Before becoming internationally famous for playing Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Vivien Leigh was a rising star in Britain, and this set collects the four British films she made before going to Hollywood. Fire Over England (1937), an Elizabethan spy drama set during the time when Spain was preparing to attack Britain with the Spanish Armada, cast Leigh in her first major role, as Cynthia, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I (Flora Robson) and lover of loyal naval officer Michael Ingolby (Laurence Olivier, whom Leigh later married). James Wong Howe photographs director William K. Howard's visually impressive production, which costars Raymond Massey and James Mason. Leigh transforms from wide-eyed innocent to cagey professional as double agent Madeleine Goddard in Dark Journey (1937), a World War I espionage thriller directed by Victor Saville and costarring Conrad Veidt as Baron Karl Von Marwitz, a German operative who falls in love with her. Leigh appears with Rex Harrison in the 1937 comedy Storm in a Teacup, helmed by Ian Dalrymple and Saville, about a minor scandal that becomes a press sensation, with Harrison playing reporter Frank Burdon and Leigh as Vickie, the daughter of the politician (Cecil Parker) at the center of the turmoil. Finally, filmmaker Tim Whelan's 1938 St. Martin's Lane (aka Sidewalks of London) is a rags-to-riches tale starring Charles Laughton as busker Charles Staggers, who takes street urchin Libby (Leigh) under his wing, after which Harrison's theater impresario Harley Prentiss plucks her off the streets and onto the stage. Leigh's cockney accent here is unconvincing at best, but her sassy performance is dynamic, and she's entrancing as the dancing dreamer, theatrical ingénue, and—finally—confident star managing the press and her fans with utter professionalism. All four films are remastered from archival 35mm materials from the British Film Institute for these DVD and Blu-ray editions, with extras including a featurette with Leigh biographer Anne Edwards, and a booklet. While none of these films are outright classics, this is a nice set that shows a different side of Leigh. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection
Cohen, 2 discs, 339 min., not rated, DVD: $49.98, Blu-ray: $59.98 Volume 29, Issue 1
The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection
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