

Anna Neagle's father was a captain of one of my dad's ships during the war.

Ta Ta

Marky B

I wonder whether she checked the accuracy of the shipboard scenes in Yellow Canary with her dad. For her fans, here's her entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Neagle, Dame Anna [real name Florence Marjorie Robertson] (1904–1986), actress and film producer, was born in Forest Gate, Essex, on 20 October 1904, the only daughter and youngest of three children of Herbert William Robertson, a captain in the merchant navy, and his wife, Florence Neagle. She was educated at the high school, St Albans, and at Wordsworth's Physical Training College, South Kensington, London. After being a student dance teacher, from 1925 to 1930 she appeared in the chorus of revues produced by André Charlot and Charles Cochran.



In 1930 she changed her name to Anna Neagle. Her first significant film part was in Goodnight Vienna (1932), directed by Herbert Sydney Wilcox (1890–1977), whom she married in 1943. They had no children. Wilcox directed thirty-two films with Neagle. Her first major film success was in Nell Gwyn (1934), and she gradually became synonymous with the historical picture, especially when Wilcox directed her in Victoria the Great (1937), an unexpectedly popular and critical success. It won the Picturegoer gold medal award and the gold cup at the Venice film festival. Neagle and Wilcox went to America to publicize its release and on their return repeated the formula successfully in Technicolor with Sixty Glorious Years (1938).



Anna Neagle went to America in 1939 and made four films with RKO studios: Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) and three musical comedies, Irene (1940), No, No, Nanette (1940), and Sunny (1941). She was the first actress to appear on the cover of Life magazine. On her return to Britain she started work on a film of the life of the aviator Amy Johnson, They Flew Alone (1941). Her next film was Yellow Canary (1943), about a Women's Royal Naval Service intelligence worker mistaken for a Nazi spy.



In 1945 Neagle's films became less heroic, and more escapist light entertainment, as she continued to straddle her film career with stage appearances and tours. She appeared in the film I Live in Grosvenor Square (1945), co-starring Rex Harrison, and went on an Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) tour in Europe in the play French without Tears. After the Second World War Neagle starred in a distinctive series of musical comedies with Michael Wilding. The first of the ‘London series’ was Piccadilly Incident (1946), which won the Daily Mail national film award, as did its successor, The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947). For her performances in both films Neagle received the Picturegoer gold medal. The third film in the Neagle–Wilding partnership was Spring in Park Lane (1948).



Aware of her previous success in ‘biopics’, Herbert Wilcox directed Neagle as Odette Sansom, a Special Operations Executive undercover agent, who had been tortured by the Nazis, in the film Odette (1950). As a result Neagle was appointed an honorary ensign (1950) of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, an appropriate award for an actress who went on to play Florence Nightingale in The Lady with a Lamp (1951).



In 1957 Anna Neagle produced These Dangerous Years, starring Frankie Vaughan, and was directed for the first time by a person other than Herbert Wilcox (Cyril Frankel) in No Time for Tears (1957). After her first box-office flop, The Lady is a Square (1958), financial problems beset Neagle and Wilcox and her attempt to start a dance school failed. Eventually, however, theatre appearances helped to resuscitate her flagging career.



Neagle was distinctive for her ability to maintain a ‘regal presence’ on screen. She was an ‘English’ beauty with a striking bone structure, who maintained her dancer's figure throughout her life. She could look equally at home in a glamorous ball gown or a practical flying-suit. Despite her variety of parts, her portrayals of heroines firmly placed her as a British icon in a patriotic style of film-making. She was appointed CBE in 1952 and DBE in 1969. She also received the freedom of the City of London (1981) and the order of St John (1981). Her final appearance was as the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the London Palladium that year. Anna Neagle, whose home latterly was at 117B Hamilton Terrace, London, died on 3 June 1986 from breast cancer at a nursing home, Clare House, Oakcroft Road, West Byfleet, Surrey, and was buried in the City of London cemetery, Manor Park, London. A service of thanksgiving was held in Westminster Abbey on 20 October 1986.



SARAH STREET, rev.

Sources A. Neagle, It's been fun (1949) · A. Neagle, There's always tomorrow (1974) · microfiche jackets, BFI · d. cert. · The Times (4 June 1986) · The Times (12 June 1986) · CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1986)



Archives

FILM BFI NFTVA, prints of films







Likenesses photographs, 1907–74, Hult. Arch. · Bassano studio, photographs, 1931, NPG · M. Barclay, oils, 1940, NPG · C. Beaton, photograph, NPG [see illus.]



Wealth at death £151,267: probate, 15 Sept 1986, CGPLA Eng. & Wales







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© Oxford University Press 2004–9 All rights reserved



Sarah Street, ‘Neagle, Dame Anna (1904–1986)’, rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39943, accessed 3 April 2009]

Although she wasn't on the breadline, she really didn't have that much money at the end considering how long she'd been Britain's most popular star.

[dpgmel]

No mention of Lilacs in the Spring I notice

[CaptainWaggett]

name='dpgmel']No mention of Lilacs in the Spring I notice

Its many, many fans know its true worth without needing to be told

[cornershop15]

I think dpgmel and Captain Waggett might find this light-hearted disagreement over Lilacs In The Spring mentioned at 'Most Memorable Posts' anytime soon!



As for Dame Anna's hard times towards the end of her life, didn't appearances on Stars On Sunday and Celebrity Sguares help in any way?

[Steve Crook]

name='darrenburnfan']Oh, yes, and the nurses really cared for their patients and had plenty of time for them; the wards were always spic and span, so they obviously had cleaners who could really clean and there wasn't a trace of C-Diff or MRSA anywhere. Oh, for the NHS of fifty-two years ago!

Yes, when they got you out of bed at 6am and you weren't allowed to go back to bed until 10pm.



When there wasn't anything available for pain relief between aspirin and morphine.



Those were the days



Steve

[cornershop15]

Just discovered another thread for Dame Anna, which I'm only promoting because it includes some interesting pictures supplied by MarkO:



Dame Anna Neagle - Britmovie - British Film Forum



But don't desert Jenny's new thread, folks, especially as she's a New Member!

[jenny1977]

Thank you everyone for all your replies. I personally really enjoyed Spring In Park Lane - good escapist fun! I havent seen Lilacs in Spring but I will seek it out now on your recommendations!

[ringsider]

Can I offer a couple of further, ever so slightly contrary thoughts.



Not sure I would describe Anna Neagle as a classic beauty (whatever that means), but those wonderful eyes. Wow!



Slightly surprised at the description of "Odette" as a worthy biographical film. Worthy? I think that is damning with faint praise. It is one of my most watched films.



Re the reference to "The Yellow Canary" in the Dictionary of National Biography. I think the entry is a little adrift. I haven't seen the film for a good few months but my strong memory is that Anna's character is not mistaken for a Nazi spy. Rather she deliberately posed as a Nazi supporter to aid British intelligence.





Regards - Bernard

[dpgmel]

name='ringsider']Can I offer a couple of further, ever so slightly contrary thoughts.



Not sure I would describe Anna Neagle as a classic beauty (whatever that means), but those wonderful eyes. Wow!



Slightly surprised at the description of "Odette" as a worthy biographical film. Worthy? I think that is damning with faint praise. It is one of my most watched films.



Re the reference to "The Yellow Canary" in the Dictionary of National Biography. I think the entry is a little adrift. I haven't seen the film for a good few months but my strong memory is that Anna's character is not mistaken for a Nazi spy. Rather she deliberately posed as a Nazi supporter to aid British intelligence.





Regards - Bernard

Exactly right Bernard regards The Yellow Canary Dame Anna is working for the British all along