The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Perhaps I am biased by first impressions, but this BBC rendition of The Barretts of Wimpole Street, which I saw prior to viewing the Norma Shearer film, strikes me as superior to the MGM effort in nearly every way. While I am second to none in my admiration for the lovely Shearer, to my mind Jane Lapotaire embodies Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett to the life: gentle, melancholy, loving, somewhat self-absorbed (at least prior to her meeting with Browning), possessed of inner strength and idiosyncratically attractive. She also conveys a warm sincerity, which Shearer, good as she is, sometimes fails to do. With Jeremy Brett there is, as with Lapotaire, casting perfection: dashing, passionate, seductive, and, as Elizabeth calls him on their first meeting, 'overwhelming'. In fact, nearly every role in the BBC rendition is ideally cast, not least Joss Ackland, who bestows unheard-of depths of loathsomeness upon Edward, the paterfamilias of the Barrett clan. Charles Laughton for MGM, veering wildly from robotic cipher to bellowing martinet to lachrymose clown, cannot hope to compete with the subtlety and power of Ackland's frightening portrayal. Virtually the only character which I feel is more vividly played at MGM is Wilson the maid. Una o' Connor's warm-hearted and eccentric rendition is far preferable to that of the BBC's rather palely anonymous actress. A beautiful version of an enchanting play.