Mad about Miss Johns

Today, 91 years ago the simply divine Welsh actress Glynis Johns was born - and, thankfully, she's still going strong.

Here's an extract from one of her campest moments on screen - as a mermaid (and in this clip, her "cousin" too)! To my eternal shame, I've never seen Mad About Men (nor the film to which it was a sequel, Miranda); and with a cast that features some sadly missed stalwarts of British film including Irene Handl, Deryck Guyler, (Sir) Donald Sinden, Dora Bryan and Dame Margaret Rutherford, I really think that I should get round to it one day...

Enjoy the fun:

Glynis Johns, Margaret Rutherford, Donald Sinden in Miranda

Happy birthday!

Glynis Johns (born 5th October 1923)

Old school eccentricity

"When we are young, we read and believe the most fantastic things.
When we are older, we learn with regret that these things cannot be."

We are quite, quite wrong!

Had a lovely time at the BFI last night, as we went to seen the sublime Noel Coward's classic film Blithe Spirit, as part of the David Lean centenary season.

A real old-school gem of a comedy, the plot revolves around the mayhem that ensues when a seance goes wrong, and a married couple (the very young Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings) are haunted by the mischievous and bitchy ghost of the first wife (Kay Hammond). But the real star turn is the wonderful Margaret Rutherford as the unconventional whimsical medium who can't send the ghosts back, Madame Arcati ("namesake" of my lovely other half).

The role of Madame Arcati was made for Margaret Rutherford - queen of the quintessentially English eccentrics. Her extreme theatrics when she goes into one of her trances, her joy at the realisation that her powers are not as "fake" as everyone thought, and her increasingly bizarre attempts to return the ghosts to the other side make this film such a masterpiece.

Blithe Spirit original cinema trailer

Screenonline - Blithe Spirit