Happy 90th, Dirk Bogarde!

Dirk Bogarde's life story -- in comic book form!

This is BY FAR my favorite Dirk Bogarde find. About a week ago I was perusing ebay listings and came across a late-1950's magazine that had only a photo of the cover, and said "Dirk Bogarde cover and feature -- his life story in pictures and also in comic strip." Comic strip??? I had to see this. And it's about 100 times better than anything I could have hoped!! It is seriously a comic strip. It's 22 pages long and -- with a few white lies and exaggerations -- really is his life story in comic strip form, up until about 1958. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!! :)

As Time Goes By

I made a new video tribute today... actually, I made it this month. It's taken me forever to prepare, since I had to rip all of Dirk Bogarde's movies to my hard drive. Yup, this one includes EVERY one of his movies, and in chronological order, no less! The only exceptions are Blackmailed, Upon This Rock & We Joined the Navy since they're being stubbornly elusive.

The video is set to "As Time Goes By" sung by Bryan Ferry. It starts with Dirk Bogarde's first starring role in Esther Waters (1948) and ends with his last performance in Daddy Nostalgia (1990). Here is the full list of films, in order:

Esther Waters (1948), Quartet (1948), Once a Jolly Swagman (1949), Dear Mr. Prohack (1949), Boys in Brown (1950), The Blue Lamp (1950), So long at the Fair (1950), The Woman in Question (1950), Hunted (1952), Penny Princess (1952), The Gentle Gunman (1952), Desperate Moment (1953), Appointment in London (1953), They Who Dare (1954), Doctor in the House (1954), The Sleeping Tiger (1954), For Better For Worse (1954), The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954), Simba (1955), Doctor at Sea (1955), Cast a Dark Shadow (1955), The Spanish Gardener (1956), Ill Met By Moonlight (1957), Doctor at Large (1957), Campbell's Kingdom (1957), A Tale of Two Cities (1958), The Wind Cannot Read (1958), The Doctor's Dilemma (1958), Libel (1959), The Angel Wore Red (1960), Song Without End (1960), The Singer Not the Song (1961), Victim (1961), HMS Defiant (1962), The Password is Courage (1962), The Mind Benders (1963), I Could Go On Singing (1963), Doctor in Distress (1963), The Servant (1963), Hot Enough for June (1964), King and Country (1964), The High Bright Sun (1964), Little Moon of Alban (1964), Darling (1965), Modesty Blaise (1966), Blithe Spirit (1966), Accident (1967), Our Mother's House (1967), Sebastian (1968), The Fixer (1968), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Justine (1969), The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971), Night Flight From Moscow (1973), The Night Porter (1974), Permission to Kill (1975), Providence (1977), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Despair (1978), May We Borrow Your Husband? (1986), The Vision (1988), Daddy Nostalgia (1990)

Later this week I'm planning on screen-capping the video and captioning the photos with which film they came from, so that if a specific clip looks intriguing you'll know which movie to watch :)

Appointment in London screen grabs

I try really hard to keep the gushing here to a minimum, and to keep the blog more proper than "omg I love him!!" fangirly. But, my goodness, do you see these screen shots?! It's hard to keep your composure whilst looking at them, let alone write a post that's any more formal than "drooling......"

I took a LOT of shots, and these 12 are my favorite. You can see the rest here.

Appointment in London (1952)

Sorry for the obnoxious gif, but I had to make one when I saw this scene. It's just so perfect!

I was a very bad Dirk Bogarde fan when I watched this film. I was quite tired and I only vaguely understood the plot (not that it was that complicated, I was just that tired) but from what I understand, this is how it went -- Dirk Bogarde plays a flight officer who has already flown more missions than most people do in their entire careers. He's working towards 90 bombing missions, even if everyone thinks that it's pushing his luck to even do 88 or 89.

