john gilbert esmonde ( 21 march 1937 – 10 august 2008 ) and robert edward " bob " larbey ( 24 june 1934 – 31 march 2014 ) , better known as esmonde and larbey , were a successful british television comedy scriptwriting duo from the 1960s to the 1990s , creating popular sitcoms and hit comedy shows , such as please sir !

( 1968 – 72 ) , the good life ( 1975 – 78 ) , get some in !

( 1975 – 78 ) , ever decreasing circles ( 1984-89 ) and brush strokes ( 1986 – 91 ) .

esmonde and larbey

a look at the john esmonde and bob larbey - penned sitcom ever decreasing circles .
on radio , esmonde and larbey moved into the world of television sitcom . their first effort was called
together and solo , the work of john esmonde and bob larbey has made the world of british comedy a much richer place .
the good life , 1975 , written by bob larbey and john esmonde . photograph : allstar collection / bbc / sportsphoto
it was two years before esmonde and larbey collaborated on another sitcom on television . once again the series failed to score a hit and
john esmonde and bob larbey have unquestionably been responsible for some of british comedy ' s best loved programmes . from the comfort of suburbia in
, starring george baker , a series that ran for 13 half - hours . that same year esmonde and larbey wrote another one - off sitcom ,
for their next sitcom esmonde and larbey referred back to their national service days . the subject had already been covered successfuly in the granada produced sitcom ,
the good life : v . 5 : wind - break war by bob larbey , john esmonde ( cd - audio , 2008 )
larbey ' s solo successes included a fine romance and as time goes by .
the good life : v . 5 : wind - break war by bob larbey , john esmonde ( cd - audio , 2008 ) | ebay
bob larbey ( author ) bob larbey was a renowned sitcom and screenplay writer . for over 30 years , he was the writing partner of john esmonde and together the duo wrote several hit comedies including the good life and ever decreasing circles . larbey ' s solo work included a fine romance and as time goes by . he died in 2014 . john esmonde ( author ) john esmonde was best known as the writing partner of bob larbey . the pair were childhood friends who went to the same grammar school , and both shared an interest in radio humour . together , they created several hit sitcoms including please sir ! , the good life and ever decreasing circles . john esmonde died in 2008 .
john esmonde ( author ) john esmonde was best known as the writing partner of bob larbey . the pair were childhood friends who went to the same grammar school , and both shared an interest in radio humour . together , they created several hit sitcoms including please sir ! , the good life and ever decreasing circles . john esmonde died in 2008 . bob larbey ( author ) bob larbey was a renowned sitcom and screenplay writer . for over 30 years , he was the writing partner of john esmonde and together the duo wrote several hit comedies including the good life and ever decreasing circles . larbey ' s solo work included a fine romance and as time goes b y . he died in 2014 .
bob larbey ( author ) bob larbey was a renowned sitcom and screenplay writer . for over 30 years , he was the writing partner of john esmonde and together the duo wrote several hit comedies including the good life and ever decreasing circles . larbey ' s solo work included a fine romance and as time goes b y . he died in 2014 . john esmonde ( author ) john esmonde was best known as the writing partner of bob larbey . the pair were childhood friends who went to the same grammar school , and both shared an interest in radio humour . together , they created several hit sitcoms including please sir ! , the good life and ever decreasing circles . john esmonde died in 2008 .
, the writers have given us some of the most memorable characters on television . but success for esmonde and larbey didn ' t come easily and their story is one of how persistence and talent paid off .
, esmonde and larby wrote another series for richard briers in which he starred alongside michael gambon . in
penelope keith pays tribute to comedy writer bob larbey . he and his writing partner john esmonde wrote some of britain ' s best - loved comedies , including the good life .
what do you think was the best esmonde and larbey sitcom ? here ' s a list of their collaborations i found on this site - ( note some might not be sitcoms ) .
bob larbey , right , with his writing partner john esmonde . they first met at their grammar school in clapham , south - west london . photograph : writer pictures
failed to capture the affection of the british viewing public and was deemed one of esmonde and larbey ' s first failures . in 1977 the duo collaborated on a one - off sketch for diana rigg ' s series
larbey and esmonde teamed up a number of times with richard briers . as well as ever decreasing circles , the good life and down to earth , they also wrote 1970s sitcom the other one for the actor .
as you may have read , bob larbey died last week . the co - creator of some of britain ' s best - loved sitcoms , often alongside writing partner john esmonde , larbey helped keep the nation laughing for well over 30 years .
starring bernard holley , jill kerman and marc gilbey faired a little better extending to two series in 1983 and 1984 . however , the series that followed became a big hit . it teamed esmonde and larbey up with richard briers once more .
larbey , who died on monday , was born in 1934 in south london .
born in battersea , south london , in 1937 , esmonde attended the henry thornton school , in clapham , where one of his fellow pupils was bob larbey and they shared a similar schoolboy humour . after national service in the raf , esmonde worked in the offices of a paint company , then as a journalist writing about food processing and packaging , while larbey had a job in a foundry .
larbey and esmonde also created ‘brush strokes’ and ‘pleas sir ! ’ while bob also experienced solo success , giving dame judi dench two of her most significant tv roles , the first in ‘a fine romance’ and the second in ‘as time goes by’ .
bob larbey married patricia ( trish ) marshall , a script - reader for lwt , who predeceased him in 2006 . their son survives him . john esmonde died in 2008 .
esmonde & larbey ' s last major project together was the 1995 bbc one sitcom down to earth in which richard briers played a character trying to set up a landscape gardening business . john esmonde died three years later , in august 2008 , at his retirement home in spain .
it all began in 1966 with room at the bottom , a vehicle for kenneth connor 1 which lasted just one series . esmonde and larbey had learned , though , and their next foray into television would be a stunning success .
still friends , they met regularly for lunch and chatted about local revues and their favourite radio shows . as a result , esmonde and larbey started writing sketches themselves and sent them to the bbc , which eventually accepted one for a programme that included cyril fletcher and paid them a joint fee of two guineas .
bob larbey ( 1934 - 2014 ) . image courtesy of the huffington post uk .
bob larbey was responsible for some of the most popular and enduring television comedies of the last half - century .
bob larbey , who was born in lambeth , south london on june 24 , 1934 , died , aged 79 , on march 31 . john esmonde died in 2008 and larbey’s wife , patricia marshall , a london weekend television script - reader , died in 2006 . he is survived by his son .
( he ) and co writer john esmonde would go off in a room and write another two minutes worth of comedy gold ,
she said .
i thought i would instead spend the time away from my exams and endless revision exploring the underrated gems esmonde and larbey gave us , some of which have recently been repeated such as brush strokes on the drama channel . then my good friends at the sitcom club reminded me of mr . larbey’ solo sitcom ; a fine romance .
portrayed tom good , who suffers a midlife crisis and decides , with the help of his plucky wife , to turn his suburban home into a self - sufficient farm . briers worked again with larbey and esmonde on three of their later series ,
in 1995 , esmonde and larbey decided to make down to earth , with briers once again , a final effort before they parted company professionally . esmonde retired to la herradura , on the southern spanish coast , with the intention of writing novels . he is survived by his wife , gina , whom he married in 1960 .
while the good life was attracting some 15 million viewers a week on the bbc , larbey and esmonde were enjoying further success on itv with their raf sitcom get some in ! ( 1975 - 78 ) . starring robert lindsay in his first important television role , and featuring tony selby as the drill instructor barking orders at 1950s national service “erks” , the series drew on the writers’ own experiences ( larbey had been in the army , and esmonde in the raf ) .
alongside the good life on the bbc , esmonde and larbey had another itv hit , the raf sitcom get some in ! ( 1975 - 78 ) , featuring tony selby as the drill instructor corporal marsh barking orders at national service recruits in the 1950s and based on the writers ' own experiences ( larbey had been in the army ) .
having decided that down to earth would be their last series together , esmonde and larbey went their separate ways . esmonde retired to the coastal village of la herradura , in the granada province of spain , and concentrated on writing novels .
i haven ' t had one published yet , but being rejected makes me feel young again ,
he said .
bob larbey , who has died aged 79 , co - wrote with his professional partner john esmonde some of britain’s most popular television sitcoms , most memorably the good life ( 1975 - 78 ) .
friends since childhood , john esmonde and bob larbey began writing comedy material together as a means of escape from the dull routine of their office jobs . four years of effort and rejection ensued , but by 1965 a number of their jokes and sketches began to appear on bbc radio shows .
