Product Description

These three programs trace Noël Coward's life, career and legacy. Part 1: The Boy Actor follows his meteoric rise to international fame at thirty: including how early influences as a young man shaped his works such as Private Lives and The Vortex. Part 2: Captain Coward focuses on his journeys to the Far East with Earl Amherst (which inspired famous songs such as Mad Dogs and Englishmen), as well as entertaining the troops during the war years and films In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter. Part 3: Sail Away follows Coward's cabaret triumphs in London and Las Vegas after the Second World War and his years as a tax exile in Switzerland and Jamaica, right up to his death. His long-term partner, the late Graham Payn shows us around Chalet Coward, and archive film reveals the glamorous poolside lifestyle he enjoyed, as well as his late successes: a cameo performance in The Kitchen, and the musical Sail Away as recalled by its star Elaine Stritch.
Nominated for the:1999 Huw Wheldon Award for the Best Arts Programme or Series BAFTA Award
1999 Grierson Memorial Trust

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61192 in DVD
• Brand: Unknown
• Released on: 2008-05-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 149 minutes

Review
THE NOEL COWARD TRILOGY (Kultur) Having recently immersed myself in The Letters of Noel Coward, published by Knopf, I was in a perfect frame of mind to enjoy this three-part television documentary about the playwright, composer, actor, occasional filmmaker, and wit. Co-produced by the BBC, NVC Arts and WNET, it aired in 1998 and runs 149 minutes. Somehow I missed it the first time around, so I'm grateful to Kultur for bringing it to DVD.

Producer-director Adam Low traces Coward's life and career by visiting all the significant places he lived and worked, talking to friends and colleagues (including some who are gone now, like John Gielgud and Coward's longtime companion Graham Payn), and calling on three of his most articulate biographers, Sheridan Morley, John Lahr, and Philip Hoare. What's more, in addition to the expected photos and film clips, there are vintage interviews with the Great Man himself and seen for the first time his own home movies from his travels around the world.

....as a dedicated fan, I loved every minute. --Leonard Maltin's Picks