I have a very hard time watching war movies.. I can't help myself! All of the talk about missions and bombing raids and radar went flying through my left ear and soaring out the right. Like most post-war British war films, however, it did have several really heartfelt, saddening scenes that emphasized what war does to the women on the homefront. One pilot was sending coded messages to his wife so that Dirk Bogarde (who didn't approve of his officers having their minds on their women, so preferred that they either didn't have women at home or didn't communicate with them) wouldn't find him out. Bogarde's love interest in the film, played by Dinah Sheridan, is a war widow who is still referred to throughout the movie as "Mrs." Those moments were poignant and deeply sad.

It puzzles me why Dirk Bogarde was cast in so many war films at the peak of his popularity with young girls. Why screaming bobbysoxers would be interested in violent movies seemingly aimed at male audiences eludes me, but I guess I'm living proof that if he was in it, the adoring fans would watch it.

cute little clip

I was perusing the Dirk Bogarde documentary "The Private Dirk Bogarde" tonight, looking for clips from home videos when I came across this one that I had to single out & share. Isn't it just the cutest thing ever?! I love that they documented so much of their life on film.. I'd complain that not enough segments are available, but then I realize how lucky we are to even have these!

New scans

I scanned and uploaded about 60 new photos tonight! You can view all of them here! My personal favorite is the one at the top of the post, a promotional photo from The Gentle Gunman.

Libel (1959)

I'm a pretty smart person, but when it comes to movies I hardly ever figure out the twists before they occur. I know if I put my mind to it, I could.. but I'm usually so caught up in the story that I don't try to figure out what's going to happen while the movie is playing. Such was the case with Libel. I'd imagine some people out there might guess the ending before it happens or figure out all the twists before the movie is halfway finished... but I was surprised every step of the way, as confused and shocked as the screenwriters hoped their audience would be.

The film is about a wealthy British aristocrat, Sir Mark Sebastian Loddon, who sues a newspaper for libel after they print an accusation that he is an imposter. What seems like a simple case of slander actually turns into a case of stolen identity when it's revealed that there were two men -- almost identitcal -- who escaped from a POW camp together, Sir Mark Loddon and the scoundrel Frank Welney. Only one of them returned, and said he was Sir Mark.

As soon as they introduce the character of Frank Welney into the proceedings, you the viewer and all of the characters in the film are suddenly thrown into a sea of doubt. Is Sir Mark actually Frank Welney? If so, whatever happened to the real Sir Mark?

Dirk Bogarde plays Sir Mark Loddon in the present setting, Sir Mark in the prison camp flashbacks, and Frank Welney. Dirk Bogarde is one of those people who sometimes looks completely different from one photo to the next, so while his Sir Mark does look remarkably like Frank Welney, you don't for a minute doubt that these are two different people- not twins or one person playing dual roles. And his present-day Sir Mark looks even different still! It's really impossible to tell just from appearances which man is calling himself Sir Mark Loddon.

Libel has an outstanding supporting cast, including one of my favorite character actors, Robert Morley and Wilfrid Hyde-White (who is always, in my mind, Col. Pickering) and features a pretty impressive performance by Olivia de Havilland as Dirk Bogarde's wife. In a way, her role is connected to the audience in that what she feels, we feel. Close-ups of her reactions to developments in the case are used as hints as to what she is thinking, and what we should think. When she has complete faith in her husband, so do we. And when she doubts her husband, so do we.

If you're looking for an edge-of-your-seat courtroom thriller, I highly suggest Libel! And if you're just looking for another Dirk Bogarde film to enjoy, look no further than Libel, where you get two Dirk's for the price of one!

The Wind Cannot Read (1958) Part II

I should begin by saying that I am a real girly girl -- I like movies that are corny, sentimental and dramatic, and I'm not ashamed to say so! And this movie is very corny, sentimental and dramatic.

