Appendix I Films Made from Plays by Jones and Pinero
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Appendix I Films Made from Plays by Jones and Pinero The research for this appendix was carried out by Lisa Swinglehurst. Henry Arthur Jones 1914 The Lie (a rather free version produced by Lubin, USA) 1915 The Middleman (London Film Co.) 1916 The Morals of Weybury (based on The Hypocrites and produced by G. L. Tucker, UK) 1918 Mrs Dane's Defence (Paramount Artcraft; directed by Hugh Ford) 1918 A Society Exile (adapted from a play entitled We Can't Be as Bad as All That which was not produced in the West End; directed by George Fitzmaunce) 1920 The Call of Youth (from a play which was never staged; Famous Players - Lasky, directed by Hugh Ford) 1921 Beyond (apparently an original screenplay, though 238 Appendix I bearing some resemblance to The Rogue's Comedy; directed by Desmond Taylor) 1923 The Hypocrites (Granger-Binger; directed by Charles Giblyn) 1928 The Physician (Gaumont; produced by Maurice Elvey and directed by George Jacoby) 1929 The Silver King (Welsh-Pearson-Elder; produced by G. & D. Pearson and directed by T. Hayes Hunter; reputed to have cost about £60,000) 1933 Mrs Dane's Defence (National Talkies, Paramount; produced by Harry Rowson and directed by A. V. Bramble) Jones wrote four other scenarios, which were not pro duced. Arthur Wing Pinero 1915 Sweet Lavender (produced by C. M. Hepworth; Henry Ainley played Dick Phenyl) 1916 Trelawny of the 'Wells' (produced by C. M. Hep worth) 1916 Iris (produced by C. M. Hepworth; Henry Ainley played Maldonaldo) 1916 The Second Mrs Tanqueray (Ideal; directed by Fred Paul, with George Alexander as Aubrey Tan queray; reported to have cost £20,000) 1917 The Amazons (Paramount, directed by Joseph Kaufman) 1917 The Profligate (produced and directed by Meyrick M. Milton) 1918 The Gay Lord Quex (Ideal; produced and directed by Maurice Elvey, with a cast including Ben Web ster, Irene Vanbrugh and Lilian Braithwaite) 239 Appendix I 1920 A Slave of Vanity (based on Iris and produced in the USA) 1920 His House in Order (Paramount; directed by Hugh Ford) 1920 Sweet Lavender (Paramount; directed by Paul Powell) 1921 The Magistrate (Samuelson; directed by Bannister Merwin) 1922 La Seconda Femma (Italian version of The Second Mrs Tanqueray) 1924 The Enchanted Cottage (USA; directed by J. S. Robertson) 1928 The Actress (based on Trelawny of the 'Wells'; (pro duced by Sidney Franklin and starring Norma Shearer) 1928 His House in Order (Ideal; produced by Meyrick M. Milton, directed by Randle Ayrton, and starring Tallulah Bankhead) 1934 Those Were the Days (version of The Magistrate made at Elstree Studios; produced by Walter My croft and directed by Thomas Bentley, with a cast including Will Hay, Angela Baddeley, George Graves, John Mills, Wally Patch and Jimmy Han ley) 1935 Dandy Dick (Elstree Studios; produced by Walter Mycroft and directed by William Beaudine, with a cast including Will Hay, Esmond Night, Wally Patch and Moore Marriott) 1945 The Enchanted Cottage (RKO; produced by Roger Proudlock and directed by Dallas Bower, with Dorothy McGuire, Herbert Marshall and Robert Young) 1952 The Second Mrs Tanqueray (Vandyke; produced by Roger Proudlock and directed by Dallas Bower, 240 Appendix I with Pamela Brown as Paula Tanqueray, Virginia McKenna as Ellean, and Hugh Sinclair as Aubrey Tanqueray) In 1919 Pinero was invited to join the consultative literary committee of Alliance, an ambitious new British company. Unfortunately, the company over-extended itself finan cially and was wound up in 1922. 241 Appendix II Henry Arthur Jones versus G. B. Shaw and H. G. Wells* Although, in his earlier years, Henry Arthur Jones had flirted with socialism, and was an ardent admirer of William Morris, he was appalled by the 'anti-British' attitude of Shaw and Wells during and after the First World War. Despite the fact that he had been a close friend of both men, particularly Shaw, he attacked them in pamphlets and in the press. He interpreted their writings as traitorous and subversive, and, indeed, considered them to be agents of Bolshevism and revolution. In 1919, he published a book entitled Patriotism and Popular Education, which contains a vehement and direct attack on Wells's political ideas. On 10 March he wrote to Wells, before attacking him publicly, In my forthcoming book, Patriotism and Popular Edu cation, I have attacked what seem to me to be the most mischievous fallacies in some of your recent articles and * The quotations in this appendix are extracted from Doris Jones, The Life and Letters of Henry Arthur Jones (1930) pp. 307-28. 