Joan Plowright Movies
One of England's most esteemed actresses, Joan Plowright was trained at the Old Vic. She made her regional stage debut in 1951 and her London stage bow in 1954. Two years later, she joined the English Stage Company, where she essayed her most popular role up to that time, Margery Pincher in Wycherly's The Country Wife. That same year, she appeared in her first film, Moby Dick. In the original 1958 stage production of John Osborne's The Entertainer, Plowright co-starred with Sir Laurence Olivier, whom she would marry in 1961, a union that lasted until Olivier's death in 1989. She appeared on screen with her husband in the film versions of The Entertainer (1960) and The Three Sisters (1970), the latter of which was also directed by Olivier. During the same period, Plowright and Olivier were mainstays of London's National Theatre.In 1961, Plowright won a Tony award for her Broadway appearance in A Taste of Honey. Her stage work was briefly curtailed in the mid-to-late '60s, allowing her time to raise her family. From 1982 on, Plowright began appearing in films with increasing regularity, demonstrating at least two traits she'd evidently picked up from Olivier: a propensity for elaborate foreign accents (the hero's Jewish mother in Avalon (1990) and the heroine's Yugoslavian mom in I Love You to Death (1990)) and a willingness to take assignments possibly only for the money (Mrs. Wilson in Dennis the Menace (1993)). While an Oscar win is long overdue (although she was awarded a CBE from the Queen in 1970), Plowright was nominated for her work in 1992's Enchanted April. Perhaps one of her most endearing portrayals in recent years was as the high school teacher in The Last Action Hero who runs a clip from Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948) for her class, introducing Olivier as "the fellow who did all those Polaroid commercials." In 1999, Plowright additionally endeared herself to moviegoers with her role as one of a group of high society women living in fascist Italy in Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Sir Laurence Olivier stars in this film about a group of people in a Soho restaurant who are all invited by a boisterous woman to a tea at her husband's home. Enraptured by the woman is an elderly businessman who may find that things with this enchanting woman may not be what they seem. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Richard Burton plays a psychiatrist who attempts to discover why young Peter Firth has taken to mutilating live horses. In probing Firth's psyche, Burton discovers that the source of the boy's obsession is his mother, Joan Plowright, who has raised Firth with a convoluted set of values. Even as he gets closer to the reason behind Firth's horrendous acts, Burton discovers many previously locked-away secrets within himself. Equus was based on the play by Peter Schaffer who received an Academy Award Nomination for his adapted screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Peter Firth, (more)
- 1973
Olivier stars in this production of the Shakespearean tragedy about greed and vengeance. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, (more)
Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's three upper-class Prozorov sisters -- Masha, Olga, and Irina -- come no closer to their dream of returning to Moscow in director Laurence Olivier's 1970 film version of Three Sisters than they did in Chekhov's original 1900 play. This melancholy classic about shattered dreams, self-delusion, and compromise was directed by Olivier for Britain's National Theatre in 1967. The film, a literal record of Olivier's stage version, was produced in order to raise money for the ever-imperiled National. Olivier, who'd just recovered from a serious illness, plays the mischievous army doctor Chebutikin, while Olivier's wife, Joan Plowright, essays the major role of Masha, the snobbish general's daughter who tries to escape the stultifying banality of her provincial marriage by having an affair. Three Sisters was released in the U.S. in 1974 as part of the American Film Theatre series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Watts, Joan Plowright, (more)
This televised adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, originally screened on Britain's ITV in 1969, stars Alec Guinness, Tommy Steele, Joan Plowright and Sir Ralph Richardson in the principal roles. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Tommy Steele, (more)
- 1965
This Victorian comedy is a British television adaptation of Richard Sheridan's then famous play. The story is set in Lady Sneerwell's salon where the social elite gather for entertaining hours of gossip and backstabbing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
This version of Chekov's classic play was recorded at the 1963 Chichester Festival. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Laurence Olivier recreates his stage role of Archie Rice in this in-your-face film adaptation of John Osborne's play. The son of a legendary music hall comedian (Roger Livesey), Archie is strictly a third-rater, headlining a tacky music hall revue in a seedy seaside resort town. Archie can't admit that he's a failure, and his grim insouciance destroys everyone around him. Archie finagles his dying father into financing one last revue; he cheats shamelessly on his alcoholic wife (Brenda De Banzie); and he all but forces one of his sons (Albert Finney) to run off to join the army, only to die in the Suez. Through all his personal crises, Archie jigs and jabbers before his ever-diminishing audience, but by the end of the film he isn't even entertaining himself. Joan Plowright, who married Olivier shortly after completing The Entertainer, plays the film's one sympathetic character: Archie's daughter, whose love for her father blinds her to his flaws. The Entertainer was remade for television in 1976, with Jack Lemmon as Archie Rice and original songs by Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, (more)
Time Without Pity carried the name "Joseph Losey" on the credits -- the first time in three years that the blacklisted director was permitted to use his own name on a film. This British-made suspense film was based on a play by Emlyn Williams. Michael Redgrave stars an anguished father whose son (Alec McCowan) is accused of murder. With time running out, Redgrave struggles to prove his son innocent of the charge. The paranoia prevalent in Time Without Pity can be attributed to Losey's own experience at the hands of the HUAC, though this element never gets out of artistic control. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, (more)
Previous film versions of Moby Dick insisted upon including such imbecilities as romantic subplots and happy endings. John Huston's 1956 Moby Dick remains admirably faithful to its source. "Call me Ishmael" declares itinerant whaler Richard Basehart as the opening credits fade. Though slightly intimidated by the sermon delivered by Father Mapple (Orson Welles in a brilliant one-take cameo), who warns that those who challenge the sea are in danger of losing their souls, Ishmael nonetheless signs on to the Pequod, a whaling ship captained by the brooding, one-legged Ahab (Gregory Peck). For lo these many years, Ahab has been engaged in an obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale to whom he lost his leg. Ahab's dementia spreads throughout the crew members, who maniacally join their captain in his final, fatal attack upon the elusive, enigmatic Moby Dick. Screenwriter Ray Bradbury masterfully captures the allegorical elements in the Herman Melville original without sacrificing any of the film's entertainment value (Bradbury suffered his own "great white whale" in the form of director Huston, who sadistically ran roughshod over the sensitive author throughout the film).Cinematographer Oswald Morris' washed-out color scheme brilliantly underlines the foredoomed bleakness of the story. Moby Dick's one major shortcoming is its obviously artificial whale-but try telling a real whale to stay within camera range and hit its marks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, (more)
