Curtain Up

Margaret Rutherford as a woman who has written a play under a man's name comes to the first rehearsals of her play. Robert Morley is the reluctant director and they have perfect chemistry, and genuinely witty lines to go with it. They spar over details, and the repertory company cast at the obscure theatre they are playing in join in. As for the actors who play the actors Olive Sloane stands out; an ageing actor who once knew success and resigns herself to a life that she had not hoped for. Kay Kendall also stands out, and in just a few scenes made me want to beg for more, and long before this film British Cinema should have begged for more. ' Genevieve ' another great comedy made her a household name and her brief life allowed her to make other fine films and I for one still miss her. As for the rest of the cast they are all perfect in their parts, and as actors playing actors they are utterly convincing. The whole film concentrates on rehearsals of a mediocre play, and no more spoilers. British repertory theatre ( a play each week ) has long since gone, so this cinematic experience of how important and touching they were is a history lesson in itself. A Perfect gem that is well worth watching out for.

Slight romantic comedy about the dress rehearsal of a fairly dire amateur play, interspersed with the complicated love lives of members of the cast. An inconsequential piece of froth, but watchable for splendid performances from Margaret Rutherford as the playwright and Robert Morley as the producer who tries to bring his version of dramatic sense into Rutherford's incomprehensible and unactable plot. When Morley falls into the pit and is injured, Rutherford takes over. All ably supported by a reliable cast of regulars from British movies. It has to be said though that it's all a bit stagey (for a movie) and Rattigan did it better

It's a third-rate local repertory house when the 'professionals' are people who had a crack at the West End...and failed. Now the company is asked to premiere a new play by Margaret Rutherford, the aunt of one of the producers. It is a horrid thing, full of bad dialogue and hackneyed situations, and the main producer of the theater, Robert Morley, has to gnash his teeth and make something of it, mostly by telling Miss Rutherford to cut out nine-tenths of the first act and write a new one in thirty minutes.

It's certainly fun to watch these two go at it, hammer and tongs, but the play within the play really is that bad, and gives the movie's audience little to sink its teeth into. The self-painted portraits of the other members of the company are sad little affairs. As a result, we are left with Mr. Morley and Miss Rutherford. They're certainly always worth watching.

Curtain Up is one of my favourite British films of all time. It contains so many wonderful British actors - Robert Morley, Margaret Rutherford (who repeated their coupling in the original Miss Marple films) and Michael Medwin, and of course, Kay Kendall. The story is simple but oh so English and delights in its old fashioned charm.

This film does not appear to have been released on VHS or DVD and only very occasionally appears on TV. I taped it many years ago, but the family have wiped it and I am longing for it to appear again. Anything with the adorable Margaret Rutherford is worth watching and this film is a little gem.

Yes the love interest bit between two of te characters is tacked on. Yes it is rather small and cramped in it's setting. But this picture is great fun.

Margaret Rutherford does what she does best, and watching this film I couldn't help but lament at the current lack of any good female character actors. Women who are over 40 and don't mind showing it.

I loved this film, as much for it's humour, which is as funny today as it was then, as for the gorgeous touch of nostalgia it inspired. Surprising considering i was not even thought of in 1953 and i am not english.

See it it's fun, unoffensive and unashamably silly.