Brittania Mews (aka Forbidden Street)

[nellybly]

I got the tape in the mail the other day. I popped it right into the VCR. The seller had said Good for viewing quality. Now, I don't know what standards he/she uses but in my opinion, Fair would be a generous rating. It's a b/w film and the darks were very dark and the whites were rather dark, too. The sound was rather quiet. So my cavet on the seller is take any ratings down one notch at least.[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] But I got the movie very quickly, just a few days after ordering. The seller is in Washington state and I'm in New Jersey.



Ok, here comes the movie review.



Seeing as I was about 16 the last time I saw it and I'm now getting senior discounts at restaurants, it's not the high romance I remember it being. Dana Andrews, in the first part of the film, as Henry Lambert, sounds like he's trying to imitate Ronald Colman (I didn't recall that) and in the second part, as Gilbert Lauderdale, starts out trying to imitate a (non Ronald Colman) British accent but soon gives it up.



Dana Andrews' accent attempts aside, it's an enjoyable movie. Dana Andrews is actually quite good and makes Henry Lambert and Gilbert Lauderdale two distinct personalities.



Maureen O'Hara does excellently going from the innoncent well-bred young lady to an embittered widow who is being blackmailed by the "rags and old clothes" woman to a lovely and happy young matron returning home with her new husband. She really pulled it off and aside from Dame Sybil Thorndike, really carried this movie.



Dame Sybil had a part an actress can sink her teeth into and she did. She was the rag-woman who blackmails Miss O'Hara's young widow. Her character was Mrs. Mounsey, who was by-named The Sow. Viscious, wheedling, filthy and Dame Sybil made her come to life. You couldn't imagine her cleaned up and presentable to polite society.



A. E. Matthews was fun as Mr. Bly, the man who helps Gilbert string and manipulate the Moliere puppets that Henry had made at a time before he became a bitter drunk artist who gave drawing lessons (not showing up drunk, of course) to well-bred young ladies, which is how he meets Adelaide (Maureen O'Hara).



There are some plot holes you could drive a carriage through but over all it's a very good movie. I don't regret buying it. I'm glad to have it.



The book it's from, "Brittania Mews" by Margery Sharp, is one of those epic type of stories which goes from Adelaide's childhood in Victorian England to her old age during the Second World War. The movie touches momentarily on her childhood and then jumps to her young adulthood and ends (with a different outcome of her relationship to Gilbert as per the Hays Code) as a young matron.

[theuofc]

(nellybly @ Mar 20 2006, 03:29 AM)

...There are some plot holes you could drive a carriage through but over all it's a very good movie. I don't regret buying it. I'm glad to have it. ...

Hi, Nelly,



Very glad that at last you have the movie. Like you, sometimes I had to complete the search, find the film so I could lay it to rest.



And, for better for worse, I'm awfully happy someone out there has these "lost" films. Thanks for the great review.



Best,



Barbara

[nellybly]

Because his name was crowded in with a bunch of others I didn't immediately notice that Guy Hamilton was the assistant director on it. It was his fifth movie and third credit (the first two he was assistanct director but uncredited). Here's the list of movies he did (lots of 007--wonder if he'll come out of retirement for Daniel Craig LOL): http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0357891/

[theuofc]

(nellybly @ Mar 29 2006, 03:47 AM)

...lots of 007--wonder if he'll come out of retirement for Daniel Craig LOL): Guy Hamilton (I)

Now _that's_ a funny image, Hamilton leaving retirement for DC.



Barbara

[John (Yogi) Allen]

Hello,



I have just joined the forum after googling for this film and striking lucky. While investigating my family tree, I came across a note about a distant relative who, I am told, was in the cast.



Her name was June Allen and she played a small part as a servant girl. Can anybody confirm this for me? If so, I would like to acquire a copy for my archives - I might even watch it!



I remember meeting June once when I was 13 and she was 16 - about 55 years ago - and she was really striking. I carried her photo in my wallet for a couple of years until it disintegrated. Happy memories!



On-On /Yogi

[Steve Crook]

Hello,



I have just joined the forum after googling for this film and striking lucky. While investigating my family tree, I came across a note about a distant relative who, I am told, was in the cast.



Her name was June Allen and she played a small part as a servant girl. Can anybody confirm this for me? If so, I would like to acquire a copy for my archives - I might even watch it!



I remember meeting June once when I was 13 and she was 16 - about 55 years ago - and she was really striking. I carried her photo in my wallet for a couple of years until it disintegrated. Happy memories!



On-On /Yogi

Hello, welcome to the forum.



You can check the cast list of this and most other films & TV programs at the IMDb (Internet Movie Database)

There was a June Allen in the cast. She played Adelaide Culver (the Maureen O'Hara character) as a child.

If she was playing a child in 1949 that could put her in the age range you mention.



The bad news is that the IMDb doesn't have much information about her other work. Just the appearance in Brittania Mews and an appearance in the BBC TV series The Man in Armour (1951).

They do have a record of another June Allen who appeared in Taking Tiger Mountain (1983)



Steve

[John (Yogi) Allen]

Hi Steve,



Thanks for your help. Sorry to be so long replying - I've been off the air for one reason or another.



On-On /Yogi