Film Review – 1955

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MY FAVOURITE ROLE – 3

by DIRK BOGARDE

Anything done for the first time is exciting. It is a challenge to your ability and stimulates your mind. That is why my role as a Squadron Leader in Appointment in London appealed to me enormously.

It was the first time in films that I had been allowed to grow up.

Until Appointment in London I had been a leading light in the screen’s crime club. I was a sly, crafty Borstal boy in Boys in Brown, the gun-flashing thug in The Blue Lamp, an army deserter in Blackmailed and a man on the run in Hunted.

I realised I was being typed and also that people must get fed up with an actor who looks grim all the time. I decided that I would vary my roles as much as possible in future.

But even then I had to shoot my way through The Gentle Gunman and go on the run again in Desperate Moment before I starred in Appointment in London. I felt that this part enabled me to prove my worth as an actor. For too long I had been the “tough guy” of the screen.

For sheer enjoyment, of course, Doctor in the House is my favourite film. We had as many laughs on the set as the audiences did in the cinemas. We had a marvellous cast and it is always wonderful to work with producer Betty Box.

Anything new interests me and I hope that I shall be able to continue to vary my screen roles as much as possible. The films of the past year have achieved a high standard and I only hope that we shall be able to maintain this standard.

The title role of SVENGALI in the George Minter Renown production was originally intended for Robert Newton, but when Newton suddenly broke off and went to Amenca, Donald Wolfit – an obvious choice – took over and got every ounce out of the part. Here he is with his Trilby (Hildegarde Neff) and the man who loves her, Billy (Terence Morgan), at the stage door of Covent Garden.

London Airport was the background for Ealing’s OUT OF THE CLOUDS, and a good deal of the work that goes on behind the scenes of the smooth departure and arrival of aircraft was shown in some detail. Several intermingling stories included one about a pilot (Anthony Steel) tempted to smuggle by his girl friend and a hasty romance between a Jew and Jewess crossbound for opposite ends of the earth – David Knigh and Margo Lorenz (inset).

SIMBA, the J Arthur Rank film made largely on the spot in Africa, was an exciting, finely balanced story of the Mau Mau troubles. Dirk Bogarde played the young man who goes out to find his farmer brother murdered and subsequently remains to carry on in spite of threats against his life. It was also the story of his romance with Virginia McKenna, carried on against the uneasy background of raids, and the fears and rising anger of the local white community.

Arthur Askey brought laughter into the cinemas in his British Lion film THE LOVE MATCH, based on the Glenn Melvyn farce in which he had already enjoyed a big success on the stage. Also in this scene, author MELVYN and Arthur’s daughter, ANTHEA

Following on the great success of Norman Wisdom’s first film (Trouble in Store) came his second for the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, ONE GOOD TURN, set in an orphanage. Here Wisdom, the place’s man-of-all-work, overwhelmed by his passion for Joan Rice, confusedly gives his order for their tea to waitress Cleo Rose.

One of Dirk Bogarde’s few comedy appearances on the screen occurred this year in the Associated British domestic comedy FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE, a sprightly adaptation of the stage success about the unsmooth course of young love. His co-stars included left to right – Susan Stephen, Eileen Herlie and Cecil Parker.

Producer Betty Box, heartened by the really tremendous success of her last year’s comedy “Doctor in the House”, this year came along with a sequel, DOCTOR AT SEA, made for the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. It followed the career of one of the medical students (Dirk Bogarde) in the former film, now a certified practitioner, who, tired of his first taste of general practice, goes to sea as a ship’s doctor and almost immediately meets romance – in the person of glamorous French newcomer Brigitte Bardot.

One of Hollywood’s funniest if broadest comedies of the year was quite definitely the screen adaptation of the already very successful George Axelrod play, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, in which Tom Ewell repeated his stage triumph (a grand comedy performance) as the grass widower whose good intentions are spoiled by the glamorous and apparently generous girl from the upstairs flat – played to great effect by Marilyn Monroe. 20th Century Fox made the movie, and in CinemaScope, of course.

Bob Hope was presented in a new role in Paramount’s THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS – as a character comedian. In this story of the life of one of America’s better-known vaudeville comics he had few wisecracks but seven youngsters to help him out! For the record the juniors are (top row) Billy Gray, Lydia Reid and Jimmy Baird. Bottom row: Paul De Rolf, Linda Bennett, Tommy Duran and Lee Erickson.