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The Constant Nymph (novel)
''The Constant Nymph'' is a 1924 novel by Margaret Kennedy. It tells how a teenage girl falls in love with a family friend, who eventually marries her cousin. It explores the protagonists' complex family histories, focusing on class, education and creativity. Success The novel sold well from its first appearance, becoming the first novel of a genre sometimes called "Bohemianism, Bohemian". Much of its success was due to its then-shocking sexual content, describing scenes of adolescent sexuality and of noble savagery in the Austrian Tyrol (state), Tyrol. There is a complimentary allusion to the novel in the 1934 detective story ''The Nine Tailors'' by Dorothy L. Sayers. Fifteen-year-old Hilary tells her father she aspires to write novels: "Best sellers. The sort that everybody goes potty over. Not just bosh ones, but like ''The Constant Nymph''." Sayers includes a positive mention by two characters in her 1930 epistolary novel, ''The Documents in the Case''. Adaptations Margaret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Kennedy
Margaret Moore Kennedy (23 April 1896 – 31 July 1967) was an English novelist and playwright. Her most successful work, as a novel and as a play, was '' The Constant Nymph''. She was a productive writer and several of her works were filmed. Three of her novels were reprinted in 2011. Family and education Margaret Kennedy was born in Hyde Park Gate, London, the eldest of the four children of Charles Moore Kennedy (1857–1934), a barrister, and his wife Ellinor Edith Marwood (1861–1928). The novelist Joyce Cary was a cousin on her father's side. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she began writing, and then went up to Somerville College, Oxford, in 1915 to read History. Other literary contemporaries at Somerville College included Winifred Holtby, Vera Brittain, Hilda Reid, Naomi Mitchison and Sylvia Thompson. She also became close friends with the Welsh author Flora Forster. Her first publication was a history book, ''A Century of Revolution'' (1922). Kennedy w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Dean
Basil Herbert Dean CBE (27 September 1888 – 22 April 1978) was an English actor, writer, producer and director in the theatre and in cinema. He founded the Liverpool Repertory Company in 1911 and in the First World War, after organising unofficial entertainments for his comrades in the army, he was appointed do so officially. After the war he produced and directed mostly in the West End. He staged premieres of plays by writers including J. M. Barrie, Noël Coward, John Galsworthy, Harley Granville-Barker and Somerset Maugham. He produced nearly 40 films, and directed 16, mainly in the 1930s, with stars including Gracie Fields. Together with Leslie Henson, Dean set up and ran the Entertainments National Service Association, or ENSA, in 1939 to provide a wide range of entertainment for British armed forces personnel during the Second World War. After the war he resumed his West End career successfully but without regaining his pre-war dominance. Life and career Early years D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Constant Nymph (1943 Film)
''The Constant Nymph'' is a 1943 romantic drama film starring Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith, Brenda Marshall, Charles Coburn, May Whitty, and Peter Lorre.LIFE. "Movie of the Week: ''The Constant Nymph''" - August 2, 1943 - Page 38. It was adapted by Kathryn Scola from the 1924 novel of the same name by Margaret Kennedy and the 1926 play by Kennedy and Basil Dean and directed by Edmund Goulding. Plot Belgian composer Lewis Dodd's latest symphony has flopped. Seeking new inspiration, he travels to a Swiss chalet to visit his mentor, Albert Sanger, and his family. Sanger's four young daughtersKate, Toni, Tessa and Paulahave a crush on Dodd. Tessa, particularly, believes that someday, when she is old enough, he will recognize the depth of her affection for him. Lewis brings out his newest work, a symphonic poem called “Tomorrow,” which he has composed for the Sanger girls to play. Albert himself is far more pleased with this “trifle” than with Lewis’s noisy mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonora Corbett
Leonora Corbett (28 June 1908 – 29 July 1960) was an English actress, noted for her charm and elegance in stage roles, and for a number of films made in the 1930s. Life and career Corbett was born in London, the daughter of Richard Ashwin Corbett, and was educated at Oxford High School."Miss Leonora Corbett", ''The Times'', 2 August 1960, p. 10. On leaving school she studied dress designing for two years, but decided that she would prefer the stage. She made her debut in a small part at the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead in 1927, and spent a season with the Festival Theatre Company at Cambridge. In 1930–31 she was a member of the repertory company of the Everyman, where she played a dozen roles ranging from the classics to recent works by A. A. Milne and Noël Coward. Her West End debut was in November 1931 in ''Lady in Waiting'' by Harry Graham and Jacques Natanson. ''The Times'' praised the gaiety and charm of her performance. The film producer Michael Balcon recruited h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Aherne
William Brian de Lacy Aherne (2 May 190210 February 1986) was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States. His first Broadway appearance in ''The Barretts of Wimpole Street'' in 1931 teamed him with Katharine Cornell, with whom he appeared in many productions. In films, he played opposite Madeleine Carroll, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth and Carole Lombard, and was Oscar-nominated for his role as Emperor Maximilian in '' Juarez'' (1939). On TV, he appeared in ''The Twilight Zone'' episode, "The Trouble With Templeton", ''Wagon Train'' and '' Rawhide''. Early life and career Early life He was born in King's Norton, Worcestershire, the second and younger son of the architect William de Lacy Aherne and his wife Louise (née Thomas). His elder brother Pat Aherne was also an actor. Educated in Edgbaston, Birmingham, he received stage training at Italia Conti Academy in London as a ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Hopper