, which ended in 1992 . but in 1991 larbey teamed up with his old partner again for
bob larbey , one of britain ' s most prolific sitcom writers , has died aged 79 .
the youngest son of a carpenter , robert edward john larbey was born on june 24 1934 in lambeth , south london , and educated at the henry thornton school in clapham , where he was captain of tennis and became friends with john esmonde , two years his junior .
after the good life larbey and esmonde went on to write three more sitcoms for richard briers , starting with the other one , which ran from 1977 to 1979 . briers also starred in ever decreasing circles ( 1984 - 89 ) and down to earth ( 1995 ) .
in larbey and esmonde’s last series together , down to earth ( 1995 ) , briers played tony fairfax , an expatriate struggling to adapt after returning to britain from south america ; but once again viewers did not warm to his character , and it ran for just seven episodes .
esmonde and larbey ' s last series together , again starring briers , was down to earth ( 1995 ) . they tried to make his character of an expat readjusting to life in britain after many years in south america interesting , and failed ; it evaporated after seven episodes .
john gilbert esmonde , television scriptwriter : born london 21 march 1937 ; married 1960 gina barton ; died 10 august 2008 .
the 1970s show about a self - sufficient couple and their suburban neighbours was among a string of hits written with john esmonde , who died in 2008 .
the times accurately but incompletely eulogized larbey as the
king of the gentle sitcom .
the program for which larbey was best known was the good life , which he wrote with john esmonde during the 1970s . i never saw that program , but for me and millions of other americans , bob larbey was the sole writer of as time goes by , which ran on bbc one in england from 1992 to 2002 . it still runs weekly in the us on pbs , and i still watch it .
bob larbey , who has died aged 79 , was renowned as a television sitcom and screenplay writer with his professional partner john esmonde for 30 years : they wrote the good life ( starring richard briers , felicity kendal , penelope keith and paul eddington as the surbiton neighbours ) and a second briers vehicle , ever decreasing circles .
‘the good life’ sitcom co - writer bob larbey has passed away aged 79 , his agent has confirmed .
ran for just one series . at this point the duo decided to take a break - from each other . esmonde went to spend time in spain while larbey bought a new home and , suddenly strapped with a hefty mortgage , found himself in need of some cash . the result was that bob larbey wrote his first solo project , and what ' s more it proved to be a huge success .
above all , esmonde and larbey wrote funny lines . they had that precious knack of translating how they spoke and what they heard into comic dialogue and entertaining characters . they weren ' t tom stoppard , and they weren ' t alan ayckbourn ( whose 1973 trilogy the norman conquests provided a template for the good life ) , but they were very good indeed .
many of larbey ' s shows are still big hits in america . as time goes by , the sitcom starring judi dench and geoffrey palmer , which larbey wrote as a solo effort from 1992 to 2002 , is still regularly repeated on pbs stations .
though esmonde was the younger by two years , the pair remained firm friends and , on leaving school , found jobs in the same firm of block - makers . esmonde did his national service in the raf , worked in the offices of a paint company and made a start in trade journalism , without much success .
the good life : volume five : the wind - break war : win . . . by esmonde , john cd - audio
how interesting it is that so much of our postwar television comedy writing originated from male professional couples with deep cultural ties and friendships : david croft and jimmy perry ( dad ' s army ) , dick clement and ian la frenais ( the likely lads ) , ray galton and alan simpson ( steptoe and son ) . esmonde and larbey met at school , remained friends all their lives and tried their luck in bbc radio comedy because they loved listening to it .
in between , esmonde and larbey enjoyed success with brush strokes ( 1986 - 91 ) , starring karl howman as a womanising painter and decorator , and gary waldhorn as his boss . howman also took the title role in mulberry ( 1992 - 93 ) , playing the manservant of the crotchety old spinster miss farnaby ( geraldine mcewan ) .
on his own , and with his long - time writing partner john esmonde , he was a near - permanent presence on british screens , from their early 1960s’ debut writing sketches for radio and television’s the dick emery show to the finale of larbey’s self - scripted , judi dench and geoffrey palmer vehicle as time goes by in 2005 .
after their even bigger success with the good life , larbey and esmonde created a string of comedy series which ran for varying lengths of time . they twice teamed up again with good life star richard briers , for five series of ever decreasing circles in the 1980s and one series of down to earth in 1995
he and school friend esmonde started out writing scripts for bbc radio shows , such as i ' m sorry , i ' ll read that again and contributing tv sketches to the dick emery show .
he teamed with esmonde again for television’s ever decreasing circles ( 1984 - 89 ) , brush strokes ( 1986 - 91 ) and mulberry ( 1992 - 93 ) .
the good life : volume five : the wind - break war : wind - break war v . 5 : urltoken bob larbey , john esmonde , felicity kendal , full cast , paul eddington , penelope keith , richard briers : 9781405688871 : books
larbey and esmonde switched to a more traditional domestic setting for their other big success , the good life ( 1975 - 78 ) , but gave it a twist by making one of the two featured middle - class couples self - sufficient , with allotments of fruit and vegetables , as well as chickens , pigs , a goat and a cockerel .
, briers plays tony fairfax , an oxford graduate who , upon leaving university , immediately goes to work as a cultural adviser in south america . but a military coup leaves him exiled and penniless and forced to return to a britain he barely recognises . it was to be john esmonde and bob larbey ' s last collaboration . in 1995 esmonde and larbey decided to call their partnership quits . it was entirely amicable , due mainly to esmonde ' s desire to spend more time in spain . he still lives there and concentrates on writing novels .
it was totally amicable .
says bob larbey of the split .
we were kind of headed in different directions in our personal lives . john had bought a house in spain , and wanted to cut down on the work and spend more time there - maybe spend six months here and six months in spain , which was fine by me . some years afterward john and i just came naturally to the end of our writing together . the last series we tried was a series called
i also really like on the up , which was bob larbey on his own . even better , a fine romance and as time goes by .
with his life - long friend john esmonde , he created classic comedy series including the good life , please sir ! , ever decreasing circles , brush strokes and mulberry .
john esmonde , who has died at the age of 71 , was half of a partnership with bob larbey , who together came up with popular series including please , sir ! and the good life , but they were not established writers who had teamed up because that was the best modus operandi for sitcom - writing . they had known each other since childhood , having both been born and raised in south london - esmonde came from battersea - and been schoolboy mates at henry thornton grammar school in clapham .
bob worked with his old schoolfriend john esmonde , who passed away in 2008 , throughout his career and their ‘70s creation ‘the good life’ was one of their most phenomenal successes .
so ladies and gentlemen , boys and girls , i hope you will join me in saying a huge thank you to the one and only mr . bob larbey for everything he has given to the sitcom universe . thank sir , and may you rest in peace .
larbey was born in lambeth , south london , the son of a carpenter . he attended the henry thornton school , clapham , where esmonde was a friend – two years his junior – who shared his sense of humour . on leaving , larbey worked as a printing - block maker , then in an insurance office , before doing national service in the royal army educational corps in germany .
item 2 the good life : volume five : the wind - break war : win . . . by esmonde , john cd - audio -
item 4 the good life : volume five : the wind - break war : win . . . by esmonde , john cd - audio -
item 5 the good life : volume five : the wind - break war : win . . . by esmonde , john cd - audio -
by then , larbey and esmonde were comedy royalty , the zeitgeist - catching the good life having just ended its three - season run . however , their follow - up , the other one ( 1977 - 79 ) , which also starred richard briers , was a surprising damp squib for the duo .
amiable and easy - going , larbey was at school with esmonde in south london just after the war . the pair sought escape from their humdrum jobs by spending their evenings and weekends writing comedy scripts . by the early 1960s they had enjoyed modest success with sketches for radio programmes such as i’m sorry , i’ll read that again and , for television , the dick emery show .
, a comedy which , as its title suggests , is about a policeman . the series lasted two seasons and in the process esmonde and larbey learned a lot about how to structure thirty minutes of comedy as opposed to the short skits they ' d been doing . they also learned a lot about how to create well - rounded sitcom characters .
bob larbey , the co - writer of bbc sitcom the good life , has died aged 79 , his agent has confirmed .
larbey’s longest - running solo sitcom was as time goes by ( 1992 - 2005 ) , from an idea by colin bostock - smith . judi dench and geoffrey palmer played two old flames , jean and lionel , reunited after 38 years apart . as with a fine romance , larbey’s scripts shone with intelligence and poignancy . the sitcom also proved popular in the united states .
larbey was quintessentially experimental . he and esmonde were late bloomers . they began writing the good life when they were turning 40 :
it ' s one of those ' oh , god , what am i doing with my life times . '
when a producer first saw one of their scripts and was surprised by the absence of gags , larbey responded ,
we go for character . we can ' t write jokes . never could .
larbey was never confident in his work :
i don ' t have an inkling as to what will be a success : there is no magic formula .
the 1970s hit show about two neighbouring suburban couples was one of the prolific scriptwriter’s many successes with co - writer john esmonde , who died in 2008 .
the death of bob larbey last week received little if any attention on english television ; it was overwhelmed by such trivial stories as the downfall of yet another sleazy politician , and the first foreign trip of a royal infant . bob larbey deserved better , because he was an artist who helped transform television .
larbey married patricia ( trish ) marshall , a scriptwriter for lwt , who died in 2006 . he is survived by their son .
after the good life , larbey and esmonde wrote three further series for richard briers , starting with the other one ( 1977 - 79 ) , in which the central character could not have been more different . perhaps because briers was cast as a compulsive and unscrupulous liar , the show failed to generate any of the affection viewers had felt for the wholesome goods , and it was cancelled after only two series .
starring tom bell , holly aird and eamon boland . the series ran for two seasons but was not seen as a great success . unlike larbey ' s next solo project ,
larbey , who died on monday , was born in south london in 1934 . he attended school in the area , which was where he first met esmonde . the pair began working together on comedy scripts and by the early 1960s they had enjoyed modest success with sketches for radio programmes such as i’m sorry , i’ll read that again and television shows including the dick emery show .
