Rumer Godden Movies
Author of 21 novels, noted British writer Rumer Godden specialized in stories recounting her remarkable experiences in India. Many of her stories have been the basis of popular movies, such as Black Narcissus, and she also contributed to the film adaptation The River (1951). The daughter of a shipping line owner, Godden was born in England but was raised in India from the age of nine... (read more) months. When she was 20, Godden moved to London, and after working as a children's dance teacher, she returned to India to open a dance school. There she married stockbroker Sinclair Foster. Pregnant, Godden moved back to England and published her first novel, Chinese Puzzle (1936). Though Godden lost her first baby, she and Foster had two daughters before they divorced in 1941. It was a bitter split; Foster left Godden alone and penniless in Calcutta. In an effort to support herself and her daughters, Godden ran a school, sold homemade herbal teas, and wrote novels. At one point, two of Godden's servants attempted to poison her and her children; the author later used the experience in her novel Kingfishers Catch Fire (1953). In 1945, Godden again returned to England. Fours years later, she married civil servant James Haynes Dixon and they remained happily married until his death in 1973. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
The Peacock Spring
1996
Based on a novel by Rumer Godden, the two-part British miniseries The Peacock Spring took place in Delhi, India, in 1959. Hattie Moraham starred as Una Gwithin,...
In This House of Brede
1975
Adapted by James Costigan from the best-selling novel by Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede stars Diana Rigg as a widowed, fortyish business executive in search of a...
The Affair at Villa Fiorita
1965
Originally released in Great Britain as The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, this film is not a wartime epic but a cozy domestic drama. Maureen O'Hara plays an American woman...
Loss of Innocence
1961
A young Susannah York had her first lead role in this drama about a teenage girl on the cusp of womanhood. When her mother falls ill during a vacation in the French wine...
Innocent Sinners
1958
Based on the Rumer Godden novel An Episode of Sparrows, Innocent Sinners stars June Archer and Christopher Hey as the title characters. Neglected by her mother,...
The River
1951
The River must be seen in its original Technicolor; it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine anyone fully enjoying this wonderful film while watching a black-and-white TV...
Enchantment
1948
Most of the story in this five-hanky British melodrama takes place over a 50 year period within a single London home, 99 Wiltshire Place, the birth place of a noted general who...
Black Narcissus
1947
British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger once again deliberately courted controversy and censorship with their 1947 adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel....