Noël Coward
A spiritualist medium holds a seance for a writer suffering from writers block but accidentally summons the spirit of his deceased first wife which leads to an increasingly complex love triangle with his current wife of five years.
Researching material for a new novel, Charles engages Madame Arcati, a spiritual medium of uncertain talent, to conduct a séance in his home. Quite by accident, she summons the spirit of Charles's first wife and cannot make the disruptive spirit go away.
As he prepares to embark on an overseas tour, star actor Garry Essendine’s colourful life is in danger of spiralling out of control. Engulfed by an escalating identity crisis as his many and various relationships compete for his attention, Garry’s few remaining days at home are a chaotic whirlwind of love, sex, panic and soul-searching.
A self-obsessed actor in the midst of a mid-life crisis juggles a fawning ingenue, a crazed playwright, his ex-wife, and the personal lives of his friends.
Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne are glamorous, rich, reckless… and divorced. Five years later, their love for one another is unexpectedly rekindled when they take adjoining suites of a French hotel while honeymooning with their new spouses. This chance encounter instantly reignites their passion, and they fling themselves headlong into a whirlwind of love and lust once more, without a thought for partners present or turbulences past.
Elyot Chase (Toby Stephens) and Amanda Prynne (Anna Chancellor) are glamorous, rich and reckless divorcees. Five years later, whilst on their second honeymoons with their brand new spouses, their passionate love for one another is unexpectedly rekindled, when they take adjoining suites at a French hotel. They both fling themselves headlong once more, into a new and exciting whirlwind of lust/love, without any thought for their partners present or their past issues.
A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.
A comedy of discriminating taste and dirty little secrets, the story is set in 1952 England, where Nigel, the Earl of Marshwood, woos Hollywood star Miranda Frayle, upsetting both his mother, Countess Felicity of Marshwood, and her former love, fellow Hollywood star Don Lucas. Right before the engagement party to be held at Marshwood, Moxie, the Countess's personal maid and best friend reveals that Miranda is her estranged sister. Crestwell, the Countess's butler, quickly devises a plan-but an inebriated Lucas's arrival at Marshwood to try to talk to Miranda causes all chaos to break loose.
A video companion to the tribute album, this features performances of the songs of Noël Coward performed by modern British artists including Sting, the Pet Shop Boys and the Divine Comedy.
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.
Roddy and Lola strike up a romance on the cruise liner SS Mara as it heads to Hong Kong from San Francisco.
Eustace and Dorrie Edgehill have decided to leave Samola, a British protectorate in the Pacific. After the failure of his latest harebrained scheme, no one is likely to give Eustace a job now. Or are they?
An English novelist is besieged by his hosts on an American tour in this comedy of ill manners.
Sweet Hilda Capper spends her birthday fending off the well-meaning intrusions of family and friends.
Lorraine Barrie, a fading but brilliant actress with a penchant for manipulating every theatrical endeavour to her best advantage, meets her match when she must trust her success to an equally willful stage director.
George Banks recalls his past life travelling in charge of a dancing troupe.
A henpecked American visiting Europe is able to throw off his ghastly wife and find love.
Often regarded as semi-autobiographical, Present Laughter follows a few days in the life of successful and self-obsessed actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry must deal with interruptions including the numerous women who want to seduce him, placating his long-suffering secretary Monica Reed, avoiding his estranged wife Liz Essendine, being confronted by a crazed young playwright, and overcoming his fear of his own approacing fortieth birthday and impending mid-life crisis.
Design for Living presents a trio of neurotic but intensely artistic characters: Gilda, Otto and Leo. Set in Paris, Otto and Leo both fall in love with Gilda. She cannot make up her mind which man she loves, so the three decide to live together in a platonic friendship. Among Coward's trademark sparkling wit, the play explores deeper themes including infidelity, the pressures of fame on an unstable mind, and morality (or immorality) of a menage a trois.
Divorced couple Amanda and Elyot have both recently remarried. On their honeymoons, however, they discover that they have accidentally booked adjoining suites at the same hotel. Containing some of Coward's best dialogue, the play revolves around the agonising realisation that despite their ferocious incompatibility, they are still drawn to each other.
Two strangers, both married to others, meet in a railroad station and find themselves in a brief but intense affair.
In The Vortex, Coward explores the darker side of the coctail party set. Emotional blackmail, drug abuse and shattered relationships are minutely observed in this disturbing, early piece from a playwright whose sharp eye was usually more turned towards the light.
Charlie's got a 'job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one his of friends has attempted a high risk job in Torino, Italy, right under the nose of the mafia. Charlie's friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal a fortune in gold and escape in the chaos.
An affair–parenthesis in the dull life of two people (Angelos Antonopoulos and Alexandra Ladikou), who meet by chance on a railway trip and spend a few hours together while the train is stuck in a station. Based on the same Noël Coward play that David Lean used for Brief Encounter.
Laura remembers an affair that just ended: for a few weeks, she and a married doctor, Alec, met every Thursday for lunch in a train station and a movie. They fell in love in this short period together. Based on the story by Noel Coward. Teleteatro Grupo Bandeirantes.
The story of Androcles, the simple-hearted Christian tailor whose friendship with a lion saves himself and his friends from martyrdom in the Roman Colosseum.
