Daddy Nostalgia (1990)

At the start of this heartwarming drama set in the French Riviera, Dirk Bogarde's character has just had a serious heart operation. His wife is worried about how he will fair after the surgery, and asks daughter Caroline (Jane Birkin) to come from Paris to help for awhile. In a private spat with her mother,  Caroline asks why she is always called upon instead of her sister whenever there is a family emergency. Her mother replies: "because she's in Quebec".

When Daddy comes home to recuperate, Caroline - a writer - ultimately grows closer to her father. And as the title suggests, this movie is very nostalgic, filled with flashbacks and memories of Caroline's childhood years and how she remembers her father.

It's an often-emotional film about an adult daughter and her ailing father, touching on issues dealing with life and death. It is a pleasure to watch Mr Bogarde perform in this, his final film. The film is dedicated to director Michael Powell, who passed away when the film was released.

This French-produced film is half in English and half in French; the actors - fluent in both - often switch from one language to the next. Available on DVD.

The Password is Courage (1962)

Charlie Coward on the set of
The Password Is Courage,
with Dirk Bogarde, who played him
in the film

I first heard about this movie from Kate's site devoted to Dirk Bogarde and thought I might like it, the story of a British soilder's numerous attempts to escape a German POW camp during WW2.  Watching Bogarde and his fellow offers outsmart the Nazis is just as fun as watching William Holden and the rest of the boys of Stalag 17 (1953). Like that film (one of my favorites ever), Courage has a similiar tone in that it is a partial comedy with some very suspenseful moments, including several train crashes and a prison camp set ablaze. However, this film is based on a true story of  Charlie Coward, who served as techinical advisor on the film. Reportedly much of the action was fictionalized for dramatic purposes, but he did recount many of his experiences in his book, which I have not read.

The ending of the film features an exciting escape sequence.  And I love the scene in the beginning of the film where Bogarde hides out in a barn and is mistaken for a wounded Nazi soilder. He's then awarded a medal by the Nazis - and this really happened! The poster for the film read: "The Only Man Ever Awarded the Iron Cross - by the Enemy!"

One thing that should be noted: the film leaves out some of the most heroic episodes of Charles' life. Towards the end of the war, he was actually shipped to the Monowitz concentration camp in Poland, and eventually saved the lives of hundreds of Jews (this alone would make for a great film).

Coward has a tree planted in his honour in the Avenue of Righteous Gentiles in Yad Vashem. I've been to Yad Vashem and have seen these trees, but I didn't know about all that Coward did, nor of his book/film. I did see the tree planted in honor of Oscar Schindler. And just last year, Coward was posthumously named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government (read article).

The Password is Courage is an inspiring movie and great entertainment; I highly recommened it. You can occasionally catch it playing on the Turner Classics channel.

Thanks Kate for the copy of the DVD!

The Patricia Neal Story (1981, Made-for-TV)

My favorite film starring Patricia Neal (b. 1926) is The Subject Was Roses (1968). In my opinion, she delivers one of the finest film performances of the decade.

Roses was her "comeback film" role.

In between Hud (1963, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar) and Roses, Ms. Neal suffered three life threatening aneurysms, all in 1965.

She was pregnant at the time, and was even filming a movie, John Ford's 7 Women. (Anne Bancroft stepped in to fill her role in the picture).

In this fine biographical TV-film (first televised in the United States in December 1981), the actress' rehabilitation process is portrayed. Pat had to learn how to walk and speak -- and to live -- again after her coma. If you watch the film, be prepared to be moved by Glenda Jackson's (b. 1936) remarkable, Emmy-nominated performance.

Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999) also gives an intense performance as her supportive and loving husband, British writer Roald Dahl, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his moving portrayal. And if the name Roald Dahl sounds familiar, it is because he wrote the original "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", which was just adapted into a stop-motion animated film last year and is up for an Oscar this weekend.

Television actress and model ("All My Children") Sydney Penny, only 10 years old at the time, plays one of their daughters.

Veteran character actress Mildred "Millie" Dunnock (1901-1991), a friend of Ms. Neal's in real life, portrays herself in the film, in a very candid performance which required her to play herself as she felt at the time: scared, and at times, hopeless.

It's an emotional film. In one scene, after Pat is released from the hospital, she's back at home recovering and is watching the Oscars, longing to be there in person to present.

The film, though inspiring, is also somewhat bittersweet in hindsight: Neal and Dahl divorced in 1983 (after thirty years) due to his infidelity.

Ms. Neal, now age 84, continues to act and make public appearances.