Frail, and looking older than his years, Laurence Olivier had been hamming it up or phoning it in on recent projects (JAZZ SINGER; CLASH OF THE TITANS; INCHON . . . Yikes!) before getting a supporting role worth his time & talent in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. Adapted in 1981 from the Evelyn Waugh novel by John Mortimer of ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’ fame, it likely led to Olivier’s next part, playing Mortimer’s eccentric dad in this father/son memoir. Largely filmed at the Mortimer estate in Oxfordshire (very nicely, too, by longtime Merchant/Ivory lenser Tony Pierce-Roberts), it’s something of a diary piece for Mortimer, wonderfully played by Alan Bates, as he reviews his difficult relationship from boyhood on, to Olivier as his barrister dad, accidentally blinded as an adult, yet largely ignoring his condition & limitations. If anything, using them to get away with some pretty atrocious, if often very funny, behavior. Olivier’s health at the time make some scenes difficult for him, but he’s largely on top of things. (Alec Guinness played the role on stage and it’s fun to imagine a less combustible approach.) And though the focus generally holds to father-and-son, as well as to wife & daughter-in-law, some of the funniest bits focus on Public School days, including a real lulu ‘facts-of-life' discussion from Michael Aldridge’s plummy headmaster. (All about how to avoid unwelcome advances when being offered tea & cake!) Not unexpectedly, we’ll discover a sentimental heart behind Dad’s gruff exterior, but the film & characters stay reasonably flinty & honest. It’s good stuff in a minor key.
DOUBLE-BILL: Mortimer’s credits are long & broad (THE INNOCENTS/’61; BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING/’65; TEA WITH MUSSOLINI/’99), but RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY/’78 - 92 always comes first, and manages the rare feat of improving as it goes along. Especially when Marion Mathie takes over as the missus to Leo McKern’s immortal Rumpole in Season 4.
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