Miss Polly decides to spend a few months with her wealthy spinster aunt as a traveling companion. While in India her aunt's demise leaves her alone to pursue her freedom and explore an arm's length romance with a local boy.
A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.
Aston (Robert Shaw), a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a top-floor cluttered room of a small abandoned house in a poor London district. He befriends and takes in Mac Davies (Donald Pleasence), an old derelict who has been fired from a menial job in a café. In time Aston offers him a job as caretaker of the house. Aston's brother, Mick (Alan Bates) - a taunting, quasi-sadist - harasses the derelict when his brother is away, countermanding his orders. Eventually Aston, himself irritated by the cantankerous old man, puts him out.
Hollywood producer Alexander Meyerheimer has hired drunken writer Richard Benson to write his latest movie. Benson has been holed up in a Paris apartment supposedly working on the script for months, but instead has spent the time living it up. Benson now has just two days to the deadline and thus hires a temporary secretary, Gabrielle Simpson, to help him complete it in time.
A comedy concerning a trio of artistic characters, Gilda, Otto and Leo, and their complicated three-way relationship (Episode of A Choice of Coward).
Comic crime caper, set on a Greek island, starring Yul Brynner and Mitzi Gaynor.
Is a light hearted and satirical tale of political espionage and intrigue in pre-Castro Cuba.
When Leonard Vole is arrested for the sensational murder of a rich, middle-aged widow, the famous Sir Wilfrid Robarts agrees to appear on his behalf. Sir Wilfrid, recovering from a near-fatal heart attack, is supposed to be on a diet of bland, civil suits—but the lure of the criminal courts is too much for him, especially when the case is so difficult.
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.
Meet Me Tonight was the American title for the British-filmed Tonight at 8:30, adapted from the Noel Coward stage production of the same name.
Several years after graduation, best friends Barbara (Celia Johnson) and Leonora (Margaret Leighton) reconnect as if not a day has gone by. But Leonora could do without Barbara's husband, Christian (Noel Coward), whom she finds arrogant and off-putting ... at first. One evening alone together, romance is set ablaze, leaving Christian with a lot of explaining to do to Barbara.
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Shot primarily by twelve French cameramen (led by filmmakers Jean Painlevé and Jean Grémillon), in August 1944, this film captures the final French insurrection in German-occupied Paris, the surrender of the Germans, and the mass celebration in the streets. (There is an English-language version narrated by Noel Coward.)
An English mystery novelist invites a medium to his home, so she may conduct a séance for a small gathering. The writer hopes to gather enough material for the book he's working on, as well as to expose the medium as a charlatan. However, proceedings take an unexpected turn, resulting in a chain of supernatural events being set into motion that wreak havoc on the man's present marriage.
In 1919, Frank Gibbons returns home from army duty and moves into a middle-class row house, bringing with him wife Ethel, carping mother-in-law Mrs. Flint, sister-in-law Sylvia and three children. Years pass, with the daily routine of family infighting and reconciliation occasionally broken by a strike or a festival.
A penniless former princess weds an equally cash-strapped baron, so they support themselves by becoming houseguests at the homes of wealthy American socialites.
The story of the HMS Torrin, from it's construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ship's first and only commanding officer is Captain E.V. Kinross, who trains his men not only to be loyal to him and the country, but—most importantly—to themselves.
In order to avoid an arranged marriage with a man she doesn't love, Sarah Millick runs off to Vienna with her music teacher, Carl Linden, whom she does love. They are married. In Vienna, they struggle to make a living by making music. Carl writes an operetta and tries to get it produced. They are helped along by Viennese Baron, but his intentions are not honorable. He kills Carl in a sword fight. A big producer does put on the operetta, with Sari in the lead -- but without her husband, it is a bittersweet victory.
Actor Edmund Davey becomes a star overnight when his wife and co-star teams up with the secretary of a noted stage critic to produce a glowing review of his 'Othello'.
A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, doomed to be a "restless" spirit for being unloved. A heavenly power gives him a month on Earth to find one person to shed a tear for him before his fate is sealed.
A young girl falls in love with a young conductor in Vienna, and they marry. However, their marriage is threatened by a wealthy man.....
A princess is torn between her royal obligations and her love for a handsome Frenchman.
A captain pays one of his sailors to marry a woman who works in a nightclub.
Amanda and Elyot are one another's former spouse. Elyot remarries to Sibyl, Amanda weds Victor. Unexpectedly, both honeymooning couples arrive to a hotel on the same day and are put in rooms with adjoining terraces. Things go well until Amanda sees Elyot on the adjacent terrace.
Larita Filton is named as correspondent in a scandalous divorce case. She escapes to France to rebuild her life where she meets John Whittaker. They are later married, but John's well-to-do family finds out Larita's secret.
A young man is shocked to discover that his fiancé is the mistress of his mother's lover.
A group of youngsters grow up and love in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace is shattered. The German army invades and occupies village, bringing both destruction and torture. The young people of the village resist, some successfully, others tragically, until French troops retake the town.
The first ever feature documentary about one of the most talented, accomplished and multi-faceted artists of the 20th Century. An exploration of Coward’s expansive career which features credits across the stage and screen, including Brief Encounter, Blithe Spirit, and Private Lives.
