White, Miles, Ure, Janet Monroe and tushingham

[stuart.uk]

This is a thread about British actresses who promised so much, but for one reason or another IMO it didn't quite happen long term for them.

Carol White is remembered in the UK for the ground breaking tv drama Cathy Come Home in 1965 with Ray Brooks. The play was made in documentary fashion and was about a young couple down on their luck, who end up squating and losing their children to social services. The tv play made overnight stars out of both White and the good looking Brooks, but neither became major actors, though Ray had a hit series in the 80s called Big Deal and played the 2nd husband and murderer of Wendy Richard's Pauline Fowler in Eastenders. Carol showed great potential and when she came to Hollywood I thought her brilliant as Dean Martin's love interest, Dover, in the comedy western Something Big. She died young at 50.

Sarah Miles is still alive, but despite a hot period in the 60s, I don't think she had the success later on that Julie Christie, Susannah York, Honor Blackman and The Redgrave sisters enjoyed. Sarah was the second female lead, to Wendy Craig, in The Sevant with Dirk Bogarde and James Fox. She built on that as the female lead These Magnificent Men In Those Flying Machines with Stuart Whitman and hit the jackpot with David Lean's Ryan's Daughter. Sarah did look as if her star was going to continue to shine in the 80s with Hope And Glory, but not much since then. She did a recent "Agatha Christie: Poirot"

I sometimes wonder if Mary Ure had got the credit she deserved for her great performance as the action heroine Mary Ellison in Where Eagles Dare. It was on UK tv recently and it again refered to the Burton/Eastwood film, whereas I felt she contributed just as much to the films success as her two co-stars. Mary also starred with Burton in the ground breaking 50s kitchen drama Look Back In Anger, which also starred Claire Bloom. She played a Doctors wife in Africa with Peter Finch in Windoms Way. Mary was in Sons And Lovers with Dean Stockwell and worked a few times with then husband Robert Shaw, most noteably in Custer Of The West, but Mary was no Olivia De Havilland, who also played Libby Custer in an earlier film They Died With Their Boots On. The marriage to Shaw broke up. How much this affected her I don't know, but she died off a drug overdose not long after, however, a couple of bad stage experiences at that time probably didn't help her state of mind.

Janet Munroe really had potential with several hit films early on in her career. She was Tommy Steele's leading lady in the rock an roll musical Tommy The Toradoar. Janet then had an American hit with Disney's Swiss Family Robinson oppisite James Macarthur, who played the son of John Mills and Dorothy Mquire. Possibly her best film was the science-fiction The Day The Earth Caught Fire with Edward Judd, a movie about global warming that was yrs ahead of its time. Janet I think was self destructing on booze in the mid 60s and mirrored herself as the past it lushy pop singer Carol Fancy in Sebastian with Dirk Bogarde and in comparison to her the beautifully healthy Susannah York. This might be unfair because while she herself was married to the alcoholic ex Avengers star Ian Hendry, Janet also suffered from a serious heart ailment, which might have contributed to her premeture death.

Rita Tushingham argueably had the best start of all the girls mentioned starring with Dora Bryan in the acclaimed kitchen sink drama A Taste Of Honey. I'm almost tempted to add Dora to the list, because despite a long successful career on stage an tv, ATOH remains her finest hour. Rita was oppisite Peter Finch in The Girl With Green Eyes and played Julie Christie's adult daughter in Doctor Zhivago. She also starred with Ray Brooks in The Knack. However, it was another actor, Michael Crawford, in the film that had the long successful career. In the 80s Carla Lane wrote the sit-com bread, about a family living of social securtiy with Rita briefly playing the love interest of one of the boys. It was a hit show, but I wonder if it was still a decline in Rita's career. she recently appeared in Marple.

[Metry_Road]

Dear Stuart, thanks for mentioning Rita Tushingham and ‘A Taste Of Honey’. One of my favorite movies of all time. A heartbreaking movie in many ways. A movie about very ordinary real people with real life problems. Tony Richardson makes it work perfectly, and Rita Tushingham was wonderful. I also have to commend the other members of the cast – Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens, Murray Melvin etc. They were all great in this movie. Even though the film is set in the grim and gray industrial north-west of England, the story is universal and will resonate with anyone who was ever a lonely, messed-up and unfocused teenager.

But the ending is not totally negative and without hope.

Definitely Rita Tushingham’s best film, and the one she will always be remembered for.

[youtube][/youtube]

Regards

[stuart.uk]

Thanks for posting the clip.

Yes, it's Rita's best film, but she was still very young at the time and I wonder if it bothered her she never really matched it again, though she was good in The Girl With Green Eyes and The Knack.