Reviews

This is a quite beautiful story of a gay man dying of cancer. He thinks back on his life with "the girls" (the dance group of which he is the manager and single male performer) and with the love of his life, Harry, tragically killed. A great performance by Tom Courtenay that should be on tape. One of the few stories by Noel Coward that features an openly gay leading character.

After seeing on video this extraordinary schizo biopic I accessed the Peter Warlock home page and found that except for his death by "gas poisoning" (which was not declared to be suicide) there is very little truth in the film. Including the music. Only one song in the film was actually written by Warlock - the rest of Warlock's music was written for the film. There was no secret of Warlock's identity and he apparently he did not review his own music. But there is a splendid performance by Jeremy Northam and the sets and costumes are great. Just don't believe the story.

I have seen Twentieth Century several times and even quote one of the great Barrymore lines: After me, she's mousing around with that boy?

Barrymore succeeds so well in this film since he is parodying himself. He exaggerates and the voice is used like a singer who scoops the bottom and then rises an octave or two. It is great fun to hear him ham-up the lines. Lombard matches him in her own fashion and together they create a great comedy team. Unfortunately it is a one-time gag: there are just so many times an actor can parody himself without repeating or ruining any serious moments he might try in another film. (--or herself as Tallulah learned when she tried to perform "Streetcar Named Desire").