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After the Ball is a 1957 British biographical film directed by Compton Bennett and starring Pat Kirkwood, Laurence Harvey and Jerry Stovin.[1][2] It portrays the life of the stage performer Vesta Tilley.[3]
| After the Ball | |
|---|---|
.jpg) trade ad from Kinematograph Weekly | |
| Directed by | Compton Bennett |
| Written by | Peter Blackmore Hubert Gregg |
| Produced by | Peter Rogers |
| Starring | Pat Kirkwood Laurence Harvey Jerry Stovin |
| Cinematography | Jack Asher |
| Edited by | Peter Boita |
| Music by | Ken Jones (Uncredited) Eric Rogers (Uncredited) |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Independent Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Cast
edit- Pat Kirkwood as Vesta Tilley
- Laurence Harvey as Walter de Frece
- Jerry Stovin as Frank Tanhill
- Jerry Verno as Harry Ball
- Clive Morton as Henry de Frece
- Marjorie Rhodes as Bessie
- Leonard Sachs as Richard Warner
- Ballard Berkeley as Andrews
- June Clyde as Lottie Gibson
- Charles Victor as stagehand
- Tom Gill as manager
- Peter Carlisle as Oscar Hammerstein
- George Margo as Tony Pastor
- Mark Baker as George M. Cohan
- Terry Cooke as Dan Leno Jr
- Barbara Roscoe as Patricia
- Margaret Sawyer as Little Tilley
Production
editIt was made at Beaconsfield Studios with sets designed by the art director Norman G. Arnold.
Critical reception
editThe Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The problems of recreating on the screen the life of great artists is a constant one. On the one hand it is impossible to convey directly the quality of their artistic achievement; on the other hand it is difficult, without extravagant fictionalisation, to find much drama in a life so unsensational as that of Vesta Tilley (1864–1952). ...Pat Kirkwood performs Vesta Tilley's songs well and wears male costume with rare success; though she can hardly capture the quality Grein described: "Her face was like a city in illumination". Tame and artless though the film in general is, Pat Kirkwood's performance, the shameless sentimentality, the associations with the great music-hall days and above all, the marvellous old songs carry it along quite well."[4]
TV Guide gave the film two out of four stars, and wrote, "(Pat) Kirkwood puts zest into the rousing music-hall numbers that made Tilley an enduring star, but the script trudges on and the wait between musical moments may not be worth the reward. It's incomprehensible how director Compton Bennett and writers Hubert Gregg and Peter Blackmore could have made such a yawn out of such a good true story."[5]
References
edit- ^ "After the Ball". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
- ^ "After The Ball (1957)". BFI. Archived from the original on 15 April 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
- ^ "After the Ball (1953) - Compton Bennett - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie".
- ^ "After the Ball". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 24 (276): 99. 1 January 1957 – via ProQuest.
- ^ "After The Ball".
External links
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