I should also point out that when it comes to movies, I have a knack for suspension of disbelief, and I think that's a necessary quality when it comes to enjoying films like The Wind Cannot Read. Sure, there are a bunch of plot twists that would be close to impossible in reality, but that's why this is a movie and not a documentary. Some movies require you to forget reality -- and in my opinion that often makes them more enjoyable.

Now, with those two disclaimers out of the way I'll tell you a little about the film. It takes place in India during World War II. The British are teaching some of their soldiers Japanese so that they can interrogate Japanese POWs in India, and Dirk Bogarde is selected as one of the students. Complications ensue when Dirk falls head over heels for his language teacher, Yoko Tani. Their courtship at first is almost embarrassingly awkward, yet awfully adorable. It blossoms into an epic love, one that reminded me of Doctor Zhivago, Cold Mountain and Now Voyager; that unearthly attachment between two people that makes war and torture seem like a walk in the park compared to the agony of separation.

The movie starts out relatively slow, but the last half of the movie is an emotional roller coaster. I actually cried more than once (real tears streaming down my face, not just watery eyes, mind you!) and felt my stomach doing somersaults during the war scenes. I actually felt exhausted when the movie was over. But a good exhausted-- this was a fantastic movie, and watching it was a very enjoyable experience.

I really believe, though, that it would only be enjoyable if you were able to suspend all disbelief and just let yourself get whisked away into the fantasy of the movie. I think an imagination is one of the best things a person can have -- without it life would be so dull. I'd hate to watch this movie and only see the unrealistic flaws. I only bring this up because after being overwhelmed by the movie I whipped out my Dirk Bogarde book by Robert Tanitch. The book has a little synopsis of each movie, photos and original reviews from the time the movies were released. I usually like to read the original reviews because Tanitch doesn't seem to be much of a fan of Dirk Bogarde (why he wrote a whole book one someone he obviously doesn't like escapes me) but this time I peeked at what he wrote anyway. When describing a particular scene (which I won't mention because it gives away the plot; Another stupid thing about this book.) Tanitch writes, "[it] was so improbable as to be silly." He also wrote, "The wind cannot read, and on the evidence of this script, she cannot write either."

I'll be the first to admit that there are cliches in the film, and some of the plot twists you can see coming from a mile away. But Tanitch doesn't seem to grasp that this is an unrealistic epic love story, not a documentary about World War II. You expect different things from different movies, and you need to appreciate this film for what it is: a lovely, hopelessly romantic chick flick that requires suspension of disbelief.

As for the reviews from the film's release, there was one that really nailed Dirk Bogarde's matinee-idol style of the 50's, though I personally disagree with his use of the words "too much". In it, the author (from the Sunday Express) states that Dirk Bogarde "still offers too much of the wry smile, the imperceptibly quivering stiff upper lip, the spaniel pathos in the eyes." This is actually a perfect description of his characteristics during this time period, but they were fitting, not excessive, considering his popularity with the female fans, and the fact that roles like this one are supposed to be sort of fantasy figure for the bobby-soxers. And despite his swoon-worthy facial mannerisms that seem to have irked the male film critics of the time, Dirk Bogarde was definitely already showing signs of the awesome talent he'd become in the early 1960's.

"Be there a heaven on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this."

I took 30 screen shots in all, to see them click here.

The Wind Cannot Read (1958)

Tonight I watched The Wind Cannot Read, a wartime love story set during World War II. It was an amazing film, but I'm saving the review for tomorrow when I have a clearer head. It's quite an emotional movie and having just finished watching it, I think if I tried to write a post right now it would seem too dopey and mushy. It was definitely made during Dirk Bogarde's matinee-idol period -- something I kind of forgot about since I've been watching so many of his new-wave 60's movies lately. Being a bit of a fangirl myself, (oh, who am I kidding, I'm a really big fangirl!) it was neat to see him in such a romantic role.

So, anyway, in lieu of a post tonight, here are some pictures from The Wind Cannot Read that I scanned from my Dirk Bogarde Fan Star Library biography. My favorite is the one at the top of the post!