Victoria Hopper (24 May 1909 – 22 January 2007) was a Canadian-born British stage and film actress and singer. Biography Victoria Evelyn Hopper was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and brought up in North East England. She studied acting and singing at the Webber-Douglas School of Singing, and was talent spotted in a school production and cast in the title role in a West End play, ''Martine'' in 1933. She was at the peak of her popularity during the 1930s. She was married from August 1934 until 1939 to Basil Dean, a British stage and film writer, director and producer. Dean reportedly grew interested in Hooper due to her resemblance to a former lover of his, actress Meggie Albanesi (died 1923). Dean promoted Hopper's career and cast her as the leading lady in several major films for Associated Talking Pictures in the mid-1930s. However, the films did badly at the box office and her career waned. Two films she was scheduled to appear in, ''Grace Darling'' and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Farnum
Dorothy Farnum (10 June 1900 – 27 January 1970) was an American actress and screenwriter. She was noted for her work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the silent era and later in Britain during the 1930s. Career Farnum was the daughter of actor William Farnum and niece of Dustin Farnum. She was educated in a convent boarding school. She mastered French history and literature, and became fluent in Spanish and German. She acted in two movies released in 1915, ''The Cub'' and ''Over Night'', but she became famous for writing plays and novels and then turning them into screenplays. Her most popular screenplays were ''The Temptress'' (1926), ''Sinner or Saint'' (1923), and ''Bardelys the Magnificent'' (1926). ''Beau Brummel'' (1924) was very successful too. Most of her films were romantic dramas. When asked about her writing process, she remarked to the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 1926: "You must think with your heart and feel with your head. When I write my scenes I try hard to progress ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benita Hume
Benita Hume (14 October 1907 – 1 November 1967) was an English theatre and film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1925 and 1955. Life and career She was married to film actor Ronald Colman from 1938 to his death in 1958; they were the parents of a daughter, Juliet. She starred with Colman in both versions of the situation comedy ''The Halls of Ivy'', an NBC Radio programme (1950–1952) and a CBS Television show (1954–1955). She also made occasional guest appearances with her husband on ''The Jack Benny Show'' on radio, where the Colmans were portrayed as Benny's long-suffering next-door neighbours, a role they reprised once on his television show. After Ronald Colman's death, she married actor George Sanders in 1959 and they remained together until her death in 1967. Sanders originally was signed to play Sheridan Whiteside in the musical ''Sherry!'' but when Hume became terminally ill with cancer, he withdrew from the project.James Lipton. ''Inside In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mabel Poulton
Mabel Lilian Poulton (29 July 1901 – 21 December 1994) was an English film actress, popular in Britain during the era of silent films. Career Born in Bethnal Green, London, England, Poulton worked as a stenographer and entered films by chance. Her first role in George Pearson's ''Nothing Else Matters'' (1920) was opposite Betty Balfour, who was also making her debut, and the film was a success. Over the next several years, Poulton was cast in a succession of roles, and usually played feisty or mischievous characters. A petite blonde, she also became well regarded for her fashion style, and was a highly recognisable celebrity. In 1928, she starred in '' The Constant Nymph'' by Adrian Brunel and received excellent reviews for her performance. By the end of the decade, she was considered to be one of Britain's leading screen actresses along with Balfour, and was described by critics as Balfour's only serious rival. The advent of sound film brought a premature end to Poulto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a musical family, and his first successes were as a songwriter. His first big hit was " Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1914), which was enormously popular during the First World War. His 1917 show, ''Theodore & Co'', was a wartime hit. After the war, Novello contributed numbers to several successful musical comedies and was eventually commissioned to write the scores of complete shows. He wrote his musicals in the style of operetta and often composed his music to the libretti of Christopher Hassall. In the 1920s he turned to acting, first in British films and then on stage, with considerable success in both. He starred in two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, '' The Lodger'' and ''Downhill'' (both 1927). On stage, he played the title charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alma Reville
Alma Lucy Reville, Lady Hitchcock (14 August 1899 – 6 July 1982), was an English director, editor, and screenwriter. She was the wife of the film director Alfred Hitchcock. She collaborated on scripts for her husband's films, including ''Shadow of a Doubt, Suspicion'', and ''The Lady Vanishes'', as well as scripts for other directors, including Henrik Galeen, Maurice Elvey, and Berthold Viertel. Early life and career Reville was born on 14 August 1899 in Nottingham (one day after her future husband), the second daughter of Matthew Edward and Lucy () Reville. The family moved to London when Reville was young, as her father gained a job at Twickenham Film Studios. Reville often visited her father at work and eventually obtained a job there as a tea girl. At 16, she was promoted to the position of cutter, which involved assisting directors in editing the motion pictures. Of editing, she wrote, "The art of cutting is Art indeed, with a capital A, and is of far greater importance t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrian Brunel
Adrian Brunel (4 September 1892 – 18 February 1958) was an English film director and screenwriter. Brunel's directorial career started in the silent era, and reached its peak in the latter half of the 1920s. His surviving work from the 1920s, both full-length feature films and shorts, is highly regarded by silent film historians for its distinctive innovation, sophistication and wit. With the arrival of talkies, Brunel's career ground to a halt and he was absent from the screen for several years before returning in the mid-1930s with a flurry of quota quickie productions, the majority of which are now classed as lost. Brunel's last credit as director was in a 1940 comedy film, although he worked for a few years more as a "fixer-up" for films directed or produced by friends in the industry. After decades of neglect, Brunel's work has latterly been rediscovered and has undergone a critical re-evaluation. His lost films are eagerly sought, and the British Film Institute includes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
