Just to say I posted on the board for that yesterday. I first saw it about 30 years ago at the Film Theatre in Hull Central Library. It's exceedingly strange in terms of plot changes, made to create a conventional 'happy ending'. I think even the most hard-core Sarah/Robert shippers would be stunned by how it sorts out that situation! And if you thought the new BBC version was condensed at 3 hrs, this is only 85 minutes...
I think it's probably up on YouTube somewhere.
Cheers silverwhistle, I'll check that out when I've got more time .
shareIt's weird.
Parts of it are fine, in terms of book-relatedness, but by the end it's gone into a universe of its own.
At least John Clements, though very miscast in age and accent, is cute to look at…
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I couldn't find it on YouTube, it seems to be on a certain 'watch for free' site but my security system does not like it so I'm wary.
From what you say I'm not missing too much, silverwhistle.
Part 1's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJl-BjFsDgM
The other installments have numerical titles.
It's a dreadful film. They turned it into genre romance.
I don't think I'll be shot down in flames for spoilers if I say this, but…
(scroll down)
It has Sarah stopping Robert shooting himself at the exact moment that Muriel drops dead of a heart attack in hospital, so they get a 'happy ending' that would embarrass Mills & Boon. (Ahem! What about political differences?)
Midge and Lydia become friends.
And Joe is extremely young, and sounds quite posh and English. (On the other hand, at least he's still cute: after all, the book does call him "pretty"!)
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Thank you Silverwhistle, I will give that a go. Goodness knows how I couldn't find it .
shareI rummaged for it under "Ralph Richardson", because the title had been abridged.
It's a very odd film.
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I rummaged for it under "Ralph Richardson", because the title had been abridged.
Just watched the clip - . They don't make them like that anymore (I'm reminded of Harry Enfield somehow). What a cough!
I can't find any other clips so I'm supposing only the first part is uploaded. Thanks for the tip anyway, Silverwhistle.
There is more of it up there, uploaded by the same person, but the title on it is alpha-numeric:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEbaPoY8dWk
http://vimeo.com/10071787 (Glynis Johns as Midge!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7SWZl_Cv3g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB4XuzWM94E
Just excerpts, but the whole film is only 85 mins.
As to Joe's cough… I can think of worse ways to spend an evening than applying chest-rub to the dear boy… ;-D
More here:
http://www.speedyshare.com/search/South_Riding_1938.1286522.html
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The Lydia/Midge fight is hilarious - btw was that supposed to be a mouse, a beetle or what exactly, making its way across the floor?
But I think I'll leave the 1938 film alone for now, most of what I've heard about it makes me feel pretty queasy!
Indeed. The only thing that's appealing in it is John Clements' prettiness (which is, at least, canon, even if he's too young and English!):
http://m1.ikiwq.com/img/xl/Ys6ZunxMX6dSllO1cOJ1wa.jpg
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/3298886/Hulton-Archive (here with Snaith)
The wee beastie running across the school cloakroom floor is a hedgehog.
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As to Joe's cough… I can think of worse ways to spend an evening than applying chest-rub to the dear boy… ;-D
I've watched them all, and have to say I'm still reminded of Harry Enfield's Chumney Warner. I love the way they neatly parcel up the whole of the council corruption in a couple of lines at the end, priceless!
"to her memory this pictorial impression of her work is respectfully and gratefully dedicated" ????????? Words fail me.
I watched a few of those extracts... please can someone who has seen the film enlighten me as to whether the ludicrously dapper and honey-voiced Ralph Richardson actually had his hand up a cow moments before the torrid scene with Sarah in front of "Madge" Carne's portrait?
And "Madge"... oh dear, what a soppy looking doe eyed blonde, she puts me in mind of Mary Lou from Malory Towers. But at least she got to ride the horse upstairs :)
I'll check. I try to avoid watching this version more than once a decade.
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But at least she got to ride the horse upstairs :)
Ah, '30s film censorship…
Still, could be worse: Gone With the Wind made (implied) marital rape look like a positive event, which has the heroine whistling chirpily afterwards. To a large part of a 1930s mass audience (not intelligent feminists such as Winifred Holtby), Robert's rape of Muriel would probably have been regarded as an 'apt punishment' for a 'straying' wife. (See also the furore over the 1960s BBC Forsyte Saga.)
Marital rape was only criminalised in England and Wales in 1991 (about 8 years after Scotland).
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Having read your post Silverwhistle I'm inclined to feel the horse up the stairs scene was preferable, certainly to the scene in 'Gone With The Wind' (which I have never seen).
I'm shocked to read marital rape was only criminalised in 1991, how sad. Certainly puts it into context, thanks.
I'm shocked to read marital rape was only criminalised in 1991, how sad. Certainly puts it into context, thanks.
It was very much on a case-by-case basis before that. There was a better chance of prosecution if a couple had separated, because there was a vein of thought going back to the 18C that the marriage-vows gave permanent consent, and that spouses had to be available for each other at all times.
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Absence of evidence was very often an issue. I seem to remember as an undergraduate waxing lengthy on the difference between "against her will" and "without her consent".
shareFound this interesting academic article on 'South Riding', dismissive of the 1938 version and not complimentary about the 2011 one either:
http://nottspolitics.org/2011/03/08/283/
That's a very good article. Thanks for the link! I've posted a reply there. I agree with most of it. The 1974 version did more justice to the book and the characters. This version had some lovely performances (I liked the casting of Sarah, Joe and Robert), but the over-compression of the plot and over-emphasis on Robert/Sarah depoliticised it to a large extent. On the other hand, at least it was better than the 1938 version, which is too, too Mills & Boon and really quite horrifying!
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please can someone who has seen the film enlighten me as to whether the ludicrously dapper and honey-voiced Ralph Richardson actually had his hand up a cow moments before the torrid scene with Sarah in front of "Madge" Carne's portrait?
Hehe thanks for enlightening me... I think I may actually watch this film. What I've seen of it and heard about it so far makes me think I can treat it as a sort of Comic Strip send up, and that it's too silly to contaminate my experience of the book.
If you'd like it on DVD, please PM me.
I also have the Cinegram booklet on it (John Clements looking ravishing on the back cover, Ralph Richardson distinctly less than ravishing on the front). I've just reviewed the 1938 version for IMDb and am waiting for this to 'go live' online.
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My review of the 1938 version is now live;
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030774/usercomments-4
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