The Noel Coward Collection (BBC)

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Actor: Noel Coward
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 1183 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner

DVD Reviews of The Noel Coward Collection (BBC)

DVD Review: A Talent To Amuse
Summary: 5 Stars

The Coward Collection is a generous serving of the Master's works, principally culled from BBC production of the late 1970's and 1980's. If some of the productions are showing their age, there is still much to enjoy. Hay Fever, one of the earliest and funniest plays, received a curiously static and slow-moving treatment with a stellar cast valiantly battling the direction. Present Laughter is a filmed stage production with the redoubtable Donald Sinden in full mugging mode: but he nails the laughs.Cutaways to the audience are irritating, but possible were used as editing points. Ian Holm and Judi Dench in Mr. & Mrs. Edgehill, Tom Courtenay in Me And The Girls, Margaret Leighton in The Vortex (wildly melodramatic but undeniably powerful): there is much to treasure. Highly recommended.

DVD Review: A Wonderful Set - but
Summary: 5 Stars

I was not disappointed in this wonderful set and watched most of it in three days only to find that Disc 5 was missing. Anxiously, awaiting replacement set.

DVD Review: Absolutely Indispensible
Summary: 5 Stars

If you ever doubted that Noel Coward was a great writer, then buy this collection and be persuaded. Glittering productions of most of his masterpieces, with splendid casts. I missed BLITHE SPIRIT, but I guess you can't have everything (it is represented, however, in a radio production).

The collection as a whole is a rave, but I do want to single out a few of my personal favorites: Penelope Keith, who stars in both HAY FEVER and PRIVATE LIVES, is a particular standout; she has the Coward style absolutely to a "T." Rula Lenska (who achieved fame here in the 1970s when she did a series of commercials for Alberto VO5 hairspray) is lusciously luminous in DESIGN FOR LIVING. Joan Collins's anthology series TONIGHT AT 8:30 presents eight of Coward's famous (and not-so-famous but still worthy) one-acts, in perfect productions -- including fine, vanity-free performances from Collins herself that will give you a new respect for her. I could go on an on; suffice to say every item in this 7-disc collection is worth seeing, and many of them are unforgettable.

The package isn't flawless; some of the (audio only) radio productions are difficult to access, and the radio PRIVATE LIVES doesn't play in the proper order -- if you don't know the play you'll be awfully confused listening to it (better watch the superb production with Ms. Keith and Alec McCowen first, just to familiarize yourself).

All of these productions are British TV productions from the 1970s and '80s that, as far as I know, were never broadcast in the U.S., so every disc is a revelation. If you are a fan of Noel Coward, or theater, or great sophisticated comedy, you absolutely cannot be without this superb collection. It's an embarrassment of riches.

And best of all, as great as this set is, enough of Coward's career is left untouched to supply an equally lavish Volume Two. So how about it, BBC...?

DVD Review: Noel Coward - a great collection
Summary: 5 Stars

This is so terrific, I bought 2 copies - one for our university library, and one for a friend's birthday. Great plays, by a great playwright, featuring great actors - who could ask for more?

DVD Review: The Noel Coward Collection (BBC Video)
Summary: 1 Stars

The plays and radio plays chosen were generally interesting -- even if more variety rather than sometimes the play and radio version of the same thing on the same disk. But the engineering and production was an abomination. The acts of "Private Lives" on radio were out of order, and the third act of "Blithe Spirit" was left out entirely. In addition, the disks were frequently flawed enough so that they stopped and skipped. It was a nice idea, but the production is bad enough to make us wary of purchasing any BBC Video productions.

Description of The Noel Coward Collection (BBC)

No???Coward was a master playwright whose prodigious talent dominated the theatre of the 1920s & 30s. "The Vortex" made him an immediate hit and controversial sensation. "Hay Fever," "Private Lives," and "Design for Living" are as popular today as when they were first performed. His series of one-acts "Tonight at 8:30" which he performed with Gertrude Lawrence have become a treasure trove for modern theater companies. This collection features star-studded BBC productions of Coward's full-length plays, one-acts and short stories plus bonus features including several radio plays, interviews and profiles of Coward. It's a must own collection for lovers of great theatre!

DVD Features:
Interviews
Other

Are you a bust at parties? Dull? Can never think of just the thing to say until everyone has gone home? Watch any of these classic Noel Coward plays, one-act playlets, or dramatized short stories, and soon you'll be regaling your guests with such ripping bon mots as, "She's one of the few actresses living who can be dressed by Schiaparelli and looks as if she had been upholstered by Maples." Okay, we may not get it, but doesn't it just fizz with sophistication? Noel Coward was a true Renaissance man, a celebrated, playwright, composer, author, and actor. To quote the title of one of his biographies, he had A Talent to Amuse. But in his most enduring works, he found "genuine emotion under the gloss." This gala, more than 19-hour, seven-disc box set (plus more than 12 hours of bonus audio interviews, musical performances, speeches, and radio plays) immerses viewers in Coward's vanished urbane world, where formidable and fascinating characters are often caught between their natural instincts and the laws of society. Take Gilda, Otto, and Leo, who, flout convention by living as three in the quintessential Coward play, Design for Living (1979). Or the bohemian Bliss family, whose members each, independently, invite a guest up for a very chaotic weekend in Hay Fever (1984). Or monstrously self-absorbed actor Garry Essendine, who frantically keeps dewy-eyed admirers, an ex-wife, and a persistent playwright at bay in Present Laughter (1981). Or Amanda and Elyot, a divorced couple reunited on their respective honeymoons in Private Lives (1976).

These farcical comedies of bad manners, all among Coward's most popular, are "jagged with sophistication" and effervescent with "easy, swift dialogue." But it's not all gay banter and cocktails. The Vortex (1969), the once-controversial play that put Coward on the map, is anything but a laughing matter. The Noel Coward Collection is rich with "small and large enchantments." The productions, originally broadcast on the BBC, cannot be said to be definitive, but they are each tastefully mounted (only Present Laughter is marred by intrusive shots of a live theatre audience), and for the most part, superbly acted. Penelope Keith (To the Manor Born) is splendid as the tempestuous Amanda in Private Lives and the theatrical Judith Bliss in Hay Fever. Joan Collins acquits herself admirably in Tonight at 8:30 (1991), a series of eight one-act plays that range from light comedy to tragedy. Other casting coups include Paul Scofield and Deborah Kerr in A Song at Twilight (1982) about a successful writer, his former lover, and a secret she threatens to reveal, and Judi Dench and Ian Holm as Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill (1985), a wartime drama. This marvelously entertaining anthology is an embarrassment of riches and essential for theatre buffs or anyone looking for an oasis of smart and cultured entertainment in a Superbad world. --Donald Liebenson

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