242 Appendix 11 letters. You advocate principles and schemes which, so far as they can be put into operation, tend to disintegrate and shatter not only the British Empire, but all civilised structure. Now as I wish the British Empire to be pre served and strengthened, you will not be surprised that I have used the most effective means in my power to expose what I consider to be the radical unsoundness of your political theories. I should not think myself a good citizen if I neglected to fulfil this duty to my country to the best of my ability .... If my arguments are wrong, I shall think you are doing me a service if you refute them .... I shall be sorry if this action of mine loses me an old friend, and can assure you that I shall always dwell with the kindliest remembrance on our long and pleasant associations. Wells replied with great kindliness: I am quite sure that nothing you can say about my opi nions is likely to alter the very kindly feelings I bear you. I've no doubt you'll go for me with the utmost spirit and violence and fairness. I think the British Empire in its present form is a sham and a nuisance. When the book was published, Wells published an open letter to Jones in the Evening Standard, but otherwise ignored it all, and left Jones to say or write what he wanted. As a patriot, Jones felt in duty bound to try to counteract the influence of Wells and Shaw, which he considered per nicious. Jones attracted considerable support not only in Britain, but all over the Empire. Many eminent figures backed his campaign, and he received hundreds of letters encouraging him, and thanking him for his services to Britain 243 Appendix II For twenty years he had been a close friend of Shaw's. Their correspondence is affectionate and intimate. Shaw's criticisms of Jones's plays are witty and very much to the point. Yet in 1914 Jones wrote to his daughter from New York, 'Shaw continues his crazy attacks. I never felt more angry with any man. He is trying to keep up the strife between England and Ireland. I do not think I can meet him in the future.' His disgust with Shaw came into the open in October 1915. Shaw had been asked to refrain from attending the fortnightly lunch of the Dramatists' Club because of his attitude to the war. On behalf of 'several members', the secretary wrote to Shaw to this effect. Shaw wrote to Jones saying that he hoped Jones was not one of the 'several members', and received Jones's reply that he was. Jones went on in his letter, I believe that England's cause is a most righteous one. I am sure that England did not provoke this war. I am sure that Germany did. These are to me, not matters of opinion, but clearly established facts. Your writings on the War have done great harm to our cause in America and neutral countries. Germany is everywhere making use of your utterances to justify her own actions' and to befoul and slander England. Whether you know it or not, and whether you care or not, you are one of our country's worst enemies. And you are an enemy within our walls. One of the leading American papers, in commenting on your pamphlet, said that if you had written in Germany on behalf of her enemies, you would have been shot. I cannot think you were so shortsighted as not to have foreseen that you were furnishing Germany with a powerful weapon to attack England, that you were 244 Appendix II offering evidence that our cause was unjust, that we were to blame for this War. ... you should not be sur prised that in the agony and bloody sweat of fighting for our life we have no patience with a man who tries to trip us up - and with us the mercies and humanities of European civilisation. Shaw's answer to this is a masterpiece of witty exculpation; and he accuses Jones of lack of faith in England, 'And you think England, your mother, is on a sick-bed. She never was stronger in her life, as you will find out if you annoy her too much by your shrieks of terror at the German menace .... ' Three weeks after this exchange of letters, an interview with Shaw entitled' "Shoot your Officers, and Go Home," says Shaw' was published in the San Francisco Bulletin. The effect of this interview on the American public was bad; and, though Shaw denied having ever given such an interview, his pamphlet Common Sense about the War said much the same things. Shaw also made mischievous state ments about Belgium's neutrality. Although Shaw was used by the Mediterranean Department to write propa ganda material to dissuade the Moors in Algeria and Tuni sia from entering the war, all this was a red rag to a bull as far as Jones was concerned.