Lord Camber's Ladies

'Lord Camber's Ladies' is notable as the only film ever produced by Alfred Hitchcock which he did not also direct. There are no end of stories about Hitchcock's ongoing battles with the various producers of his own films, most notably David O Selznick. Hitchcock absolutely refused to allow his producers any creative input into his films: whenever a producer came onto the set of a Hitchcock movie, the camera would mysteriously have a breakdown, or some other instantaneous disaster would occur, preventing any footage from being shot until the producer took the hint and left. I'm extremely curious to know anything about Hitchcock's behaviour during the production schedule of 'Lord Camber's Ladies': did he give director Benn Levy a free hand to direct this movie with no interference? Or did Hitchcock -- as controller of the purse-strings -- inflict upon Levy the same scrutiny which Hitchcock resented from Selznick and other producers? Hitchcock does not make his customary walk-on appearance in 'Lord Camber's Ladies', but at this early point in his career (1932) the Hitchcock cameo was not the entrenched tradition it would later become.

Gertrude Lawrence -- a major stage star with very few film roles -- gives a standout performance in a role that might have been tailor-made for her. Lady Camber, now married to a peer, is a former star of the variety halls, a famed beauty whose stage turn showcased her talents for mimicry. Now her beauty has faded, and she's in a loveless marriage to Lord Camber, a philanderer. Lady Camber has heart trouble, and she now requires a full-time nurse attendant, under the guidance of Dr Harley Napier. I found that forename somewhat contrived: *Harley* Street is where London's most prestigious physicians have their surgeries, so it seemed needlessly gimmicky that the medico in this movie should be cried Harley.

Lady Camber's maid was her dresser in her music-hall days. They were formerly devoted to each other, but now Lady Camber's affections have transferred to her nurse. Spitefully, the maid tells her that the nurse is Lord Camber's latest lover. Lady Camber scoffs at this. But later, she rings her husband and, using her talents for mimicry down the 'phone line, pretends to be the nurse. Lord Camber is fooled entirely, and he responds with a statement that incriminates himself and the supposedly loyal nurse. Lady Camber faints, lapses into a coma, then soon dies.

Is it possible that she was murdered? And if so, by whom? At this point, the movie veers onto science-fiction's turf. It turns out that Dr Napier has recently isolated talcin, a deadly poison that causes precisely the symptoms which Lady Camber exhibited just before she died. With gobsmacking convenience, talcin is odourless, colourless, tasteless (no comment) and utterly undetectable at post-mortem. (I find this unbelievable: any compound that's toxic enough to kill someone will surely traumatise the victim's body sufficiently for a pathologist to detect its presence.) Gertrude Lawrence and Benita Hume give excellent performances here, and I was equally impressed with Nigel Bruce's portrayal of the unsympathetic Lord Camber. Bruce is best known for portraying bumbling asses, even playing Dr Watson in that mode. Here he gives a very different performance, and is entirely believable.

I was also impressed with Gerald du Maurier's portrayal of Dr Napier. Here, a few comments are in order. Gerald du Maurier had a long distinguished stage career: he was the first actor to play Captain Hook in 'Peter Pan'. His father George du Maurier was a distinguished novelist, illustrator and cartoonist (creator of Svengali, Trilby and Peter Ibbetson), and Gerald's daughter Dame Daphne du Maurier was a best-selling novelist. As devotees of Hitchcock will know, three of his films -- 'Jamaica Inn', 'Rebecca' and 'The Birds' -- are based on works by Daphne du Maurier, whereas no other author's work served as the basis for more than one of Hitchcock's films.

