Denholm Elliott Appreciation Thread

He was in a PBS/CBC produced production of Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales which I still watch annually. He's wonderful as the narrator (Old Geraint).

This one?

Don't forget The Holly and The Ivy (1952)

That's my favorite, r3.

I just re-watched The Holly and the Ivy. What do people think of that film?

The part was supposed to be played by Bryan Forbes (who had played it on stage - it was a hit play in the West End). Forbes decided to accompany his wife to Hollywood at the time, so D. E. was cast in the film. He replaced Forbes in something else, as well. Forbes later became better-known as a director.

R5, while I love The Holly and The Ivy because it's just so stiff upper lip ENGLISH (and I love that house!), I think it's weird in some ways too.

None of them seem all that interested that Margaret had a little boy none of them knew about and that he died suddenly, even her father. Nobody even asks what Simon had been like or even asks to see a photo of him. That is just so odd to me. I can think of other things about this movie I question but that's the main one.

I still love the movie though.

He was fun in the film version of "Noises Off"

I swore he was in the Man with the White Suit (1951)

It had so many great British character actors, Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, etc.

R6 Thanks - I wondered about that, too. I also wondered if I misunderstood about Margaret - did she go to the vicarage every year for Christmas? Or is this time the first time since she got pregnant and had the baby? If so, nobody seems to make a big deal of her finally showing up. If she did come every year, did she just hide the fact that she had a child? I watched it twice and still it didn't seem clear.

R6/R9, I always understood that Margaret went to the vicarage for Christmas every year even after she had Simon and just left him with the family they lived with at first - because everyone did seem to expect her to come with their cousin. But that's just something viewers kind of have to fill in themselves I guess.

I also wonder why it sounded as if David's family had lived in the area for a long time yet the Gregory family acted like he was somebody completely new to them when they found out Jenny was dating him.

Another much less consequential thing I wonder about it - why didn't Aunt Bridget worry about leaving her cat in previous Christmases?? Unexplained stuff like that drives me crazy in movies LOL.

R10 I wondered that about Aunt Bridget, too. I was puzzled about why they didn't know David but I wondered if I'd missed something.

The ending is also kind of baffling, where we see some of the cast in church for a second, then the scene just cuts off.

The other aunt also seemed not to know whether she's still be invited for Christmas because her sister had died. Why wouldn't they invite her, if they always had? And no one really says that they miss the mother, do they? Even though it's the first Christmas since her death! I had all kinds of questions. Even the Vicar saying to Bridget that she could come and keep house for him if she wasn't so attached to her cat. Is there some reason she couldn't bring the cat with her?

R11 - yes, the mother - I thought it was strange nobody even mentioned her when they were all together or when Jenny was cooking. As for the other aunt I thought maybe she was afraid they just wouldn't feel like celebrating Christmas at all without their mother but then after she arrived at the vicarage and nobody even mentioned her, that wasn't it. I also wondered why Bridget couldn't just bring her cat, but then I also wondered why none of the parishoners wouldn't be volunteering to act as his housekeeper.

I'm used to the abrupt ending now so it just kinda seems like "well, they can all just relax and SING, now" but then you wonder just what was the point of them all bother to even celebrate. Oh well. It would have taken so little dialog or exposition to resolve all this stuff.

R12 Haha. Okay - one other thing - very minor, I guess - that I questioned was Aunt Bridget noticing ducks in the yard and objecting to eating duck's eggs, and Jenny saying they'd been eating them for 20 years - how did the aunt never notice the ducks before? AND why were the duck out in the yard in the middle of what looked like a snowstorm? They'd be sheltering in a shed or barn.

Hey I'm really glad you answered my post. I never knew anyone else who saw this movie. By the way I think Denholm Elliott was one of the best actors in it, though they're all great. And it's cool how it captures that moment in time in England, which is long gone.

Love him in A Room with a View

I thought he was great in Saint Jack (directed by Peter Bogdanovich).

Did he ever remind anyone else of Trevor Howard?

.....

That too, R12!!! Like - what kind of eggs did they eat before?? That always drives me nuts too and I never even thought about ducks in the snow LOL.

It was ironic that Michael (Denholm Elliott's character) asked for leave because of his mother's death and then never mentioned her once he got home.

I'm enjoying discussing this movie too. I first saw it by chance over 20 years ago, on a local station late one night around Christmas. I had never heard of it before and I'm a huge old movies fan. I just loved it and immediately went on a hunt to get a copy, but I only managed to find a homemade DVD on eBay (which was perfectly acceptable and I still have it) but then maybe 10 years after that TCM started showing it and I was so happy. I've recorded it from TCM onto my computer, a thumb drive, DVDs...etc. (VHS tape is buried somewhere). Basically I'll never be without it. I showed it to my family and they like it too.

P.S. I loved Denholm Elliott in A Room With a View. His character's last scene was so touching. I had no idea he played Michael Gregory until I looked up the Holly cast on imdb.

I got a blu-ray of it recently through inter-library loan. Before that, I think I saw it on some local station a few years ago. Then I saw it on TCM. I noticed all the questionable things more, this last time, though. By the way, in hi-def you really notice Celia Johnson looks older than 31. I think she was in her mid-40s, and John Gregson (David) was at least 10 years younger. But I love her. I love the aunts, as well.

For R17^^^

R17 You've probably seen it, but check out the movie Genevieve, with Gregson. Great movie.

Thanks, R20, I’ll be on the lookout for it. Only other movie I’ve seen him in besides Holly was The Crowded Day. It took me a few minutes to place him and then I realized who he was. Appealing actor.

R18, I was shocked when I found out how old Celia Johnson was, in one of the TCM intros the host mentioned that the actor who played her father was something like 8 years older than she was!

He has one scene in [italic]a Bridge Too Far[/italic], but what male actor at the time didn't appear in that? His character gave a weather report, IIRC.

R2 Yes

He received an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor for 'A Room With A View'.

R24 Yes

R22 It was Denholm Elliott alongside Sean Connery, Liv Ullmann, Michael Caine, Dirk Bogarde, Maximillian Schell, James Caan, Gene Hackman, Elliott Gould, Edward Fox, Ryan O'Neal, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, and Sir Laurence Olivier