''Dulcima'' is a 1971 British
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by Frank Nesbitt. It was entered into the
21st Berlin International Film Festival
The 21st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 26 June – 6 July 1971. The ''Young Filmmakers Forum'' (in 1987 renamed ''International Forum for New Cinema'') section was introduced at the festival. The Golden Bear was awarded ...
.
The story revolves around a
love triangle
A love triangle or eternal triangle is a scenario or circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing or involved in a romantic relationship with one person, or in which one person in a romantic relationship with so ...
: a farmer, his housekeeper and the handsome neighbour.
Plot
Dulcima Gaskain (
Carol White
Carole Joan White (1 April 1943 – 16 September 1991) was an English actress.
She achieved a public profile with her performances in the television play ''Cathy Come Home'' (1966) and the films ''Poor Cow'' (1967) and '' I'll Never Forg ...
) is the oldest daughter of a large, poor
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
farming family. Rescuing a drunken farmer, Mr Parker (
John Mills
Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portray ...
) who has fallen and cut his head, she discovers his hat is stuffed with cash, and inveigles him to hire her as a housekeeper by voluntarily cleaning his filthy, chicken-ridden house. Her motivation is partly to escape her tyrannical father (
Bernard Lee
John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from t ...
) and mother, who treat her as a skivvy and unpaid child-minder and verbally abuse her.
Parker's sexual interest in Dulcima deepens after she arrives for work in a revealing outfit. A widower, he invites her to become his live-in housekeeper. Dulcima accepts but keeps him at arm's length by creating a fictitious boyfriend, 'Albert', inspired by a male model she has seen in a magazine.
Showing off, Parker introduces Dulcima to his crooked dealings at the local livestock auction. As her employment continues he neglects to pay her. She however keeps a careful tally of money he owes her. The relationship becomes one of mutual deceit as well as mutual convenience.
Parker tries to spy on Dulcima as she bathes, and later invites her to join him for a beer in the parlour, but she excuses herself. Now knowing that he has a lot of cash stowed away, she begins to coquettishly encourage his increasingly lustful interest, from time to time reminding him he owes her wages, but he always deflects the demand.
Dulcima meets Ashby, a young gamekeeper who resembles 'Albert' her fantasy boyfriend (both are played by
Stuart Wilson). When Parker spots Ashby rounding up pheasants which have strayed onto his farm he fears that 'Albert' is spying on him and Dulcima. She plays on this jealousy and paranoia.
To try to get Parker to pay her what she is owed she pretends to be packing to leave. Panicked at this prospect, Parker offers to pay, and she claims £40 rather than the £20 or so she is really entitled to. Parker agrees but tries to trick her with only £15. This payment is explicitly linked with her letting him sleep with her (she later takes the £25 shortfall from his secret cash tin). Thereafter there are several dialogue references to sexual favours as 'little extras' that must be paid for−. She spends money on fashionable clothes, make-up and shoes; Parker is impressed by her transformation and begins to lessen his miserliness.
Dulcima goes to visit Ashby. They are clearly interested in each other.
Parker decides to ask Dulcima to marry him but having met Ashby she asks for time to consider. In attempts to persuade her Parker buys a TV set so that they will have something to do on winters evenings when they are married, and 'reveals' the hoard of cash she already knows about.
In town, we see Parker untypically cheerful and benevolent at the market while Dulcima spots Ashby there and purposely gets the same bus home as he does. That evening, Parker has bought himself a new suit and a wedding dress for Dulcima but, distracted, she doesn't unbox it, instead telling Parker she is going out to visit her family. Suspicious, he follows her and sees her meet Ashby in a field, kiss him and head off toward his house (Parker still thinks this is "Albert"). Ashby and Dulcima go dancing. Parker gets drunk and becomes violent and abusive when she returns. She says she will leave in the morning and locks herself in her room. Parker smashes the living room furniture, including the new TV, and tears up the unwanted wedding dress, then remorsefully pleads forgiveness through her locked bedroom door. She remains silent.
