(Minor spoilers for second half)
This film was an unexpected pleasure! I went to see it because it was billed as effectively a 'Greatest Hits' compilation from Anna Neagle, allowing me to sample some of her famous roles without first needing to sit through all the relevant films. But "Lilacs in the Spring" not only proves to be a charming historical cavalcade - it also manages what, for my money, neither "Irene" nor "The Three Maxims" had been able to achieve. In additional to demonstrating Anna's technical facility, it reaches true emotional depth in the second half and finally brought me to care about the characters.
Anna supplies a variety of distinctive accents and characterisations to her multiple heroines: spry Nell Gwyn, demure Victoria, down-to-earth Carole in wartime, and, in her most sophisticated part, the ingenue Lillian Grey who becomes a brittle showbusiness celebrity. Jennifer Mitchell provides a masterly echo of Carole's adolescent self, in a performance that had me convinced at the time I was watching Anna Neagle herself in yet another quick-change role.... But it is Errol Flynn, of all people - well past the zenith of his career and his looks - who is a revelation in this film as beefy music-hall star 'Beau' Beaumont.
For the man can act. One forgets it, beneath the charm and the heroics and the famous sidelong grin. Watching him as Beau, florid actor eclipsed by his rising young wife, it dawned on me I was witnessing something it never occurred to me to imagine - Errol Flynn playing Norman Maine. (Why, oh why, didn't he..?)
Frankly, the thickened body and lined face don't matter. It's not the character he once used to play, but someone entirely different - but the charisma is as high-octane as ever, and it's easy to see how he sweeps his young co-star off her feet. He duly sings and dances, as advertised, and turns in a creditable performance in each - though fortunately the action of the film doesn't require him to be claimed to excel - but it is in the acting stakes that he more than earns his headline billing for what is, on the face of it, a relatively minor part in Anna Neagle's showcase plot.
Back in his 'Robin Hood' days, I was surprised to find myself admiring his expressive features as much as his athletic form. Twenty years later, Flynn can still play the subtleties of a scene with his face alone, shading from merriment to tenderness through hurt to dawning anger. As Beau films yet another mindless action movie in Hollywood (in one of several cheeky in-joke references) we see the bored actor, trotting out his lines, betrayed suddenly into a moment of real feeling from the man beneath, in a performance that has nothing to do with swashbuckling and everything to do with Flynn.
Anna Neagle too is at her most expressive in the sequences between Lillian Grey and her feckless husband - there is a telling little instant when it is made clear that, for all his 'torch-bearing', it is Beau who wanted the divorce in order to marry a Hollywood starlet - and it is with a real wrench that we are swept back into the wartime present without seeing her again. But while Anna's earlier fantasy sequences are charming, it is only with the Lillian and Beau story that the film starts to come to life; and that, I suspect, is entirely down to Errol Flynn. He has a compelling presence that lovely, accomplished Anna simply hasn't got... which I can only assume to be that elusive star quality.
The film verges at times upon schmaltz, as in its opening titles or Chelsea Pensioners scenes, but generally never quite slips. By the end, despite a colour-decayed print (so much for 'Trucolor') and occasional soundtrack damage, it had me smiling without restraint. This is undoubtedly the Anna Neagle picture I've enjoyed the most so far... but ironically, I was left hankering after the ghost of the 'A Star is Born' that could have been!
This film was an unexpected pleasure! I went to see it because it was billed as effectively a 'Greatest Hits' compilation from Anna Neagle, allowing me to sample some of her famous roles without first needing to sit through all the relevant films. But "Lilacs in the Spring" not only proves to be a charming historical cavalcade - it also manages what, for my money, neither "Irene" nor "The Three Maxims" had been able to achieve. In additional to demonstrating Anna's technical facility, it reaches true emotional depth in the second half and finally brought me to care about the characters.
Anna supplies a variety of distinctive accents and characterisations to her multiple heroines: spry Nell Gwyn, demure Victoria, down-to-earth Carole in wartime, and, in her most sophisticated part, the ingenue Lillian Grey who becomes a brittle showbusiness celebrity. Jennifer Mitchell provides a masterly echo of Carole's adolescent self, in a performance that had me convinced at the time I was watching Anna Neagle herself in yet another quick-change role.... But it is Errol Flynn, of all people - well past the zenith of his career and his looks - who is a revelation in this film as beefy music-hall star 'Beau' Beaumont.
For the man can act. One forgets it, beneath the charm and the heroics and the famous sidelong grin. Watching him as Beau, florid actor eclipsed by his rising young wife, it dawned on me I was witnessing something it never occurred to me to imagine - Errol Flynn playing Norman Maine. (Why, oh why, didn't he..?)
Frankly, the thickened body and lined face don't matter. It's not the character he once used to play, but someone entirely different - but the charisma is as high-octane as ever, and it's easy to see how he sweeps his young co-star off her feet. He duly sings and dances, as advertised, and turns in a creditable performance in each - though fortunately the action of the film doesn't require him to be claimed to excel - but it is in the acting stakes that he more than earns his headline billing for what is, on the face of it, a relatively minor part in Anna Neagle's showcase plot.
Back in his 'Robin Hood' days, I was surprised to find myself admiring his expressive features as much as his athletic form. Twenty years later, Flynn can still play the subtleties of a scene with his face alone, shading from merriment to tenderness through hurt to dawning anger. As Beau films yet another mindless action movie in Hollywood (in one of several cheeky in-joke references) we see the bored actor, trotting out his lines, betrayed suddenly into a moment of real feeling from the man beneath, in a performance that has nothing to do with swashbuckling and everything to do with Flynn.
Anna Neagle too is at her most expressive in the sequences between Lillian Grey and her feckless husband - there is a telling little instant when it is made clear that, for all his 'torch-bearing', it is Beau who wanted the divorce in order to marry a Hollywood starlet - and it is with a real wrench that we are swept back into the wartime present without seeing her again. But while Anna's earlier fantasy sequences are charming, it is only with the Lillian and Beau story that the film starts to come to life; and that, I suspect, is entirely down to Errol Flynn. He has a compelling presence that lovely, accomplished Anna simply hasn't got... which I can only assume to be that elusive star quality.
The film verges at times upon schmaltz, as in its opening titles or Chelsea Pensioners scenes, but generally never quite slips. By the end, despite a colour-decayed print (so much for 'Trucolor') and occasional soundtrack damage, it had me smiling without restraint. This is undoubtedly the Anna Neagle picture I've enjoyed the most so far... but ironically, I was left hankering after the ghost of the 'A Star is Born' that could have been!