Mrs. Maudsley
The great Margaret Leighton speaks volumes with her wonderful arched eyebrows. What a pity there were so few lines to speak!
shareShe steals every scene she's in, doesn't she? Her looks don't resemble Mrs. Maudsley as she's described in the novel ("dark" and "ample"). But she captures the essence of the character perfectly.
A delicious and memorable performance.
"I have had singing."
I so agree, Agera… it's a tragedy that Miss Leighton's genius was appreciated by so few.
Yes, and "genius" is not an exaggeration. Margaret Leighton is riveting, even electrifying, in everything I've ever seen her in. There have been so many great British actors and actresses but even in such a group, she stood out, for me, anyway.
Yet she is less known and remembered than actresses like Joan Greenwood (128,000 hits on Google) or Kay Walsh (85,000 hits on Google) She has only 43,000 hits on Google, about half what Kay Walsh has. (I'm leaving out someone like Celia Johnson, who's remembered for a specific film.)
Was it bad press? The fact that she did more stage work than film work? Surely she wasn't overshadowed by her connections with Ralph Richardson and Laurence Harvey.
I would love to see a renewed interest in her work.
"I have had singing."
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Me too.
You mention 'bad press'. I suspect there were things going on in Miss Leighton's private life which may have spoiled some of her commercial success. I think one may find something of that when reading between the lines of the Terence Rattigan play 'Variations on a Theme'.
By the way, I spoke to an elderly enthusiast about that 'Life' magazine photograph entitled NEW FASHION TREND BY WEARING SLOUCH STYLE HAT; they insisted Miss Leighton could be mistaken for Dietrich!
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Well she wasn't appreciated enough for her stage work.
She played Hannah Jelkes in Williams' The Night of the Iguana on stage in New York in 1962 but the film role was given to Deborah Kerr. The part of the Mrs. Maudsley was also first offered to Deborah Kerr.