A month from now I’ll be reviewing Paradise Postponed. It was shown here in the US in the mid-80s and has been unavailable ever since.
It releases in the US on DVD on Oct 6 and I can’t wait! Run to your NetFlix queue and add it now… 🙂
One of the many reasons to see it is that it is a long gripping story with a Church of England rector at the center of it. Imagine that, a really long movie (10 hours) that all turns on the character of a clergyman — and he’s neither wacky nor a psycho nor a charlatan!
It’s also touching and funny and has just extraordinary acting in it.
Its sequel (Titmuss Regained) is something I have never seen period, so I am excited about that too.
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3 responses to “Coming Attractions”
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I just want to agree with John concerning both of these, and especially "Paradise Postponed".
Michael Hordern also played a kind and delightful Church of England clergyman in the movie version of "Joseph Andrews" (with Ann Margret).
Thanks Paul. I just love Michael Hordern.
By the way, Hordern plays opposite Denholm Elliott in a wonderful short two-man play called "You're Alright, How Am I?" It's the oddest and funniest thing I have seen EVER.
It's a very lighthearted riff on Romans 7 and the Bound Will — Hordern is a man who has been sent to a psychiatrist because of a gesture he keeps making.
In a few years when the BBC releases its entire archives to the internet we may find that it has been digitized. And my joy this side of Jordan will be complete.
I would like to add just one note here.
John's wonderful appreciation for the rector in "Paradise Regained" is matched by James Hilton's feel for the rector of St. Clement's in "Random Harvest". That WWII novel, which was made into a Hollywood 'weepie' with Greer Garson and Ronald Colman, has a character in it named 'Mr. Blampied". He is the somewhat eccentric yet completely dear and sincere rector of an inner-city parish in London.
Hilton, who was critical of the church in which he was reared, reserves some of his finest praise for this un-self-conscious clergyman, who ends up embodying grace to the hero and heroine of the book when they are in a very tough spot together. He provides them a safe haven not unlike the manger of Bethlehem.
Mr. Blampied, who I think was left out of the movie version, gives everything, and I mean everything, to help the struggling leads when they are at their lowest point.
Fer sher watch "P. Regained" but also have an old (tattered) copy of "R'dom Harvest" on the bedside table, to reinforce its kind prototype.
Oh, to be a "Mr. Blampied"!