James Mason Spring And Port Wine

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stuart.uk
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James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by stuart.uk »

I just watched Spring And Port Wine on you tube right through for the first time in about 30-years and thought James Mason and Diana Coupland made a smashing couple as heads of a working class family in Bolton.

I know Mason has worked with great actresses like Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Anne Todd and Margaret Lockwood, but his screen relationship with Coupland is just as good. I do wonder about the age difference however. Mason was 61 in 1970 when the film was made and Coupland a beautiful 38. It seems Mason was playing younger and Coupland older, because she was only 5-years older than Rodney Bewes who played their son and 9-years older than screen daughter Hannah Gordon, however, Diana was just old enough in reality to play Susan George's mother.

Though the cast is well known in the UK, some won't be known in America. Diana Coupland for example dubbed Ursula Andress' singing voice in Dr. No and played Sid James' wife in the sit com and big screen version of the classic Brit comedy Bless This House.

Before making SAPW Rodney Bewes was one half of The Likely Lads, a role he reprised for the both the big and small screen in the 70s with James Bollam and Bridget Forsyth.

Hannah Gordon a few yrs later had her greatest global success as Virginia Bellamy in Upstairs Downstairs and as Anthony Hopkins wife in The Elephant Man.

However, out of the younger members of the cast it looked like Susan George was the one groomed for stardom, but it didn't happen.

In good supporting roles was Frank Windsor, who was at the time playing cop John Watt in the tv series Softly Softly, a sequel to the hugely successful Z-Cars. Playing his wife was an attrative Avril Elgar, who I saw in the 90s play a plain oldish woman in John Thaw's Goodnight Mr. Tom.

If you're a fan of James Mason I'd recommend Spring And Port Wine on you tube. The main theme of the film might surprise you. It's about a plate of Herring that Susan George refuses to eat at tea time and the reprocusions it causes for the rest of the family
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Spring and Port Wine is an excellent film and it's a surprising role for James Mason to chose, not the film to go for if you want to hear his lovely voice, he has Northern inflections. It's an utterly delightful film with a good cast, it's been released as a DVD here but for non British friends I recommend you watch it on youtube.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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MissGoddess
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Re: James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by MissGoddess »

This movie sounds intriguing, I will look for it on youtube. Thanks, Stuart!
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RedRiver
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Re: James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by RedRiver »

Wow! That certainly is an unusual plot. (Oh, no. Another "refusing to eat herring" movie?) I assume this is a comedy? I do like James Mason. I do NOT like port wine! In a silly, curious way, that's what drew me to this thread. Had to see what it was about! I'm not a wine drinker to begin with. Port, I really don't have a taste for.
stuart.uk
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Re: James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by stuart.uk »

I'd call it a comedy drama. The end is quite moving with Mason and Coupland having a heart to heart by a canal

April-If you find and watch it give us your opinion.
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MissGoddess
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Re: James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by MissGoddess »

stuart.uk wrote:I'd call it a comedy drama. The end is quite moving with Mason and Coupland having a heart to heart by a canal

April-If you find and watch it give us your opinion.

i will!

p.s. i love port wine...but i seldom can afford it!
:D
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
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moira finnie
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Re: James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by moira finnie »

Enjoy:
[youtube][/youtube]
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: James Mason Spring And Port Wine

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Thank you Moira, it's a wonderful movie, a chance to look at the struggles between a father and his three children who thinks he's an old fashioned fuddy duddy with some outdated ideas. The housekeeping money my parents were doing when I was young. The movie was filmed some ten miles from here.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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