comedy writers and actors have paid tribute . writer and creator of reginald perrin , david nobbs said :
imagine if bob larbey had never been born . how much less rich british tv comedy would have been .
the good life , which the bbc accepted for production in 1975 , featured richard briers and felicity kendal as a suburban couple resolved to practise self - sufficiency and live off the land without leaving surbiton , much to the scorn of their neighbours , played by paul eddington and penelope keith . again esmonde and larbey succeeded in sustaining genial life - like comedy without elaborate plot contrivances on the one hand or drifting into sitcharm , rather than sitcom , on the other .
just like any larbey ( with or without esmonde ) comedy , a fine romance boasts three dimensional characters that are charming at times , prone to flying off the handle ( i’m thinking more of laura here ) , not afraid to show their emotion when things don’t go to plan and pumped with an infectious joy when the occasion calls for it .
after down to earth , the writers ended their partnership and esmonde retired to spain . larbey had already branched out on his own with a fine romance and on the up ( 1990 - 91 ) , teaming dennis waterman’s self - made millionaire with the socially superior wife played by judy buxton , as well as writing the first four episodes ( 1991 ) of the darling buds of may .
bob larbey enjoyed 30 years as half of one of television’s most successful and prolific sitcom - writing partnerships . he and john esmonde had their first major hit with please sir ! ( 1968 - 72 ) , set in fenn street secondary modern school , with john alderton as bernard hedges , the fledgling teacher trying to keep order among the unruly pupils of class 5c , who call him “privet” .
between the good life and down to earth ( their last series together ) esmonde and larbey created nine further sitcoms . two of the most popular of these , brush strokes ( bbc , 1986 - 91 ) and mulberry ( bbc , 1992 - 93 ) , starred karl howman ( who had also appeared in get some in ! ) - as a womanising house painter in the former , and as an assistant to the grim reaper , albeit with a sentimental streak , in the latter .
robert edward john larbey was born on the 24th june 1934 in lambeth . he and esmonde met at the henry thornton school in clapham and , after national service in the army , the pair were soon writing comedy scripts together in their spare time . by the 1960s they had found jobs working on bbc radio , contributing to programmes such as i ' m sorry , i ' ll read that again .
on television , larbey and esmonde had already been writing sketches for the dick emery show when room at the bottom was given a try - out in the “comedy playhouse” slot in 1966 . given the green light for a full series the following year , it featured kenneth connor leading a factory’s maintenance workers against deryck guyler’s personnel director – but it failed to catch on .
the co - writer of classic bbc sitcom the good life , bob larbey , has died at the age of 79 , his agent has confirmed .
their neighbours are the henpecked jerry and margot leadbetter ( paul eddington and penelope keith ) .
larbey had no theatrical background , but his first stage play , a month of sundays , won the evening standard best comedy of the year award when it played at the duchess theatre in the west end in 1986 , starring george cole . the play was set in a retirement home and won praise for its humour , delicacy and humane consideration of growing older , qualities evident in all of his , and esmonde ' s , television writing , even the knockabout stuff .
when the good life was nearing its end , they wrote the other one ( 1977 - 79 ) , again starring richard briers , this time with michael gambon , playing two loners dependent on each other ' s friendship . despite esmonde and larbey ' s fondness for it , viewers were not so enthusiastic , perhaps feeling uncomfortable with briers in the role of an unscrupulous character .
feet first ( 1979 ) , just liz ( 1980 ) and don’t rock the boat ( 1982 ) were other turkeys , but now and then ( 1983 - 84 ) , starring bernard holley , ran to two series . larbey and esmonde were on a roll again with brush strokes ( 1986 - 91 ) , featuring karl howman as a womanising decorator . then , in mulberry ( 1992 - 93 ) , howman starred as the manservant to geraldine mcewan’s crotchety old spinster .
on leaving school larbey took a job in an insurance office in soho , then did national service with the army , stationed in germany with the education corps .
as larbey celebrated his 40th birthday , he and esmonde devised their most popular and successful series , the good life . in the first episode , screened in 1975 , tom good , a draughtsman for a plastics company ( played by richard briers ) , himself turned 40 , seizing this occasion to drop out of the rat - race by jacking in his job in favour of suburban self - sufficiency with his wife barbara ( felicity kendal ) .
john challis , boycie in only fools and horses , paid tribute :
first john sullivan & now bob larbey who wrote please sir , good life & ever decreasing circles . will anyone match them ?
larbey wrote as time goes by by himself , after esmonde ' s retirement . most viewers would probably attribute the show ' s success to superb ensemble acting , and the brilliance of judi dench in the lead role . but the unobtrusiveness of the scripts should not be taken for unimportance , as is often done with excellent experimental art . the actors themselves would never make this mistake . as geoffrey palmer , who starred opposite judi dench , concluded ,
you can find hundreds of actors , but you don ' t get many writers like bob larbey .
having built up a rapport with briers on the good life , esmonde and larbey recombined with the actor on three further sitcoms : the underrated the other one ( bbc , 1977 - 79 ) , with briers and michael gambon as two loners dependent on each other ' s friendship ; ever decreasing circles ( bbc , 1984 - 89 ) , with briers as the know - it - all do - gooder of his suburban neighbourhood ; and down to earth ( bbc , 1995 ) , in which briers played an expatriate returning to live in britain and finding his new situation strange and bewildering .
judi dench , british actress known for her numerous and varied stage roles and for her work in television and in a variety of films . …
this original idea evolved from the writers ' own thoughts about turning 40 and they saw the urban setting , rather than a rural smallholding , as crucial .
placing them in the avenue , where a number of margos and jerrys lived up and down the road , not just next door , provided the abrasiveness ,
explained esmonde .
in the hit or miss world of tv comedy , everything starts with the script . in america , the most successful sitcom series have used vast armies of writers , but in britain it has traditionally been a one - or two - man ( or very occasionally woman ) operation , and the writers have often become household names , almost as much as the performers . examples include galton and simpson , carla lane , marks and gran , and richard curtis . one duo , however , produced consistently highly - rated and high - quality series for more than 20 years without gaining that same level of public adulation : john esmonde and bob larbey .
bob larbey died on monday 31st march 2014 , aged 79 . his comedy legacy includes beloved titles such as please sir ! , ever decreasing circles , the good life , as time goes by , brush strokes , on the up , a fine romance , the other one , mulberry , get some in ! and many more . his writing partner for many series , john esmonde , died in 2008 .
between these series , larbey went solo on a fine romance for dench and her husband michael williams , a four - series saga ( 1981 - 84 ) of on / off social intimacy with ups and downs and looming elderly parents played by the unforgettable duo of richard pearson and lally bowers . and he rallied to the great actor again with as time goes by ( 1992 - 2002 , with
reunion
specials in 2005 ) as dench ' s jean hardcastle re - animated a long lost affair with geoffrey palmer ' s ex - army officer ; her casual brilliance and comic timing in these larbey scripts undoubtedly led to her indian summer in british films and hollywood .
robert edward john larbey , writer : born london 24 june 1934 ; married 1973 patricia marshall ( died 2006 ; one son ) ; died london 31 march 2014 .
actress jackie lye , who played sandra the secretary , described how larbey would write extra scenes for the show if their script read - through came in under time .
they were both south london boys . larbey was the youngest son of a carpenter who attended the henry thornton grammar school in clapham where he met esmonde , two years his junior , and was captain of cricket . he worked as a printing - block maker , then in an insurance office in soho , and did his national service with the education corps in germany . three years of after - hours writing with esmonde yielded a bbc joint fee of two guineas in 1965 . sketches for the comedian dick emery led to their first radio sitcom , spare a copper , starring kenneth connor ( of carry on films fame ) as a hopeless policeman and , in 1969 , just perfick , adapted from he bates ' s stories about the larkin family ; 20 years later , larbey dramatised the first television series adapted from the same source , the darling buds of may .
all four of the leads from the good life went on to their own series , and deservedly so . kendal starred in carla lane ' s solo alongside stephen moore 3 . eddington saw his finest hour in lynn and jay ' s yes minister and later yes , prime minister , reputed to be margaret thatcher ' s favourite tv programme . keith took her snobbish persona even further upmarket as audrey fforbes - hamilton in peter spence ' s to the manor born . only briers , however , had a follow - up also from the esmonde and larbey stable .
i don ' t know how many co - authored books are genuine collaborations . certainly it ' s possible to write as a partnership ( galton & simpson , larbey & esmonde , perry & croft ) but those are from tv where you can easily divide up the scenes ; it ' s harder with a novel . jamie and i co - plot the dirk lloyd and starship captain books , and leo has input into the storyline for mirabilis , but the bulk of the writing is just done by one person .
the two writers continued to work together , meeting daily in a rented office in dorking , surrey , midway between their homes , larbey still in london , esmonde now settled on the sussex coast . success continued to come their way , notably with get some in ! ( thames , 1975 - 78 ) , which drew on their national service days in the 50s .