A couple of decades ago, when I spotted a copy of Daphne du Maurier's autobiography in a bookstall in the Charing Cross Road, I bought it for the specific reason of finding out what Dame Daphne had to say about Sir Alfred Hitchcock. I was astonished that her long memoir doesn't mention him at *all*. Several years later, I learnt the reason. While 'Lord Camber's Ladies' was in production, Hitchcock played a very cruel joke on Gerald du Maurier. He invited du Maurier to a costume party, urging du Maurier to wear the most ridiculous outfit he could assemble. When du Maurier arrived at Hitchcock's London residence -- wearing a red nose, mutton-chop whiskers, a kilt, spats, and other accoutrements -- he discovered that it was a formal dinner party, with everyone else in evening dress. Apparently, decades afterwards, Daphne du Maurier still despised Hitchcock for having humiliated her father. Yet that never prevented her from selling him the film rights to two of her novels and her story 'The Birds'.

I'll rate 'Lord Camber's Ladies' 8 out of 10.

Gertrude Lawrence made all too few appearances on film despite her overwhelming stage stardom, and far too few comedies where she excelled (rather like America's great Tallulah Bankhead, perhaps best remembered today in one of her last roles, Alfred Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT). This was Lawrence's one time working with Hitchcock, but not as director, merely as producer. Lawrence, master of the light comedy and musical (the very young may know her thanks to cast albums as the original "Mrs. Anna" in Rodgers & Hammerstein's KING AND I at the end of her life), may best be remembered on film for her serious dramatic performance in Tennessee Williams' GLASS MENAGERIE.

The film, not formally released on home video, is well worth tracking down for her lighter performance as the doomed ex-vaudevillian wife of a Lord as well as those of top billed Gerald Du Maurier as her doctor, Benita Hume as the nurse accused of her murder and Nigel Bruce as her wayward husband. Possibly even more worth seeking out is the film made four years later which showed Lawrence at her glamorous best as the wife of an actor sharing the London stage with her as the title character and Desdimona in Shakespeare's Othello (MEN ARE NOT GODS also starring top billed Miriam Hopkins). Lawrence gets to sing in both films.

One can only hope that *someone* finds a print of the next film Lawrence made after this one - 1933's light comedy NO FUNNY BUSINESS - which co-starred a very young Laurence Olivier and Jill Esmond who had co-starred with Lawrence and Noel Coward two years earlier in Coward's PRIVATE LIVES in both London and New York! Wouldn't that be something to see!!

LORD CAMBER'S LADIES is drawn from H.A. Vachelli's 1915 London hit THE CASE OF LADY CAMBER which starred Mary Bolard in the disappointing 1917 Broadway run (48perf. at the Lyceum, 26March-19May), and that extra level of background may peak mystery fans' interest - seeing in this early depression era filming what a hit murder mystery looked like at the height of WWI. This is something of a must for serious theatre aficionados.

"Lord Camber's Ladies" is the first sound film produced by Alfred Hitchcock and his first to actually be completed and released. He directed 20 films, both silent and sound, before this, but this is the only film Hitchcock produced that he did not also direct. Indeed, after this one he wouldn't produce another film until "Lifeboat" of 1944, by which time he had developed the techniques for which his films would be identified thereafter. And, enjoyed by the movie-going masses and film aficionados. It was in those 20 films from 1932 to 1944 that Hitchcock polished and refined the various techniques that would earn him recognition as the master of mystery and intrigue.

As to this film, there is little mystery until toward the very end. It's such a small part, though climactic, that there's little chance to create an air of suspense. This is clearly a drama, but also a hidden love story which only begins to appear slowly. All but one of the cast will probably not be recognized even by long-time movie buffs. And, those who do recognize Nigel Bruce may find his romantic role as the love of two women as incredulous as I did. Bruce was just 58 when he died in 1953 of a heart attack. And, although he made nearly 80 movies in his career, he was known mostly and will likely be remembered mostly for his roles as Dr. John Watson, the companion of Sherlock Holmes as played by Basil Rathbone, in 15 films from 1939 to 1946.