In the final scene Dulcima next morning sees Ashby come into the farmyard through her bedroom window. Coming downstairs she finds both the ruined wedding dress and a wedding ring in a box. There is no sign of Parker. Joining Ashby outside, she tearfully tells him she cannot go with him as she is too worried about Parker. Before Ashby can react, Parker shoots him dead from an attic window.
Throughout the film, Duclima never calls the farmer anything other than 'Mr Parker', even after he has proposed to her.
Cast
*
Carol White
Carole Joan White (1 April 1943 – 16 September 1991) was an English actress.
She achieved a public profile with her performances in the television play ''Cathy Come Home'' (1966) and the films ''Poor Cow'' (1967) and '' I'll Never Forg ...
as Dulcima Gaskain
*
John Mills
Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portray ...
as Mr. Parker
*
Stuart Wilson as Ashby the gamekeeper and as the male model in a knitting pattern advertisement
*
Bernard Lee
John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from t ...
as Dulcima's father
*
Sheila Raynor
Sheila Raynor (15 March 190617 February 1998) was a British actress. She appeared in Jack Clayton's adaptation of '' Room at the Top''. One of her notable roles was that of Alex's (Malcolm McDowell) mother in ''A Clockwork Orange
''A Clockwork ...
as Dulcima's mother
*
Dudley Foster
Frank Dudley Foster (7 August 1924 – 8 January 1973) was an English actor who regularly appeared in television roles.
Foster was born in Brighouse, West Riding of Yorkshire. His family had established links with the theatre and a brother an ...
as Symes, Parker's partner-in-crime at the livestock auction
*
Cyril Cross
Cyril Cross was an English actor, who is best known for playing ''Monsieur Chargon'' in '' A Patriotic Offering '' of the first episode of the fourth series of the period drama '' Upstairs, Downstairs''. It first aired on 14 September 1974 on ...
as Harris
Production
The story was taken from a
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
of the same name by
H. E. Bates
Herbert Ernest Bates (16 May 1905 – 29 January 1974), better known as H. E. Bates, was an English writer. His best-known works include ''Love for Lydia'', '' The Darling Buds of May'', and '' My Uncle Silas''.
Early life
H.E. Bates was ...
which was published in the 1954 collection ''The Nature of Love''.
The Canadian television film ''
Dulcima
''Dulcima'' is a 1971 British drama film directed by Frank Nesbitt. It was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival. The story revolves around a love triangle: a farmer, his housekeeper and the handsome neighbour.
Plot
Dulcima G ...
'' (1969) was based on the same novella, with the setting transferred to a small town in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
.
In 1969,
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2013 an ...
was appointed head of production at EMI Films. ''Dulcima'' was announced as part of his initial slate of productions with John Mills and Frank Nesbitt attached from the beginning.
Filming
The bulk of the film was shot on location on a farm, over the summer in and around
Minchinhampton
Minchinhampton is an ancient Cotswolds market town in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, South West England. The town is located on a hilltop, south-east of Stroud. The common offers wide views over the Severn Estuary into Wales and furth ...
and
Tetbury
Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...
in Gloucestershire. Shooting was plagued by rain.
Other versions
In 1982
Nica Burns
Lounica Maureen Patricia "Nica" Burns OBE (born August 1954) is a London theatre producer and co-owner with her business partner Max Weitzenhoffer of the Nimax Theatres group, comprising six West End theatres: the Palace, Lyric, Apollo, Ga ...
adapted the show for the stage.
[Review: ARTS: Stage presence: For nearly 30 years Nica Burns has run the Edinburgh festival comedy awards -Dickson, Andrew. The Guardian 27 Aug 2011: 14.]
References
External links
*
Dulcimaat Letterbox DVD
Dulcimaat BFI
Dulcimaat
TCMDB
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dulcima
1971 films
1971 drama films
British drama films
Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios
Films about farmers
Films about infidelity
Films based on short fiction
Films set in Gloucestershire
Films shot in Gloucestershire
Films scored by Johnny Douglas
EMI Films films
Murder in films
1970s English-language films
1970s British films