larbey struck out on his own with a fine romance ( 1981 - 84 ) , starring judi dench in her first television sitcom , alongside her real - life husband , michael williams . “from first to last , ” one critic noted , “bob larbey’s scripts were well - written , providing not only laughs but also an underlying intelligence . ”
reunited larbey with judy dench . the idea for the series was brought to larbey by the theatre of comedy production company and they asked him to see what he could do with it . the premise - of two former lovers reuniting after almost forty years - was right up larbey ' s street and the dream casting of judi dench as jean pargetter and geoffrey palmer turned the show into a hit on both sides of the atlantic enjoying considerable success in the usa . for the first few seasons , the plot revolved around whether or not lionel and jean would get back together .
you can do just so much with two people sort of dancing around each other - and the audience knowing that the outcome was going to be a happy one .
said larbey .
i think the reason that i went on was that they were all so good in it and enjoyed it , and i liked the characters that i ' d written . it was a happy time , and we said let ' s go on , let ' s make it a character comedy .
the show concluded in 2002 with the wedding of judith and alistair .
other series followed , including just perfick ( 1969 ) , from the larkins stories by he bates , which would not reach the tv screen as the darling buds of may for another 22 years , and then not written by esmonde and larbey . they made their television debut in 1967 with room at the bottom ( for the bbc ) , a cheery low - life series about a crew of maintenance workers - the title was a playful twist on john braine ' s hugely popular novel and movie , room at the top .
the pair first met at grammar school in clapham , where larbey was three years ahead of esmonde . in spite of the age difference the two shared a school trip to switzerland where they discovered that they shared a similar sense of humour , and it was based on this that they forged their long - lasting friendship . after military service they drifted back into a humdrum civilian life and took mundane , unfulfilling jobs just to make ends meet . they would often meet up for lunch and complain about their dead - end jobs and dream of forging a better way to make a living .
he rejoined esmonde to create another popular and long - running vehicle for richard briers in ever decreasing circles ( 1984 - 89 ) , in which the star returned to suburbia as martin bryce , an anally - retentive fusspot and do - gooder , with penelope wilton as his long - suffering wife , ann .
when the writers john esmonde and bob larbey came up with the idea for the good life , they were looking for a vehicle for briers , who’d just turned 40 . he was well established but not quite famous — the other three actors even less so . felicity kendal and penelope keith were cast on the strength of their performances in an ayckbourn play . paul eddington was a ‘first eleven light - comedy actor’ ( as briers put it ) but he was hardly a household name . in the opening credits , briers’s name was above the title , the other three were below it . briers’s tom good was the lead ; kendal was ensured a decent role as his wife , barbara , but jerry and margo leadbetter were initially conceived as supporting characters . however , paul eddington and penelope keith were so good that after the first few episodes , briers implored esmonde and larbey to write them up . the two writers needed no prompting . the good life became a quartet — a comedy of manners with a surprising political subtext .
the idea came to larbey when he was approaching his 40th birthday and recognised it as a time for people to reassess their lives – what has been and what might follow . he and esmonde had been asked to find a vehicle for richard briers , so they cast him as tom good , who gives up his job as a draughtsman at a company making plastic toys for cereal packets to go self - sufficient with his wife , barbara ( felicity kendal ) , at their house in surbiton . the goods’ antics test to the limits their friendship with neighbours jerry leadbetter and his toffee - nosed wife , margo ( paul eddington and penelope keith ) .
larbey and his wife , trish marshall , moved from london to a thatched cottage in the surrey village of ockley in 1989 and promptly got involved with the local amateurs , the ockley drama society . though larbey never repeated the success of a month of sundays , his theatre output continued and is often revived in repertory theatres and amateur companies around the world : a small affair ( 1990 ) charts the romantic perils of tv rehearsal rooms ; building blocks ( 1992 ) was written from the heart about family traumas during a domestic building extension ; and sand castles ( 2001 ) is a seaside comedy of beach - hut politics .
bob larbey has also had several solo projects worthy of note over the years - he wrote the screenplays for some episodes of the darling buds of may , and had individual sitcom successes with a fine romance , in which judi dench and her real - life husband michael williams starred as a middle - aged couple with an on - off relationship . in larbey ' s as time goes by , judi dench stars again , this time opposite geoffrey palmer . a mature couple who had fallen in love during the war , but were separated by circumstance , are reunited when lionel ( palmer ) retires back to england after a lifetime growing coffee in kenya . as time goes by is still running , and has become an enduring worldwide success - including a successful debut season on pbs in the usa in 2000 - thanks to its gentle , mature intelligence . however , it is surely for his work with esmonde that larbey will be most fondly remembered .
larbey trod his own path with a fine romance ( 1981 - 84 ) , which starred judi dench in her first ever television sitcom , alongside her real - life husband , michael williams .
in 30 years as half of a writing duo with bob larbey , john esmonde shared in creating more than a dozen television sitcoms . the most popular was the good life ( 1975 - 78 ) , which went beyond the bland , archetypal domestic setting of many such programmes by adding the twist of its leading characters opting out of the rat race to seek self - sufficiency in their middle - class , suburban home .
by then , esmonde and larbey had established themselves in television , having begun with sketches for the dick emery show , which started in 1963 . they landed their own series with room at the bottom ( 1967 ) , which followed a bbc
comedy playhouse
pilot the previous year . set among the maintenance workers at saracens manufacturing company , the comedy revolved around the confrontations between their leader , gus fogg ( kenneth connor ) , and the company ' s personnel director ( deryck guyler ) , but it did not prove a success .
unlike the relatively abrasive comedy to be found in these series ( the writers ' get some in ! ( itv , 1975 - 78 ) , based around the experiences of national servicemen in the 1950s , can also be bracketed among this group ) , the comedy of esmonde and larbey is popularly characterised as being good humoured , gentle and tasteful , populated by characters that generally match the same description . no series better embodies these characteristics than the one that saw their return to the bbc , the good life ( 1975 - 78 ) .
on demob , he had a job at a foundry while esmonde was a journalist . in their spare time , the pair submitted comedy sketches to the bbc . eventually , one was accepted for a radio programme that included cyril fletcher – and they jointly earned two guineas ( £2 . 10 ) .
larbey also enjoyed great success with his solo projects , which included writing the screenplays for the first four episodes of the darling buds of may from a novel by h . e . bates . it was a massive ratings hit for itv and provided sir david jason with his first major success away from only fools and horses .
. drawing on personal experience yet again , esmonde and larbey remembered the days when they were stuck in a dead - end job with few prospects to escape the hum - drum of everyday life .
i think it was a good idea .
said bob larbey in an interview .
we started with the premise of somebody reaching his fortieth birthday . people think of it as one of those milestone ages , the
oh , god , what have i done with my life ? what do i do about it ?
that was the premise . in their original draft tom good was going to build a yacht and sail around the world , but they then hit on a subject that was far more trendy at that time .
we added the self - sufficiency , which seemed a good idea . it started slowly - - bad reviews and low audiences , and then somewhere in the second series it just took off and flew . and it sort of passed into legend for some reason .
when he and esmonde started writing sketches , working together at nights and weekends , they submitted a few to the bbc , which eventually accepted one for a programme starring the comedian cyril fletcher , earning them a joint fee of two guineas . having saved money from their day jobs , they gave themselves three months to make a go of writing full - time .
, briers played the awful martin bryce , an anally retentive , interfering control freak who tries the patience of all his neighbours and acquaintances but non more so than his long suffering wife , anne . penelope wilton starred alongside briers as his wife and peter egan was the next door neighbour who anne should have run off with - but never did . martin wants to help his community and in his zeal heads up about every conceivable local committee . yet his singular focus on doing good causes martin to become an incredible bore . when anne wants to go to see a famed pianist martin prefers his meetings . anne may not have heard her music but the series hit the right notes with the british public and it stayed on bbc for four series and a 80 - minute special . but esmonde and larbey were not finished with successful sitcoms yet , and had another hit in 1986 with
before the good life ended , larbey and esmonde wrote the first of three more series for richard briers . the other one ( 1977 - 79 ) , featuring him as a compulsive liar , was not popular , but the role of do - gooder martin bryce , with penelope wilton as his wife , in ever decreasing circles ( 1984 - 9 ) , had writers and star back on track . later came down to earth ( 1995 ) , but briers’s unsympathetic character , an expatriate struggling to adapt after returning to britain from south america , was again shunned by viewers .
their breakthrough came with the idea for a radio sitcom , spare a copper ( 1965 - 66 ) , featuring the carry on film star kenneth connor as a bungling policeman – and enabled them to become full - time writers , although at times esmonde was kept afloat only by his wife gina ' s job selling books in offices and door - to - door .
get some in ! didn ' t set the world alight , but it achieved respectable popularity and a five - series run , even surviving lindsay ' s departure to star in john sullivan ' s citizen smith , in which he once again played a loudmouth called smith with a sidekick called ken . it was , however , another esmonde and larbey creation from the same period which was to guarantee their place in the comedy firmament , taking them to the bbc and its middle - class world from the more working - class situations of itv . the series that launched a million daydreams about felicity kendal ' s bottom was the good life .
one of the reasons the series passed into legend as larbey puts it is thanks to a brilliant ensemble cast of richard briers , felicity kendal , penelope keith and paul eddington . the show may have been intended as a starring vehicle for briers , but it was penelope keith who was soon taking all the plaudits .
margo ( played by penelope keith ) became hugely popular as a character .
said larbey .
it was always intended as a foursome , because you needed that . the goods were perfectly funny on their own and while we needed other strong characters , margo just grew and grew .