The billing for this movie shows Gerald du Maurier and Gertrude Lawrence as the stars, with Benita Hume as "also." But Hume's Janet King is the main character around whom the whole story develops. She is a London flower shop owner, who is in love with Bruce's Lord Camber. But, when he ups and marries a prominent singer (no other name given in the film) who is played by Gertrude Lawrence, Janet sells her shop and trains for and becomes a nurse. She eventually winds up as the assistant to du Maurier's Dr. Napier, a prominent physician and medical researcher of some sort. While nurse King develops an affection for the doctor, she still hasn't gotten over Lord Camber, and she doesn't let her feelings be known to the doctor. But things begin to happen and feelings unravel after Lady Camber comes to the hospital and is treated for some serious ailment.

Gerald du Maurier only made 10 movies, but was a highly regarded actor of the London stage in the early 20th century. He was the son of famed author George Du Maurier. Gertrude Lawrence also was known mostly for her acting on the stage; and she, too, made a small number of films - just 13. But she had very good leading roles and can be seen and appreciated in three films that are much better than this one - "Men Are Not Gods" and "Rembrandt" of 1936, and "The Glass Menagerie" of 1950.

Movie aficionados and trivia buffs may appreciate this tidbit about the actress who plays Lady Camber's maid, Peach. Clare Greet appeared in more Hitchcock films - seven, than any other actor or person, other than Hitchcock himself. They were all during his early filmmaking years in England.

The production quality of this film is quite poor, even for 1932. The sound seems to be coming from an echo-chamber. The camera work, art, and editing are rudimentary to haphazard. The acting at times seems wooden or stagy - especially that of du Maurier. While the story is interesting and had possibilities, the screenplay is very weak. Even with the good performances by Hume and Lawrence, my five stars may be pushing it some for this film.

This is a film produced by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Gertrude Lawrence, and it was nothing like I expected. Lawrence stars as a music hall star who marries Lord Camber (Nigel Bruce) and retires from the stage. Time passes and Lady Camber is admitted to a hospital where Gerald du Maurier (who gets first billing) is a kindly doctor. His nurse and lab assistant is Janet King (Benita Hume), a former florist and girl friend of Lord Camber. With Lady Camber flat on her back, it seems Camber and nursie start up again where they left off. Now if only Lady Camber were not in the way. Another doctor by chance catches the nurse washing out and refilling a bottle of poison and replacing it in the poison cabinet. Soon thereafter Lady Camber keels over. But the doctor snitches and du Maurier accuses the nurse of murder. In a typical Hitchcock ploy (and he had nothing to do with the writing and/or directing of this film), what the first doctor has witnessed was an action (replacing the bottle of poison) taken out of context. So who killed Lady Camber? The four principles are all very good, and Lawrence gets to sing a song in the opening, which is likely as close to her real stage performing style as we'll ever get to see. Her breezy bravado is in full evidence.

Too bad there is not a good quality copy of this film floating around.

For all sorts of reasons, film buffs will find this an interesting piece. The only film produced by Alfred Hitchcock and not also directed by him. The named director, Benn W Levy was actually a writer and this was his sole screen directing credit which makes one muse as to how little creative control he may have had and how much Hitchcock did. Certainly there are odd Hitchcockian flourishes such as Lady Camber's face collapsing into the frame. It is also a rare chance to see two giants of the British stage on screen in Gerald Du Maurier and Gertrude Lawrence and we get a glimpse of their talent, certainly the latter, though it is clearly not their preferred medium. It is also a rare leading role for Nigel Bruce, sort of the title role as Lord Camber (along with Benita Hume and Lawrence as the titular ladies), before he became the silver screen's most loved Dr Watson. This is also the first of his three films with Hitchcock-Rebecca and Suspicion were far superior of course and those films exhibited him at his very best. Here he is a roguish philanderer and a brute, very unlike his usually benign, and comedic types. Oddities aside though, this is a simple and rather melodramatic tale of a love triangle with a crime angle based on a hit play of the time. It is rather dated and the sound, primitive and its 80 minute run time seems longer. The four above mentioned leads all do good work without being outstanding and Claire Greet is warm in support but all the assembled artists had done better work or would would go on to do better work.