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The actor and composer Ivor Novello was born on this day in 1893; he's probably only best known at this point for Jeremy Northam playing him in Gosford Park, sadly - you never hear his name mentioned but he starred in as many Alfred Hitchcock movies as Tippi Hedren did (that number being two); it's just Ivor's are silent films from the start of Hitch's career so they don't get the same attention. (Okay I don't think Hitch tried to sexually assault Ivor, either.) But you should see The Lodger right now, if you haven't! It's very very good. Both that and Downhill, Novello's other Hitch flick, are available in a single DVD set.
Ivor was a great friend of the playwright Noël Coward - that should be an euphemism a la "Friend of Dorothy" but I mean it literally; they were very good friends for most of their lives. Here's my favorite tidbit about their friendship via Wiki:
"The British film company Gainsborough Pictures offered Novello a well-paid contract, which enabled him to buy a country house in Littlewick Green, near Maidenhead. He renamed the property Redroofs, and he entertained there famously and with little regard for convention. Cecil Beaton, noting the frequent homosexual excesses, coined the phrase, "the Ivor/Noel naughty set"."
Cecil Beaton you old queen, you're just jealous.
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2 comments:
Jeremy Northam was so sexy in Emma in those tight pants but he did nothing for me in Gosford Park - maybe because I was blinded by Ryan Phillippe in his prime!
Ivor Novello wrote some gorgeous operetta-style tunes:try My Dearest Dear or Someday My Heart Will Awake or We'll Gather Lilacs. One way into the sensibility is to start from Brief Encounter: big schmaltzy heart behind British reserve.
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