fashions of 1934 is a 1934 american pre-code musical comedy film directed by william dieterle with musical numbers created and directed by busby berkeley .

the screenplay by f. hugh herbert and carl erickson was based on the story the fashion plate by harry collins and warren duff .

the film stars william powell , bette davis , hugh herbert and frank mchugh , and has songs by sammy fain ( music ) and irving kahal ( lyrics ) .

( sometime after the initial release , the title " fashions of 1934 " was changed to " fashions " , replacing the original title with an insert card stating william powell in " fashions " ) .

fashions of 1934

looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing fashions of 1934 near you .
fashions of 1934 only has one berkeley number but it ' s a doozy involving a ridiculous mountain of ostrich feathers . it ' s one of his best sequences in my opinion .
master of the world ( 1934 , germ . ) ( aka der herr der welt )
fashions of 1934 may be a bit far - fetched and inconsistent , being predicated on a false premise , but it has color , flash , dash , class , girls and plenty of clothes .
part comedy , part musical , part fashion show , fashions of 1934 is a brisk bit of movie fluff with two classic stars of hollywood ' s golden age . the fashions on display here are outrageous and over - the - top . like the movie itself they are from a long gone , and much more fabulous , era .
fashions of 1934 feels like a much smaller film than 42nd street and footlight parade and the pace is far from breakneck , but it ' s a pleasant , little film with one bonkers berkeley showpiece .
crew : ( b & w ) extract of a review from 1934 . running time : 80 min .
thin man , the ( 1934 ) $ 159 . 90 million adjusted worldwide box office
razmyslov , p . ( 1934 ) . 0 “kul’turno - istoricheskoj teorii psikhologii” vygotskogo i lurija .
strange to see bette davis playing second fiddle to someone else . that someone happens to be william powell who in fairness is quite well suited alongside miss davis . the big pull of this movie however , are the many wonderful paris fashions of the 30 ' s worn superbly by the catwalk models . an entertaining oddity , fashions of 1934 is executed extremely well with the bonus of having two great actors and those magnificent costumes . the supporting cast are certainly up to standard in this recommended comedy .
fashions of 1934 may be a bit far - fetched and inconsistent , being predicated on a false premise , but it has color , flash , dash , class , girls and plenty of clothes . story [ by harry collins and warren duff ] has to do with the boot - legging of exclusive paris models . action starts in the us but quickly shifts to the [ … ]
another fast - paced , thinly plotted musical comedy boasting the magnificent choreography of busby berkeley , fashions of 1934 stars william powell as a fashion designer who has a reputation for stealing other designers ' creations and marketing them as his own . when parisian designers begin barring powell ' s spies from their shows and salons , powell goes himself , . . . read more
i’d not seen “fashions of 1934” in its entirely since a mid - 1970s showing at the old theater 80 st . marks in the east village . released in february 1934 , this comedy is most famous for its sole musical number , a real doozy . sammy fain and irving kahal’s “spin a little web of dreams” inspired busby berkeley to some of his most outre work at warners , involving chorines posing as human harps and “venus and her galley slaves” ( forming a 60 - foot galleon ) as well as showgirls wearing little but ostrich features .
fashions of 1934 is a comedy , drama , musical english movie , directed by william dieterle , starring william powell , bette davis , frank mchugh , hugh herbert along with others . here , on the movie page , you will find every thing that you need to know . check out what others are saying about the movie on twitter .
original music and lyrics by chris jeffries . recorded live at the northwest film forum - july , 2006 . featuring footage from fashions ( 1934 ) , directed by busby berkeley . piano : chris jeffries . vocals : wier harman , erin mcgaughan , scott o . moore , taylor ott , mike shapiro & joel summerlin .
among many other adventurous explorations of the studio’s vast catalogue , the manufacture - on - demand warner archive collection has been particularly active in making available on dvd so - called “pre - code” titles — those sex - and - innuendo drenched early talkies that the studios pumped out to entice depression - era audience into theaters until rigorous enforcement of the production code beginning on july 1 , 1934 brought an end to the fun . there are ten ( ! ) more especially rare ones coming next month ( see below ) , but first i want to review two old favorites that came out recently — “hollywood party” and “fashions of 1934” — as well as one i’d never seen before , william wellman’s notorious , eye - popping “safe in hell” ( 1934 ) .
the collected works of l . s . vygotsky . vol . iii . problems of the theory and history of psychology
tcm celebrates the 100th anniversary of a musical legend with three nights of programming devoted to some of leonard bernstein ' s . . . more
fashions of 1934 is an odd but entertaining little pre - code comedy with music . it ' s memorable as the only screen teaming of william powell and bette davis . powell plays his usual dapper , fast talking con man , while davis was in the middle of an identity crisis . the powers that be at warner brothers were trying to reinvent her as a platinum blonde glamor puss , complete with heavy lipstick and false eyelashes . they dressed her in many sophisticated gowns , by their resident fashion designer orry - kelly , that emphasized her rather pendulous breasts .
bette davis as powell ' s part - time love interest didn ' t really make much of an impression . there just wasn ' t much chemistry there between them . there was more of that between him and fake duchess verree teasdale . frank mchugh & hugh herbert was there to bring the humor but didn ' t contribute much . so had william powell not been there i ' m fairly certain
fashions of 1934
would have been a failure , so all credit to him for making it work and turning this one into a entertaining fashion crook story .
the onscreen title is fashions , from when the print was later retitled to avoid being out - of - date . this is the kind of minor title you ' d ordinarily have to wait to see when it ' s aired on turner classic movies , yet now it ' s a recent release in warner archives ' made - on - demand series of dvd - r ' s .
harvard film archive 24 quincy street sat . , dec . 17 , 2016 , 9 – 10 : 30 p . m . most notable for mischievously riding the edge of the production code , fashions of 1934 features a lot of naughtiness and a trio of lovably unethical lead characters . william powell plays sherwood nash , a charming shyster who ropes bette davis’ amateur dress designer into a scheme for bootlegging top parisian fashions for high prices . in fact , the berkeley dance number comes as somewhat of a surprise , but when it does appear as an elaborate cog in nash’s complex ostrich - feather racket , “spin a little web of dreams” twists into delectable berkeley decadence , with dancers wearing feather fans , playing living harps and sailing atop an undulating , glistening faux sea . his most astonishing flourish : overhead shots of the plumed dancers forming a beautiful , feathery flower , which opens and closes as if photographed in time - lapse . gazette classification : film category : film library location : harvard film archive more info : hcl . harvard . edu…
fog over frisco is a 1934 american pre - code drama film directed by william dieterle . the screenplay by robert n . lee and eugene solow was based on the short story the five fragments by george dyer .
a hollywood version of jacques deval ' s 1933 french drama un vie perdue , journal of a . . .
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there’s the wow feather scene wherein busby berkeley has combined a pageant of ostrich plumes to include a hall of human harps , a web of dreams , and venus and her galley slaves . berkeley again repeats the prismatic formations , dissolves , overhead shots and other of the now established school of bb cinematerps .
classic flix ( incidentally , the online place we know of that rents titles from the warner archive collection and other mod programs ) also says hen’s tooth video is offering the first authorized dvd release of a pair of excellent dumas swashbucklers from hollywood’s classic era in february : rowland v . lee’s “the count of monte cristo” ( 1934 ) starring robert donat and james whale’s “the count of monte cristo” ( 1939 ) with louis hayward and joan bennett . hopefully hen’s tooth has licensed “red salute” ( 1935 ) the rest of the pre - 1948 edward small productions catalogue , mysteriously unavailable on video since the vhs era .
3 anyway back to the man of the moment and i must record that i considered that bill powell had one of the most deliciously witty personas in the history of movies , a joy to watch – and hear ! – and well deserving of this page and its update which nostalgically remind me of sunday afternoons long ago watching regular tv reruns of the thin woman . top marks and nice little miniature of bill with his two stooges .
hollywood didn’t quite know what to do with bette davis in the early thirties , and in fashions of 1934 she is terribly miscast as a fashion designer and love interest to william powell’s con man . done up in a platinum blonde wig and painted with eyeliner meant to make her eyes appear longer , she exclaimed in her memoir , “the bossmen were trying to make me into a greta garbo ! ” later that same year , she would finally hit her stride with a career - making performance in of human bondage . aside from the casting error , the film is a brisk pre - code romp , punctuated by a marvel of a busby berkeley number that features countless women in skimpy ostrich feather bikinis . while the romance…
in this paper the author presents a selection of the criticisms levelled against vygotsky in the nineteen thirties . he defends the view that while most of these criticisms were biased and scientifically unsound several of them may serve as a starting point for the present - day assessment of vygotsky’s ideas .
fashions of 1934 is not a musical . mind you , that doesn ' t stop it from pulling off a spectacularly feathery , leggy number from busby berkley ' s high period , complete with overhead geometries and women dressed up as harps . without being as long and elaborate as his work in 42nd street or the gold digger series or the great footlight parade , it ' s still one of his signature offspring of the soundstage , the editing room and the fever dream that pretends to be somehow performed live in a theatre . there it is , bursting from the movie and berkley ' s camera like several dozen dianas from the head of jupiter while the viewer stares . berkley also seems to have staged the climactic fashion show , which looks as if it ' s about to burst into song any minute . despite all this , the movie ' s not a musical ; it ' s one of warner brothers ' snappy , fast - talking pre - code comedies .
