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Rating:  -
Always a theater-struck addict, I, sometime in the winter of 1981-1982, sat in a Broadway theater watching magic take place on stage. Outside it was wickedly cold, snowy, slushy, as I sat at a matinee performance with water slogging in my boots, watching a marvelous production of Ronald Harwood's "The Dresser" starring Tom Courtenay as Norman, the theater dresser for Sir, one of the famous actor-managers who toured the British provinces bringing Shakespeare to the hinterlands. Sir was probably modeled on Donald Wolfit who was one of the legendary touring manager-actors.
The 1983 motion picture with a screenplay by Harwood, brought together Tom Courtenay as Norman and Albert Finney as Sir. The time was World War II, and German planes were bombing some of the cities where the troupe appeared. Sir is on his last legs, under extreme pressure. He has chosen a difficult group of Shakespearean plays for his small touring acting company to perform including "King Lear" which is a difficult and exhausting role for a strong, healthy man to perform. The company is in Bradford, and Sir sees the fire brigades fighting to put out bombing fires. He's exhausted, and it's been a struggle to find a cadre of actors to be in his troupe because of wartime demands.
Sir has an attack and has to go to the hospital the night he's supposed to play Lear for the 226th time in his career. He discharges himself from the hospital, but he is in terrible condition. Norman, Sir's dresser, who idolizes his employer, is the only one who can keep him going. He knows every trick to jump start the old man. He knows the lines of the play as well as Sir does.
Madge, the stage manager, played by Eileen Atkins, who also adores her employer, thinks Sir is too ill to go on, but Norman insists he can be ready and gets him up for the part by his powers of persuasion. Norman fights off the other cast members and bullies them into letting him get the old man ready. It's touch and go whether Sir can go on or not.
The movie does a beautiful job of portraying an England at war, and showing how a theater production looks from backstage. The scenes in which Finney as Sir is applying his make-up with Courtenay's Norman prodding him are masterful. The fuss budget Norman has only his nips of brandy to keep him going. Sir is egotistical, domineering, fond of the ladies, and a fine actor. Finney and Courtenay are both absolutely superb in the movie. If you love theater and actors, this is the movie for you. Powerful with brilliant character delineation and plot development.
Rating: -
This movie is a wonderful peek behind the scenes of a touring Shakespeare company in England during the early days of WWII. Albert Finney gives a grand performance as "Sir" the patriarch and star of the troupe and plays the part to the full grandeur of the old theatre. Tom Courtenay, in the title role, tends to Sir's every desire and demand. It seems a thankless job, but he knows his importance and does it out of love. Though his is an effeminate character, modern perceptions of 'gay' are kept out and the character is allowed to be real. Sir is spiralling toward dimentia and his dresser is determined to help him through one more play. If you like character studies, this is a great movie.
Rating: -
You will never find a cast better than this. I just love the theatre and this is a love letter to the theatre and the "show-must-go-on" kind of people that established theatre as the entertainment we need to remain civilized. Laugh easy Cry easy
Rating: -
This is not a big spectacle type film; it is a small and personal film that makes a big impact because of the very, very strong performances it has holding it up. `The Dresser' is a superb example of the very fact that you don't need to do a whole lot when you do very little very well. Both Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay deliver knock out performances here, both of them pulling from within to deliver top notch emotionally invested portrayals of men defined and ultimately confined by their loyalties.
The film takes place during World War II and tells the story of Sir, an aging Shakespearean actor who owns his own production company and is about to put on his 227th performance as King Lear. His dresser, Norman, is there every night, nursing him back to sobriety and convincing him that his life's passion is the theater.
The film is less about a particular plot and more about the relationship between these two men; the fact that they need one another to make it threw each day. Sir is helpless without Norman's guiding hand, and Norman has devoted so much of himself to Sir that he doesn't know how to live without him. Sir is Norman's life, and so he has become much like a parent (or maybe more like an over protective spouse) to Sir because of that. Even as Sir's habits and bullying (almost self centered) attitude pushes all others away, Norman finds himself drawing closer to Sir as he almost pleads for acceptance and some sort of reciprocated affections.
Without the strong performances of both Finney and Courtenay this film would have been a monumental bore; a failure. Thankfully both Finney and Courtenay deliver boundlessly.
Finney is one of my personal favorite actors, for he always knows how to evoke an emotional response from me. He has such a natural progression to his character's development and so he makes for a very believable and commanding actor. As Sir, he embodies this man's every weakness without every taking away from the natural compassion we feel for him; thus helping us to understand why a man like Norman is so devoted to him in the first place. He's like a big, helpless Teddy Bear. Tom Courtenay has the tougher job of delivering believable paternal affections and he does so marvelously. What is so phenomenal about Courtenay is that he creates a complete character, from the facial expressions to the hand gestures (I love his hands in this film; almost like a character all their own) to his voice and his very choice of words. He delivers a brilliant performance that uses every quality of a caricature while reining it in just enough to make it natural and believable.
Also, look for Eileen Atkins in a beautifully restrained performance as Madge.
I can't say enough how much of a pleasure this film was for me. It is the perfect example of a `character driven drama' and it serves as a marvelous centerpiece for some breathtaking acting. If you are a fan of Shakespeare, Albert Finney or dramatic period pieces then this is a MUST-SEE film if ever there was one.
