Oscar Profile #524: Terence Rattigan

Born June 10, 1911 in London, England to a British diplomat and his wife, Oxford educated Terence Rattigan was one of the preeminent British playwrights of the 20th Century.

Rattigan began writing plays in 1934. He cowrite an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities with John Gielgud in 1935, but the play was not produced until it was adapted for radio in 1950. It was not performed on stage until 2013. His first produced play was the 1936 comedy, French Without Tears with Rex Harrison, Kay Hammond, Jessica Tandy, Trevor Howard, Robert Flemyng, Roland Culver, and Guy Middleton in the leads. Culver and Middleton reprised their roles in the 1940 film version starring Ray Milland and Ellen Drew. His 1943 play, While the Sun Shines was filmed in 1947.

One of Rattigan’s greatest successes, The Winslow Boy, was first seen in London in 1946, moving quickly to Broadway in 1947. The 1948 film version starring Robert Donat and Cedric Hardwicke was not released in the U.S. until 1950. His 1948 success, The Browning Version became a film in 1951 starring Michel Redgrave and Jean Kent. His 1952 original screenplay for The Sound Barrier aka Breaking the Sound Barrier, for which Ralph Richardson received a New York Film Critics’ award for Best Actor, earned him his first Oscar nomination.

Rattigan’s 1950 play, Who Is Sylvia? , became the 1954 film, The Man Who Loved Redheads starring Moira Shearer and John Justin. His 1952 play, The Deep Blue Sea was made into a 1955 film starring Vivien Leigh and Kenneth More. His 1953 play, The Sleeping Prince became the 1957 film, The Prince and the Showgirl starring Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier. His 1954 play, Separate Tables, filmed under that title, earned him his second Oscar nomination for his adaptation. Nominated for 7 Oscars, it won for David Niven as Best Actor and Wendy Hiller as Best Supporting Actress.

The playwright’s 1960 success, Ross starring Alec Guinness as Lawrence of Arabia was not filmed. He did, however, write the screenplays for three major films of the decade, 1963’s The V.I.P.s and 1964’s The Yellow Rolls-Royce, both featuring all-star casts, as well as 1969’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips for which Peter O’Toole received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Although his plays have frequently been adapted for television in the intervening years, his last play to be filmed during his lifetime was 1970’s A Bequest to the Nation, filmed in 1973 with Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch as Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson.

Terence Rattigan died from bone cancer in 1977 at the age of 66.

In the years since his death, there have been major stage revivals of his plays, as well as big screen remakes of The Browning Version directed by Mike Figgis in 1994 starring Albert Finney and Greta Scacchi, The Winslow Boy directed by David Mamet in 1999 starring Jeremy Northam and Nigel Hawthorne, and The Deep Blue Sea in 2011 starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE WINSLOW BOY (1948 U.K., 1950, U.S.), directed by Anthony Asquith

The widely heralded first film version of Rattigan’s 1946 play was directed by Anthony Asquith, whose father, British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, is mentioned throughout this classic about the real life Royal Navy cadet who was accused of theft in 1908 and put on trial before Parliament in 1910. Exonerated, he died in WWI in 1914 at 19. Robert Donat as his barrister, and Cedric Hardwicke as his father, both had one of their greatest roles in the film. Neil North, who played the boy, had a minor role in David Mamet’s 1999 remake. The role of the attorney general, played by Francis L. Sullivan, was not in the play in which the trial took place off stage.

THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1957), directed by Laurence Olivier

The first non-Shakespearean film directed by Laurence Olivier, and the only film made by Marilyn Monroe outside the U.S., this one served as the backdrop for Simon Curtis’ 2011 film, My Week with Marilyn starring Michele Williams as Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Olivier. Based on Rattigan’s The Sleeping Prince, Olivier played the playboy Prince Regent and Monroe the American showgirl he attempts to seduce. Jeremy Spenser plays the child king Olivier is regent to, and Dame Sybil Thorndike, who received the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actress, is the Dowager Queen.

SEPARATE TABLES (1958), directed by Delbert Mann

On stage, Rattigan’s work was performed as two one-act plays separated by an intermission, with the same actor and actress playing the protagonists in both. The film intersperses all four characters in the telling of the events as a British seaside hotel off-season. David Niven and Burt Lancaster play the male leads, and Deborah Kerr and Rita Hayworth the female leads. Nominated for seven Oscars, the film won two for Best Actor Niven as a phony Army major and Best Supporting Actress Wendy Hiller as the hotel’s manager. Gladys Cooper, Cathleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer, and May Hallatt stand out in support.

GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1969), directed by Herbert Ross

This musical version of James Hilton’s classic novel, for which Ratigan supplied the screenplay, was its third iteration following the 1939 classic for which Robert Donat won an Oscar, and a French TV series. It would appear as a TV miniseries and a TV movie. Originally set to star Rex Harrison and Samantha Eggar, the casting then changed to Richard Burton and Lee Remick, and finally to Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark, with O’Toole earning the fourth of his eventual eight Oscar nominations for his portrayal of the beloved schoolteacher. Clark is equally memorable as Mrs. Chipping. O’Toole’s then real-life wife, Sian Phillips, is also excellent.

THE DEEP BLUE SEA (2011), directed by Terence Davies

Rachel Weisz won the New York Film Critics award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a judge’s wife involved in a self-destructive affair with an Army Air Force pilot, Although nominate for a Golden Globe, she failed to receive an Oscar nomination for her acclaimed performance. Rattigan’s play had previously been filmed in 1955 with Vivien Leigh and Kenneth More in the roles played this time around by Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. Both versions were more popular with critics than with the public, but both are worth seeking out if you can find them. This one is the more accessible.