- the land of oz ( 1960 ) . . . graves , the butler
mr . wolf ' s big list of forgotten , overlooked and underappreciated films .
star of midnight ( 1935 ) $ 90 . 70 million adjusted worldwide box office
she eventually dropped out of the picture altogether , claiming an acute nervous breakdown .
time stated ,
brisk to the point of confession , fog over frisco is not the best of director william dieterle ' s pictures .
[ 3 ]
s l kapurthe times of india , news service . ( 1953 , feb 23 ) . hollywood stars buy saris . the times of india ( 1861 - current )
cited as the pre - code to end all pre - codes in several books and documentaries in recent years , “safe in hell” doesn’t offer anything extraordinary in the way of skin or innuendo , but it’s chockablock with the kind of situations and characters that would be verboten on screen for nearly three decades commencing in mid - 1934 . dorothy mackaill , an undeservedly forgotten star of early talkies ( her 1932 “love affair” with humphrey bogart also turned up on dvd this month from the tcm vault collection ) plays a prostitute who flees new orleans with the help of her boyfriend ( donald cook ) after killing a john ( ralf harole ) . or at least so she thinks .
washington ' s album son of pain is a lost treasure of r & b ; an album rich in bluesy southern drawls , honeyed harmonies and street - smart rhythms .
pack your beach blanket for a bittersweet tale of love and summer ' s magic .
star natalie dormer has hit back at critics of her film ' in darkness . '
of perfecting techniques ; in live mode . quite the same wikipedia . just better .
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william powell ( 1892 - 1984 ) seems to be only remembered for two film roles : nick charles in 6 thin man movies ( 1934 - 1947 ) and as the good - hearted father in 1947’s life with father . those are only two of many great movie performances in movie career that lasted almost 35 years and produced almost 100 movies . it is hard not to mention myrna loy when discussing powell . he and loy appeared in 14 movies together… . their screen partnership was one of the most successful screen duos ever !
shadow of the thin man ( 1941 ) $ 224 . 10 million adjusted worldwide box office
song of the thin man ( 1947 ) $ 142 . 40 million adjusted worldwide box office
hey bob… . . that was nice of joan… . plus it let her get close to loy… . with hopes that some of that box office magic might rub off on joan…lol .
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in his review in the new york times , mordaunt hall described the film as a
ruddy thriller
and opined ,
what [ it ] lacks in the matter of credibility , it atones for partly by its breathless pace and its abundance of action . as the story of murder and robbery passes on the screen it scarcely gives the spectator time to think who might be the ring - leader of the band of desperadoes .
[ 2 ]
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bette davis and willam powell really do a fine job of playing off of one another in this light - hearted drama . it ' s nearly a comedy . i enjoyed seeing . . .
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i have not seen the last of mrs . cheyney… . . but it sounds like one worth checking out . i can see gable pushing to get loy of the movie so he could star with loy… . she is…as you know… . ”the greatest box office actress of all - time”…lol .
it ' s a testament to zevin ' s understanding of multiple age groups that she ' s able to capture a variety of women at various life stages . her portrayals feel honest and true .
filming began in ceylon in february 1953 . after four weeks of location work the unit moved to hollywood for six weeks of studio filming . however , vivien leigh missed filming on the second day .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you director boots riley discuss the stress of filming sex scenes .
the three of them wind up in paris where they become involved with an old paramour of powell ' s . she ' s passing herself off as a russian grand duchess ( even though she was formerly known as hoboken mabel ) and is engaged to the most successful designer of them all named oscar baroque . throw in a man selling thousands of ostrich feathers , a fashion show that predates cukor ' s in the women , and a couple of gaudy busby berkeley production numbers and this is the result .
under wellman’s blunt direction , “safe in hell” makes the 1929 version of “the letter” ( released by wac earlier this year ) look like family entertainment by comparison . the acting is uniformly better than in many early warner talkies of this era . the transfer has scratches and speckles , but looks better than i expected for a film that’s resided in the margins of film history for most of the past 80 years .
this extended number , available for years on dvd as part of a berkeley compilation disc , is finally available in the context of a highly entertaining movie that represents the sole teaming of william powell and bette davis — under the capable direction of william dieterle , normally a drama specialist who also helmed powell in the lubitch - like bauble “jewel thief” ( 1932 ) , another title crying out for a wac release .
miss davis wasn ' t amused by the role . as she complained to kathryn dougherty of photoplay magazine , “look at me in this picture - all done up like a third - rate imitation of the mgm glamour queens . that isn ' t me . i ' ll never be a clothes horse or romantic symbol . ” later that year , on loan out to rko , she sunk her teeth into the role of slatternly waitress mildred rogers in of human bondage and showed the world what dramatic fireworks she was capable of .
“it’s a nightmare , ” director william beaudine , many years later , quoted himself as saying when he was shown a footage assemblage from “hollywood party , ” an eventual expensive flop that finally limped brieflyu into theaters on june 1 , 1934 — one month before the production code took effect . producer harry rapf , who was shepherding perhaps mgm’s most troubled musical ( four of other musicals were abandoned on orders of irving thalberg in the early ’30s ) hired beaudine to shoot a new ending in which this incoherent musical mismatch is revealed as a … a nightmare suffered by the film’s star , jimmy durante , who is playing “himself . ”
choose 1 of 2 free * posters with ticket purchase ( * shipping & handling not included ) . buy tickets
though not the best of bert wheeler and robert woolsey ' s starring vehicles , kentucky kernels turned . . .
hey bob…you can have your nickname for loy… . . but the “greatest box office actress of all - time” is used to people trying to bring her down with the crawfords , davis , and de havillands of the world .
but if you need your # glassmovie fix before july 20th , here’s the world premiere of our teaser poster .
not for the first nor the last time , powell plays a con man . this one starts out selling designs for new paris fashions — surrepticiously sketched by davis and / or photographed by frank mchugh — to new york knockoff artists before graduating to a more elaborate scame . this one involves a former girlfriend from hoboken who’s posing as a duchess ( veree teasdale , who warbles the infectious “web of dreams” ) , her blustering fashion designer lover ( reginald owen , whose french accent is even shakier than teasdale’s russian one ) , ostrich feathers belonging to the tipsy hugh herbert , and a musical revue where the berkeley number turns up .
twenty - two william powell movies crossed the magical $ 100 million domestic gross mark . that is a percentage of 41 . 50 % of his movies listed . mister robert s ( 1955 ) was his biggest box office hit .
2 moreover an extensive survey published a few months ago in wikipedia examined the purchasing power of blockbusters’ worldwide earnings down through the years from birth of a nation onward and it concluded that godpop one ’s total adjusted figure was $ 1 . 640 billion in today’s money . as in real terms ticket prices in the thin man’s years were much cheaper than those today the purchasing power in 2017 of the actual worldwide grosses of its 6 movies taking into account the varying inflation rates over the years concerned is just $ 715 . 27 million or an average of only about $ 120 globally per movie .
and finally , the criterion collection will be offering a blu - ray upgrade of otto preminger’s “anatomy of a murder” ( 1959 ) with james stewart , lee remick and george c . scott , on february 21 . features include newsreels shot on the set an excepts from a 1967 episode of william f . buckley’s tv show “firing line” where he interviews preminger .
it’s also worth noting that the digital bits is reporting that universal will be issuing 100th anniversary editions of various catalogue titles on blu - ray as well as dvd in 2012 . presumably this will include high - definition bows for their ’30s horror classics and some of their hitchcock titles beyond “psycho . ” universal will be joining paramount , also founded in 1912 , which after last week’s column confirmed my suspicion that january’s release of “wings” is the beginning of a new centennial - oriented line .
five william powell movie won at least one oscar® in any category… . . or 9 . 43 % of his movies .
maltin gave the film 2 stars out of 4 , and made one of his pithier critiques :
pachyderm stampede climax comes none too soon .
a major plot element in the film is that the tea plantation ' s manor , where the film ' s action occurs , had been built in the middle of a path that migrating indian elephants had previously used .
part of the warner brothers release was filmed on location in san francisco . it was remade as spy ship in 1942 .
twelve william powell movies received at least one oscar® nomination in any category… . . or 22 . 64 % of his movies .
the plot jumps all over the place and covers a lot of ground in just 77 minutes . powell works illegitimately in the new york fashion industry making knock offs of dresses made by famous designers . davis is his girlfriend who sketches the gowns to be reproduced on the cheap . frank mchugh plays snap , a photographer who also provides much of the comic relief with his horn dog antics .
in the fall of 1933 davis was in the process of a long battle with warner brothers ' chief jack warner . she was fed up with being forced to make movies she considered junk and was begging him to allow her to be loaned out to rko for
a like number of writers were involved , with only lyricist howard dietz ( who was also head of mgm’s new york publicity office ) and playwright arthur kober receiving credit . james wong howe gets sole credit as cinematographer , though you can bet others were involved .
he was awarded a star on the hollywood walk of fame at 6274 hollywood boulevard in hollywood , california on february 8 , 1960 .
for which she received a write - in nomination for best actress of 1935 though she was not officially nominated by the academy members .