Rating: -
[As a train is leaving a station]
Sir: Stop that train!
[The train stops at once]
This scene demonstrates the power of acting. Sir (Albert Finney), the head of a Shakespearean acting troupe in Britain, used the authority in his voice that comes from playing King Lear in 227 performances and various other kings and characters an equal number, to stop a train in its tracks. Norman (Tom Courtenay), Sir's dresser, had begged the conductor to wait for just a moment, and was told in no uncertain terms to "sod off." The train left the station on schedule. But then the command to stop that train from the regal voice of Sir stopped the train at once.
'The Dresser' gives a fascinating look behind the scenes, at the backstage drama--the drama behind the drama. Sir may have a voice that can stop trains, but trying to keep a Shakespeare company on tour during war time Britain is quite a chore. All the young and able bodied actors are away fighting, and it is hard to keep an audience enthralled when you are interrupted by air raid sirens and there is the very real possibility that the theater will be bombed. What is troubling Sir? Is it the critics?
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Sir: The critics? No, I have nothing but compassion for them. How can I hate the crippled, the mentally deficient, and the dead?
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Thank you, Sir, for that heart felt vote of confidence. I will try not to disappoint you. In spite of his criticism of critics, Sir is a master thespian, and he knows whereof he speaks:
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Sir: Keep your teeth in!
Geoffrey: It's only when I'm nervous
Sir: You will be nervous. I guarantee it.
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Though Norman, a shy and effeminate dresser, is not much use when it comes to stopping trains, Sir relies on him to the utmost. Sir, like King Lear, the character he is portraying, is getting old and loosing his mind. The stage manager and other cast members doubt that he will even be able to perform. There was an incident earlier in the day that showed that Sir was totally insane. He went berserk and was rescued by the dresser, who knew exactly what to say and how to handle him. Backstage, getting ready, he keeps forgetting which play they are doing and Norman has his hands full getting him on track. He even quotes 'Macbeth' which is a very unlucky thing to do according to thespian superstitions, and requires a whole ritual to undo the damage.
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Sir: 227 Lears... and I can't remember the first line.
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Norman remembers them, and he cues Sir, and on with the show. You get the feeling that Norman remembers not just the first lines, but all the lines. He hovers backstage during the performance, cuing Sir from time to time if he gets stuck. Why then isn't Norman an actor?
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Norman: My memory is like a policeman. It is never there when you want it.
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Exactly. He is great at feeding Sir his lines from backstage, but put him up there and he would freeze like a deer in the headlights. There is a great scene where Norman must make an announcement, and he reluctantly does it, standing on the corner of the stage with a rag in his pocket, barely able to quell the pre show chatter and get the audience's attention. He blows his line, he is supposed to say "anyone who wants to leave" because of the bombing and the air raid but instead says "anyone who wants to live" which is the worst sort of mistake you can make under the circumstances.
Oblivious to how much he stunk; he later asks the cast members how he did. Great, they all reply very insincerely, which Norman accepts without question, due to an ego protecting suspension of disbelief.
Sir also has his fears though, and when they must ask if Oxenby (Edward Fox), one of the actors, will help backstage operating a wind machine for the big storm scene in King Lear, he makes Norman do it. Norman has no trouble in situations like this, drawing power from Sir, even though Sir himself is afraid to do it. Oxenby feels it is beneath his station, and refuses; though later, caught up in the drama, he does help out after all. They all make a supreme effort, and storm up a storm, but does Sir appreciate it?
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Sir: WHERE... WAS... THE STORM?
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Ronald Harwood based his play and subsequent screenplay on his experiences as the dresser for the noted Shakespearean actor Donald Wolfit. Harwood has created an excellent script for a brilliant cast. You really get a sense of the human frailty, ambition, desire, vanity, and weakness behind the masks. It is a really different view of the theater, backstage and through the eyes of the person who knows firsthand the reality behind the play, the dresser.
Peter Yates also directed 'Breaking Away,' 'Krull,' 'Bullitt,' and 'Mother, Jugs, & Speed;' but I would venture to guess that 'The Dresser' is his best work, as cast and story combined to reveal not only the mortality of man, but also the immortality of great art.
SELECTED ROLES OF ALBERT FINNEY
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) .... Charles Hanson
Erin Brockovich (2000) .... Ed Masry
Under the Volcano (1984) .... Geoffrey Firmin
Shoot the Moon (1982) .... George Dunlap
Tom Jones (1963) (1963) .... Tom Jones
SELECTED ROLES OF TOM COURTENAY
The Golden Compass (New Line Platinum Series Two-Disc Widescreen Edition) (2007) .... Farder Coram
Nicholas Nickleby (2002) .... Newman Noggs (and Edward Fox was Sir Mulberry Hawk)
Last Orders (2001) .... Vic
Doctor Zhivago (1965) .... Pasha
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) .... Colin Smith
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Norman: [to the ambitious young Irene] Never mind the young Cordelia, ducky. He wants a *light* Cordelia!... It's not youth or talent or star quality he's after, ducky, but a moderate eater!
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