Thursday's Child

1943
1 Std. 22 Min.

IMDb-BEWERTUNG

IHRE BEWERTUNG

Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuFamily tensions arise after a schoolgirl becomes a successful child actor.Family tensions arise after a schoolgirl becomes a successful child actor.Family tensions arise after a schoolgirl becomes a successful child actor.

Regie
- Rodney Ackland
Drehbuch
- Rodney Ackland
- Donald Macardle
Hauptbesetzung

Siehe Produktionsinformationen bei IMDbPro

IMDb-BEWERTUNG

5,9/10

130

IHRE BEWERTUNG

Regie
- Rodney Ackland
Drehbuch
- Rodney Ackland
- Donald Macardle
Hauptbesetzung

Siehe Produktionsinformationen bei IMDbPro

Fotos1

Benutzerrezensionen6

5,9130

Empfohlene Bewertungen

4richardchatten

A Fascinating Car Wreck of a Film

Based on a 1941 novel by Donald Macardle, 'Thursday's Child' was the first and last film ever directed by playwright & screenwriter Rodney Ackland (1908-1991). According to his memoir 'The Celluloid Mistress' (1954), his yearned-for debut as a director was severely compromised in execution by factors of both time and money, the completed film minus key scenes Associated British pulled the plug on before they could be filmed; which presumably explains the various loose ends.

Ackland's 12 year-old discovery Sally Ann Howes in the title role is certainly convincing as a young prodigy who becomes a hit in a movie called 'Strange Barrier'. The film starts light-heartedly enough - and we get the usual jokes about vulgarian studio personnel at the fictitious Marathon Studios - but the tone gets dismayingly melodramatic in its later stages, with direction to match. Veteran cameraman Desmond Dickinson does his best, but the haste, low budget and director Ackland's inexperience shows in mike shadows, stagy compositions and exaggerated closeups in the style of Eisenstein extremely jarringly cut together. (During one key scene between the heroine's mother and her elder sister I became distracted by the almost Caligari-esquely stylized twigs dangling outside the window behind them.) The experience resembles watching a tightrope walker teetering this way and then that as one wonders what technical goof the film is going to commit next.

6howardmorley

Sally Ann Howes - in Jane Austen's parlance "A very handsome woman"

Sally Ann Howes was a most photogenic actress in her best film years.Her two films that spring to mind are "The Admirable Crichton" (1957) playing Lady Mary and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968) playing Truly Scrumptious.As an ingénue in "Thursday's Child" (1943) she was very young to take the lead role with Wilfred Lawson but your eyes are constantly drawn to her and the film director is especially generous with close ups of her.It is a simple tale of the making of a child film star and her subsequent very mature decision to renounce temporary fame & fortune for a more substantial general education especially science in the footsteps of her heroine Madame Curie, who along with her husband Pierre invented radium.

FGM's above very fulsome user comments from 2004 explain the plot so I will not repeat them.I enjoyed this film which you can see in its entirety on www.you tube.com (as of July 2012) for those viewers who wish to see this rare film and to see how Sally's most impressive looks matured into beauty since 1943.

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This is one of about three dozen British films picked up by CBS in 1949 for USA television presentation; it first aired in Chicago Saturday 6 August 1949 on WGN (Channel 9) and in New York City Saturday 3 September 1949 on WCBS (Channel 2). Since this title had never been shown theatrically in the USA, these telecasts also constituted its USA premiere. In Los Angeles it first aired Monday 14 November 1949 on KLAC (Channel 13), and in Boston Sunday 26 February 1950 on WNAC (Channel 7).

Zitate
Ellen Wilson: Phoebe! Phoebe!
Phoebe Wilson: Yes, what is it?
Ellen Wilson: [she enters] You should have lent a hand at the salvage depot, they could do with help on Saturday afternoon. What do you make of this?
[she hands Phoebe a letter]
Phoebe Wilson: It's meant for me.
Ellen Wilson: I thought it was for Fennis. That's why I opened it. What do they mean by your application for work?
Phoebe Wilson: I think Mr Durham must have arranged it for me. I asked him to.
Ellen Wilson: You know your father wouldn't let you take it.
Phoebe Wilson: I'm going to take it.
Ellen Wilson: How can you? It's on Monday. You've got to go to Bond Street.
Phoebe Wilson: If I were to say that you were in bed that day with a bad chill, Felicia would let me stay away. I'd phone her.
Ellen Wilson: You must be mad, Phoebe - telling deliberate, downright lies.
Phoebe Wilson: Mummy, you must help me. You must!
Ellen Wilson: No, Phoebe. You must drop the whole idea.
Phoebe Wilson: So I'm not even allowed one day's crowd work? I've got to plod along on three pounds a week while my thirteen year old sister gets fifty? Mother, you've no right to refuse to help me. You've always encouraged me to want something out of life. Nothing was too good for me, until Fennis got her contract. Now you don't care what happens to me.
Ellen Wilson: Phoebe, it's not true.
Phoebe Wilson: It is. If I speak to you, you don't listen. You just sit staring at Fen' as though she's the centre of all creation. You almost croon over her beastly press cuttings. You watch every mouthful she eats. You sit for hours gloating over her pictures...
Ellen Wilson: It's not true, not one word of it.
Phoebe Wilson: You know it is, Mummy... and I won't stand for it any longer. I won't! I won't!