Nell Gwyn

As kids we were taught about Nell Gwynn at school albeit skirting around the true nature of her relationship with Charles II It s hard to belive that this film was made almost a century ago with the kind of cheeky postcard humour that could be described as the seed of "carry on"

Anna Neagle is as much a british treasure as the monarchy itself or at least she was. Sadly only viewers of a certain vintage will be aware of just how influential she was to British cinema and her versatility is as wide ranging as the characters she plays.

Ive just rewatched this at 6am and it's put a smile on my face to start what is going to be a long hard day.

Sadly as it's black and white and 90 + years old most people will dismiss it out of hand however, if they give it a chance it may well surprise them.

This vehicle for the talents (such as they were) of the adorable young Anna Neagle is surprisingly specific about orange-seller Nell Gwynn's rise to power as the favorite mistress of Charles II. Although the bawdy laugh and swagger affected by pure-as-snow Anna portraying little Nell is somewhat unconvincing, the film is fast moving and loads of fun. No Hollywood moral ending here.

In the wake of Alexander Korda's worldwide hit with 'The Private Life of Henry VIII', the hunt was on for rollicking stories about monarchs' love affairs. Herbert Wilcox had filmed King Charles II's dalliance with the orange seller and actress Nell Gwyn ten years before, as a silent starring Dorothy Gish. The tale was an old dramatic chestnut, partly because it was set in London's theatreland, Covent Garden: for instance, Claude Rains's debut as a boy actor had been in 'Nell of Old Drury'. Wilcox rushed his protege Anna Neagle into their fifth collaboration as Ms Gwynn, daughter of a jailbird father and drunken mother who was one of the first women to win fame on the stage-- when such ladies were seen as little better than prostitutes. (The new release 'Stage Beauty' gives the background.)

The future Dame Anna was still gamine and skittish, not yet the stately heroine of Wilcox's post-war 'London' movies. Born into poverty in the East End, she had been a chorine, and Wilcox gives her two long dance sequences. When she sings the song that first attracts the King, she is more like a music hall billtopper such as Marie Lloyd than a Restoration beauty. Nell's 'merry monarch', Cedric Hardwicke, who had won renown as an interpreter of Bernard Shaw, is accordingly stronger on cynical wit than passionate captivation; but he gives as good as he gets in their rollicking exchanges. Newly knighted, barely 40, Hardwicke gives the modest but not tatty production its touch of class.

The core of the narrative is Nell's rivalry with his French mistress, who accuses her of treachery. It unfolds between the Drury Lane Theatre, where Nell is in her performing element, and at the Court, where she is snubbed by disdainful aristos until Charles II ostentatiously bestows his favour on her. They remain together for almost 20 years and we do not see the downbeat end of the story: her slide into poverty, despite the King's deathbed injunction to his brother and successor: 'Let not poor Nelly starve'.

There is no sense of greater events beyond the intrigues, but the film is fairly true to the spirit if not the letter of history. Charles was unique among English kings in having lived an outlaw's and exile's life after his father's execution. He mingled with poor folk and sometimes had to disguise himself as one. None ever betrayed him for a reward. That may well have left him with a jaded view of the upper crust and a taste for rougher company.

Like most early-1930s talkies, the sound is tinny, with a lack of bass resonance in the music and dead spots between dialogue where the director could not be bothered to dub on background noises. Performances seem framed by an invisible proscenium arch-- Wilcox's camera-work was never as fluid as Korda's-- but the theatrical style of the West End cast works better than in most films of the period. After all, half the film is set backstage, and the other half is at a royal court never so ritual and artificial (or as licentious) as in the Restoration period. Charles II was contemporary with Louis XIV of Versailles and had to live life like a play.

Alas, Wilcox could not get wide distribution in the States. America had just set up the Hays Office to purge impurities from movies. 'Nell Gwynn' was suspect because she was not married to her Charles: an ahistorical scene showing a secret wedding had to be inserted. Anna's cleavage caused more trouble, ten years before Margaret Lockwood's in 'The Wicked Lady'. And the dialogue was too bawdy for the censors. Words such as 'trollop' and 'strumpet' and sexual innuendos flow freely. A maid calls the French rival a 'dirty, wicked, shameless, scheming foreign whore' and Nell answers: 'We must be fair to her. She can't help being foreign.'

All this was twenty years before Preminger was forbidden to use the word 'virgin' in 'The Moon is Blue'. It would be 1939 before Wilcox and Neagle got the call to Hollywood.

I opted to check this out after I realized that I had a number of films dealing with the life and times of British King Charles II (a character, albeit prior to his occupying the throne, around whom the recently-viewed THE MOONRAKER {1958} revolves); incidentally, I was under the impression that the surname of the titular figure had an extra 'n' at the end – which made it difficult for me to locate its entry on IMDb! Furthermore, it transpired that the copy I acquired – albeit sourced from the official R2 DVD edition – ran for a mere 72 minutes (in PAL mode) against the official 86!

The film was obviously proposed as a vehicle for leading lady Anna Neagle – who, as it happened, was director Wilcox's spouse and one of Britain's top stars of her time. She plays an orange-seller (though often mentioned, she is never shown peddling this trade!) and stage actress who catches the eye of the King (played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke – managing, in spite of the nature of the role, to largely eschew the cheerlessness that marks much of his work!), openly becoming his mistress even though he is officially betrothed to a haughty French Duchess! The two women's sparring for royal attention takes up much of the running-time (with the noblewoman even maneuvering to make Nell look like she is playing Hardwicke for a fool by inventing a liaison with Hay Petrie as the ambassador of her own country!) – but the result is certainly good-looking (this being an early assignment for celebrated cinematographer Freddie Young) and professionally enough assembled to rise above "woman's picture" fare. That said, just as prominent are the musical numbers (that smack rather more of 20th century music-halls than Restoration-era England!) in which audiences – the King included! – enthusiastically join in.

The plot traces the central relationship to its bitter end, when Nell (having already suffered the ignominy of being looked down upon by the aristocracy) is barred from sharing the King's final moments (while the Duchess sensibly flees the scene of her own accord) and leaves the royal quarters alone. Even so, her earthy background – which sees her rubbing elbows daily with scarred but pensionless war veterans (among whom, presumably, is Will Hay regular Moore Marriott…but I sure did not recognize him!) – leads her to instigate a reform of this kind, shown via superimposed footage of the institution concerned as it stood in 1934! By the way, the script is credited as only having "additional dialogue" by Miles Malleson (here also playing one of Hardwicke's closest collaborators) – with the majority supplied by the characters themselves (including MP Samuel Pepys, with the narrative appearing as though it were 'torn' from his personal diary)! For the record, I have a number of other Neagle/Wilcox efforts in my collection – among which is her second turn as Queen Victoria in SIXTY GLORIOUS YEARS (1938), which I may just get to in the current Easter epic marathon...

Nell Gwyn is raucous bawdy historical drama about the restoration period actress who became the mistress of King Charles II (Cedric Hardwicke.)

Anna Neagle gives a cheeky and spirited performance as Nell. She wins the heart of the monarch and offends his other French born mistress who Nell constantly pokes fun at.

Hardwicke gives a dignified performance as the King. A leader of a nation that is bankrupt and a few years earlier, divided.

I can sense that Nell Gwyn would had censorship problems when it was first released. Neagle plays Nell very much as a good time girl with a ready wit, she displays a lot of cleavage and unconcerned about her upbringing.

It becomes a tender lover story at the end. Part of the story has been inspired by Samuel Pepys diaries. Although it takes liberties with the truth, this is an interesting British film of the period.