South
Original Title
ITV Play of the Week- Director: Mario Prizek
- Writer: Gerald Savory; Julien Green
CGiii Comment
Recently re-discovered and thought to be one of the earliest (if not the first) gay dramas for television. For that fact alone, it becomes an important film.
However...watching it...is torture...an assault on the ears.
The acting is nothing more than amateur dramatics with plummy, inconsistent accents.
As for the story...offensive, implausible bollocks...the ending is beyond ridiculous.
No trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
It's based on the 1953 play by Julien Green, which played a theatre club in London in 1955 because its theme was rejected by the Lord Chamberlain (the UK theatre censor). Set in the American South in 1861, months before the start of the Civil War, it concerns Polish soldier Jan (Peter Wyngarde, who is visiting the Broderick family in South Carolina when he falls in love with plantation owner Eric (Graydon Gould). In keeping with most gay drama of the period, it ends in tragedy.
Cast & Characters
Barbara Assoon as Eliza;
Juliet Cooke as Miss Priolleau;
Noel Dyson as Laura Priolleau;
Karal Gardner as Angelina Broderick;
Alan Gifford as Edward Broderick;
Graydon Gould as Eric MacClure;
John Harrison as Uncle John;
Helena Hughes as Regina;
Karl Lanchbury as Jimmy Broderick;
Bessie Love as Mrs. Strong;
Randolph McKenzie as Child;
Johnny Sekka as Jeremy;
Horace Sequiera as Mr. White;
Peter Wyngarde as Jan Wicziewsky