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a hollywood version of jacques deval ' s 1933 french drama un vie perdue , journal of a crime stars ruth chatterton as françoise moliet , a proud parisian who refuses to divorce her playwright husband paul ( adolphe menjou ) , even though he is rather . . .
though not the best of bert wheeler and robert woolsey ' s starring vehicles , kentucky kernels turned out to be the team ' s biggest financial success . wheeler and woolsey star as unemployed vaudevillians willie and elmer , who through a series of convoluted circumstances . . .
a very welcome bonus in the warner archive release are surviving pre - recordings are three of the cut rogers and hart numbers , as well as alternate recordings of the title song by ross and another singer . they reported wrote a number called “prayer” for jean harlow , but while the lyrics exist it’s unclear whether she ( or one of her voice doubles ) ever recorded it before it was scrapped hart wrote new lyrics for rogers’ melody and it was introduced by ross in “manhattan melodrama” as “the bad in every man . ” at the behest of mgm executives , hart wrote another set of more commercial lyrics that finally turned it into a timeless classic — “blue moon . ”
born arthur veary treacher in brighton , east sussex , england , he was the son of a lawyer . he established a stage career after returning from world war i , and by 1928 , he had come to america as part of a musical - comedy revue called great temptations . when his film career began in the early 1930s , treacher was hollywood ' s idea of the perfect butler , . . .
typical hollywood charmer . william powell runs the show and manages to keep this floating above average with an average shot script . with a short moment of assistance of a busby berkeley ' ostrich feather ' number filled with super sexy girls wearing as little as possible between the feathers .
steve 1 if they had been making the invisible woman instead of the invisible man myrna would have been an excellent choice for the lead .
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up for dec . 13 pre - orders at wac are five double features of pre - code dramas and comedies made by warner bros . : “the office wife” ( 1930 ) with dorothy mackaill , lewis stone and joan blondell and “party husband” ( 1931 ) with mackaill and donald cook ; “loose ankles” ( 1930 ) with loretta young and douglas fairbanks jr . and “the naughty flirt” ( 1931 ) with alice white and myna loy ; “i’ve got your number” ( 1934 ) with blondell and pat o’brien and “havana widows” ( 1933 ) with blondell and glenda farrell ; “the road to paradise” ( 1930 ) with loretta young and jack mulhall and “week - end marriage” ( 1932 ) with young and norman foster ; and “the right of way” ( 1931 ) with young and conrad nagel and “the truth about youth” ( 1930 ) with young and loy .
it is based upon the novel elephant walk by
robert standish
, the pseudonym of the english novelist digby george gerahty ( 1898–1981 ) .
own all of the previous ' mission : impossible ' movies to watch at home for just $ 3 . 99 each with ticket purchase . buy tickets
1 . whilst the updated adjusted overall gross for the thin man series is healthy it might have earned even more had bill been partnered by a more carefully selected leading lady . status - wise crawford or katie hepburn would have been ideal but they had strong screen personas that probably would not have suited the subordinate part of nora though i am of course aware of this site’s ability to almost convince itself that the series should have been called the thin woman !
wrote ,
davis was also annoyed at having to play onlooker to some protracted funny business between frank mchugh and hugh herbert in the back of a car , and as the scene plays today , she is obviously impatient and annoyed beneath her tight smile and forced attentiveness . ' i ' ve spent so much of my life being second fiddle - will it ever end ? ' she asked the producer , henry blanke . . . she told kathryn dougherty editor of
hey steve… . i agree 100 % … . . when the comment link is not working it is very frustrating to find some of these comments… . hopefully whatever went wrong will stay fixed . so of the comments that have multiple responses very difficult to find… . i am sure john will forgive you . 🙂
2 ( 1 ) you and bruce agree on just two of the top five and as he did on myrna’s page bruce has included 2 thin man movies in william’s top 5 . i could never understand bruce’s apparent fascination with all of them as for me the series whilst entertaining falls into the category of “once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all” ( 2 ) i liked the closing still of bill and myrna and the one from life with father but an absolute peach was william with joan crawford and robert montgomery in the last of mrs cheyney . crawford actually took over loy’s part in that one as myrna was assigned as gable’s leading lady parnell which joan had turned down . ( 3 ) for me the pick of the fine posters were lawyer man , the kennel murder case and double harness with bill and ann harding . i wonder what happened to her ? she must have been important enough at one point to get billed before powell in your poster ( 4 ) overall an excellent profile of great star william powell who epitomised an era now long gone so 9 . 4 / 10 .
story [ by harry collins and warren duff ] has to do with the boot - legging of exclusive paris models . action starts in the us but quickly shifts to the french capital where the slick , racketeering william powell transfers his ingenuity and buncombe to coincide with the ultra - ateliers of the french fashion founts .
like many of the best comedies and tragedies , this weimar - era silent film understands how each mode is often a hair ' s breadth from the other .
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olive films is launching another wave of titles licensed from paramount in the new year , beginning with three jerry lewis titles on feb . 14 that will be available in blu - ray as well as on dvd . they are frank tashlin’s “rock - a - bye baby” ( 1958 ) , a loose reworking of “the miracle of morgan’s creek” ; tashlin’s “the geisha boy” ( also 1958 ) and the utterly atypical “boeing boeing” ( 1965 ) with tony curtis , derived from a vintage british farce recently revived on broadway .
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cheers bruce , the comment links are still working . nice . it makes life easier when a link takes you directly to the comment instead of my digging around for it .
by thomas m pryorspecial to the new , york times . ( 1952 , dec 11 ) . paramount waits reply of oliviers . new york times ( 1923 - current file )
john tells me that freddy mac did appear in a few westerns in the 50s , sadly none of them were on the video , low ratings . i wish i included one .
i remember john replied to an old comment a couple of weeks ago . i wanted to read it but just couldn’t find it and eventually i gave up . sorry john . 🙂
the treasure of the lost canyon wasn’t even on my master list , powell in a western is unusual , almost as unusual as fred macmurray wearing a toga in a historical film . 🙂
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bruce 1 of course we will never know how the thin man series would have panned out had bill powell had a different partner but it has long been recognised that one possible definition of madness is to insist upon doing the same thing in the same way but expecting different results . your ww table shows the series as having a total adjusted global gross of around $ 1 . 340 billion for all 6 movies . according to steve’s coppola video the first godfather alone grossed $ 1 . 394 billion worldwide and jaws and star wars are each sure to have well exceeded that figure .
the plot of the film is pretty convoluted but in a good , imaginative way . and william powell manages the constantly shifting con with aplomb . bette davis is nicely understated and world - weary as his girl friday ( there ' s a girl friday in all of these movies , isn ' t there ? ) and frank mchugh plays their third wheel who apparently giggles uncontrollably at anything sexual .
william powell tries a number of underhanded schemes to take over the fashion industry . the main plot here is fairly interesting , but the romance angle is poorly handled . bette davis is great in the beginning , but then spends most of the film being lightly irritated at william powell for the schemes he undertakes and the other women he ' s around . there ' s never any strong reason to believe their relationship is actually under threat , and they don ' t even really have much interaction on screen for most of the film . it always feels like an afterthought that was pushed into the film .
lee mcintyre ' s ' post - truth ' is a history lesson and a call to action asking liberals to defend the concept of objective truth . but is it the best approach to the problem ?
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bette davis , anxious to portray the slatternly waitress mildred in the rko radio pictures production of human bondage , accepted the relatively small role of arlene in the hope her cooperation would convince jack l . warner to lend her to the rival studio for the film . her ploy worked , and when warner received word about her dynamic performance in bondage , he elevated her to top billing in frisco . [ 1 ]
wac has also taking a bunch of tantalizing pre - orders through mid - december , including richard brooks’ “the brothers karamazov” ( 1958 ) with yul brenner , claire bloom and william shatner on nov . 30 .
rest in peace mr . # tabhunter . he was one of my mom ' s favorites . our urltoken page ranked his top 25 movies . thoughts and prayers to his friends , family and fans . urltoken
in the world of blu - ray upgrades , dvd beaver is reporting that mgm and fox will be bowing high - def versions of four best picture winners — alfred hitchcock’s “rebecca” ( 1940 ) , billy wilder’s “the apartment” ( 1960 ) , john schlesinger’s “midnight cowboy” ( 1970 ) and woody allen’s “annie hall” ( 1977 ) on jan . 24 , the day oscar nominations come out . also reportedly due that day are blu - ray bows for “spellbound” ( 1945 ) and “notorious” ( 1946 ) — originally announced as part of a hitchcock blu - ray set this fall with “rebecca” — as well as allen’s “manhattan” ( 1979 ) .
davis was not fond of this movie , which sees her as glammed up as she ever got during her peroxide period — courtesy of her longtime collaborator , the australian designer william orry - kelly , who also executed those barely - there ostrich feature creations . davis may also have been irked because her character apparently isn’t getting any action in a movie where everyone else , including frank mchugh and hugh herbert , clearly are .
today’s cornucopia of warner achive collection releases include edmund goulding’s legendarily unavailable and terrific “the constant nymph” ( 1943 ) with an oscar - nominated joan fontaine , charles boyer , alexis smith , charles coburn and peter lorre .
also long anticipated is the dvd debut of king vidor’s technicolor adventure “northwest passage : book 1– rogers rangers” ( 1940 ; book 2 was never filmed ) with spencer tracy , robert young and walter brennan . also out today are a pair of other tracy vehicles : fred zinneman’s “the seventh cross” ( 1944 ) with hume cronyn and jessica tandy ; and john sturges’ noirish “the people against o’hara” ( 1951 ) with pat o’brien and diana lynn .
colonial tea planter john wiley , visiting england at the end of world war ii , wins and weds lovely english rose ruth and takes her home to elephant walk , ceylon , where the local elephants have a grudge against the plantation because it blocks their migrating path . ruth ' s delight with the tropical wealth and luxury of her new home is tempered by isolation as the only white woman in the district ; by her husband ' s occasional imperious arrogance ; by a mutual physical attraction with plantation manager dick carver ; and by the hovering , ominous menace of the hostile elephants . the elephants end up destroying the plantation in a stampede along with a fire .
,
i was glamourized beyond recognition . i was made to wear a platinum wig . makeup had been given the green light with nary a ? may i ? ? the bossmen were trying to make me into a greta garbo . they even dressed the wig like her hair , to say nothing of the false lashes and huge mouth and the slinky clothes .
she had a lot to say about the experience - none of it positive .
that kind of thing was for harlow and crawford - never for me . in that picture i was frightfully ill at ease , and even felt embarrassed at times .
author lawrence w . quirk , in his book
wisely there isn’t an overplus of music . ‘broken melody’ [ by sammy fain and irving kahal ] is the one big number , reprised for the ostrich feather production , with the blonde lookers camera - angled from every stance .
when arlene disappears , her step - sister val ( margaret lindsay ) steps in to discover what happened to her with the help of society reporter tony sterling ( donald woods ) and photojournalist izzy wright ( hugh herbert ) .
2 fred was quite good in a group of passable westerns in the mid to late fifties . here they are with the ratings of imdb [ uk ! ] 1953 / the moonlighter 59 % * * 1955 / the far horizons 62 % * * 1955 / gunpoint 63 % 1957 / gun for a coward 60 % 1957 / quantez 63 % 1958 / day of the badman 61 % 1959 / good day for a hanging 64 % 1959 / face of a fugitive 66 % 1959 / oregon trail 49 % * * in the moonlighter fred was teamed for the penultimate time with old sparring partner barbara stanwyck , in the far horizons he co - starred with chuck and fred was 1st billed , and in the other 7 fred was the stand - alone star . only the chuck one was an a movie and over here at least the other 8 were on double bills usually on the 2nd half .
seven other directors — george stevens , edmund goulding , richard boleslvasky , sam wood , charles reisner , russell mack and roy rowland — labored for months over what was originally called “the hollywood revue of 1933 , ” and envisoned as a followup to rapf’s plotless all - star musical smash from 1929 . the final result is only one of two mgm films from the classic era to emerge with a directorial credit ( the other being the 1947 greer garson disaster “desire me” ) .
this page is not a completed page . just wanted to show the movies in our database that starred william powell . not sure when we will finish this page but until then , we figured there was no good reason not to share what we do have . a quick look at powell’s career and it looks like their are about 15 missing powell movies from 1931 - 1956 . sadly , due to lack of informaton many of powell’s silent films will never be ranked here . we call our website ultimate movie rankings because we try and rank every movie an actor or actress made . since this is only a few of powell’s movies we will just call this a william powell movie ranking page and leave out the ultimate !
besides durante , pearl and a sizeable contingent of scantily - clad chorines , the number employs african “natives” ( at least some clearly in blackface ) who sing about “trader horn” and “king kong , ” the latter also referenced in pearl’s subsequent monologue .
hey steve… . bob’s comment got me to do a myrna loy versus joan crawford page… . . and the stats do not look to good for joan compared to the box office machine known as myrna “greatest box office actress of all - time” loy . urltoken
as for william powell… . i agree with you 100 % on his witty persona……sadly he is not mentioned too often when people name great actors of the past…but looking at this table… . it is real easy to see that his career is among the best ever .
btw the comment links seem to be working today , they are taking me directly to the new comments and not to the first page of comments . i was getting lost searching for new comments that weren’t at the top . i hope it still works tomorrow .
using rottentomatoes . com’s 60 % fresh meter . 34 william powell movies are rated as good movies…or 64 . 15 % of his movies . mister roberts ( 1955 ) is his highest rated movie while it’s a big country ( 1951 ) is his lowest rated movie .
also today , wac has re - packaged five collections of films previously available as singles and as discounted “value paks” as proper box sets in cardboard sleeves at prices that work out to roughly $ 10 a title . there are five titles apiece starring elizabeth taylor and randolph scott , six with lon chaney ( sr . ) and a pair of tazan sets , one starring lex barker ( five titles ) and the other with gordon scott ( six ) . other previously available titles are being discounted for black friday sales that will apparently stretch into next week .
at 1 : 40pm we will meet in the theatre lobby near the toronto film society table . you can spot me by looking for someone with messy black hair , a green t - shirt and a black messenger bag . at 1 : 45pm we will go grab a bunch of seats together .
an average ultimate movie rankings ( umr ) score is 40 . 00 . 31 william powell movies scored higher that average… . or 58 . 49 % of his movies . life with father ( 1947 ) got the the highest umr score while got the lowest mister roberts ( 1955 ) umr score .
mister roberts is my favorite of the color movies you mentioned… . . he picked a fine movie to be his last one . 6 color and 30 black and white… . or 16 . 66 % to 83 . 34 % . that is of course the only movies listed in this page… . . i am sure the actually % would be around 5 % to 95 % . thanks for sharing this william powell information . when i update this page…i am sure the 36 movies listed will be in the 50s…as i have already found 10 more powell movie box office numbers since first writing this page .
it was originally intended to star the husband and wife team of laurence olivier and vivien leigh ( with olivier in the finch role ) . however olivier was already committed to the project the beggar ' s opera ( 1953 ) . leigh was enthusiastic about the role and continued in her husband ' s absence , but she was forced to withdraw from production shortly after filming began in colombo , ceylon , as a result of bipolar disorder . according to leonard maltin ' s annual movie guide book , leigh can be seen in some long shots that were not re - filmed after elizabeth taylor replaced her .
i know her career hadn ' t really taken flight yet , but its still a shame that bette davis gets sidelined in favor of william powell doing his william powell thing . the industry politicking that comprises most of this movie ' s narrative is really well written , very modern ( like a prestige cable drama , a * good prestige cable drama ) and genuinely understands the intersection between media , politics , art and gender . there ' s also a running gag / subplot involving powell ' s slimy , sexually immature pal trying to get laid that is not so well written , but its mostly negligible .
dec . 6 will bring wac’s extremely welcome four - disc , eight - movie “robert montgomery collection” containing the pre - code titles “shipmates” ( 1931 ) , “the man in posssession” ( 1931 ) , “faithless” ( 1932 ) with tallulah bankhead , “lovers courageous” ( 1932 ) , “but the flesh is weak” ( 1932 ) and “made on broadway” ( 1933 ) as well as post - coders “live , love and learn” ( 1937 ) with rosalind russell and “the earl of chicago” ( 1940 ) with edward arnold and edmund gwenn . concurrently , wac is releasing four made - for - tv biopics starring montgomery’s daughter elizabeth of “bewitched” fame .
van der veer r . ( 1993 ) the reception of vygotsky’s ideas in the nineteen thirties . in : stam h . j . , mos l . p . , thorngate w . , kaplan b . ( eds ) recent trends in theoretical psychology . recent research in psychology . springer , new york , ny
this is the movie that features the famous “human harps” number wherein busby berkeley positioned scantily clad beauties as large harps being played by other scantily clad beauties ( see photo ) . it also features his trademark overhead shot of chorus girls in isometric patterns . this time utilizing huge feathers to imitate a rosebud opening and closing .
also turning up is mickey mouse ( voiced by walt disney ) , who trades imitates and trades insults with durante before introducing a technicolor cartoon , “hot choc - lat soldiers” which is song by none other than lyricst arthur freed ( who would eventually move the mgm musical beyond the limitations of the tin - eared rapf ) .
hi bob , thanks for the review , rating and trivia , always appreciated . had to laugh at your opening paragraph belittling ‘queen of the box office . myrna loy . bruce and john will no doubt roll their eyes at that remark . come on bob give her some credit for drawing the crowds , was she that anonymous ? poor myrna .
the boyfriend takes her to a tawdry carribean island without an extradition treaty with the u . s . , where she checks into a hotel managed by nina mae mckinney with perhaps the biggest collection of sleazeballs i’ve ever seen in a movie — among them gustav von seyffertitz and john wray . vowing to remain faithful to the boyfriend who she “marries” in a minister - free ceremony , mackaill holds them off — as well as the island’s even slimy jailer ( morgan wallace ) , who eventually frames her for murder . another of her twisted admirers ( charles middleton ) , a disgraced lawyer , mounts an able defense , but mackaill finally opts to confess and be executed rather than be turned over to the slimy jailer .
hey steve . wow… . i did not realize the comment link was working again… . i wish i could say it was something i did to fix… . but somehow it fixed it self… . i updated a few widgets this morning… . but the comment one was not one of those… . maybe another widget broke this originally and now they have fixed it .