Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Greetings, everyone.
This is Moya with How Bette Davis Saved My Life with a new segment for How Bette Davis Saved My Life, life lessons from classic Hollywood called Late to the Party.
As you can hear, the party's already started. And what I mean by Late to the Party is recent movies that Georgia and or I have recently seen and you've probably already seen, but we want to talk about it.
So sit back, relax and enjoy this brand new segment of How Bette Davis Saved My Life, life lessons from classic Hollywood called Late to the Party.
Hello, everyone. Yes, yes, yes. It's that time.
Hello everyone. It's that time again. I am so happy to be here with you for Late to the Party, as the intro says. And I have a doozy for you today.
You know, we've been doing good on our time, so let me keep this party moving.
You know, I dipped out, I got my drink, I dipped out. I'm in the back where it's quiet. I'll rejoin the party later, but I want to talk about this Terence Ratigan play and those of you who may not know that name or that name may sound familiar.
Terence Ratigan is a playwright and he is British born and he June 10, 1911. And you can go on IMDb shout out to them for all their great info.
And he his one of his plays is the subject of today's Late to the Party. And we're going to do separate tables today, a 1970s version from our new film favorite channel on YouTube called Classic British Telly. Go, go, go and subscribe.
They have the best stuff. You know, I love British dramas and plays and comedies and they do not disappoint. So we're going to talk about separate tables. But this is some of Radigan's other works and this is probably maybe his most known work because it starred Marilyn Monroe and Lawrence Olivier. The movie and it says it was uncredited. Okay. Wow.
The Browning version.
I just saw a Judi Dench on classic British telly version of this a second ago maybe about what a barely recent maybe about a couple of weeks ago. So, you know, it's all new to me. But I had heard that Browning version before. It is so powerful.
And so we'll, maybe we'll check on that. But today, like I said, we're going to talk about separate tables. And what I want to do is, as you saw in the title of today's episode, ex Wife Steals Husband. Ex husband from his girlfriend. So what am I talking about? So what up?
We're talk, go to the actual classic British telly version of it, the 1978 version of that's starring Geraldine McEwen. Just a whole bunch of people that you probably have seen before. Now, a lot of you, Geraldine McEwen has been in everything.
I first came across her in, let's see, I would say that show and I wanted to look it up and I totally forgot and I don't want to give it away with this guy who appears out of nowhere and starts to be her butler at this, her mansion, her estate that's kind of not run down, but it's past his glory days and I cannot remember. But, but it's a, it's a twist to this show and I don't want to give it away. And if you know the know the name of the show that's escaping me right now, please put in the comments and don't forget to like, share and subscribe. And thank you all so much. For those of you who have been with us since day one and who are still with me now, shout out to all our podcast audio listeners as well. So for those of you who are listening. So, Geraldine McEwen. But she was in that show that I can't think of. But I. She's been in everything, all, all the period pieces, Dickens pieces.
She was in this other piece by Trollop, Anthony Trollop, that was like a, was it a sequel or a prequel to one of his other pieces? That, of course, is escaping me now right now. But also so Eric Porter, who I had never heard of, and Annette Crosby, this is my homie. I love her so much.
I had seen her in this other show and other series where this guy plays a doctor and a.
I can't remember it. And yes, get on me. I should remember these things or writing them down.
But what I really remember her from was One Foot in the Grave. I just recently. Look how young she is here. I just recently discovered that like to me, the, the best British comedy. I know there's so many to pick from, but to me, the most brilliant British comedy is so funny. You would not have Malcolm in the Middle and other kind of surreal, super silly comedies if it wasn't. I, I see a lot of of the roots of some other comedy shows from One Foot in the Grave, she and Richard Wilson. So I knew it from drama. And I also know, I do remember this, that she also was in the.
What is it she did the, what do you call that? Like the dramatic interpretation of, of Queen Elizabeth. I'm sorry, not Queen. Queen Victoria. I'm Sorry. Queen Victoria. So there was a series, and it has to be almost around the same time. I know that. Like it may the mid to early to mid-70s where she played Queen Elizabeth.
Victoria. More get it together Queen Victoria. And she was fantastic at that. No, she doesn't look anything like Queen Victoria, but she's such a great actress, so she can just go through just. Just seeming seamlessly go through comedy and drama. So Annette Crosby, I'm a huge fan. She's been a whole bunch of things, you know that. And so like I said, Eric Porter had. Never heard of him before, but brilliant actor. So let's go to separate tables. And what I was talking about in the title, she's the girlfriend and. Of Eric Porter. Okay? And. And we'll get into their. To the. The names or whatever later. The names of the characters. But anyway, again, this is set in 1970, and what you got to take a look at is just the acting and brilliance and a subtlety. Geraldine McEwen is actually playing two parts, okay?
Eric Porter is playing two parts, so pay attention. At first, I did not recognize that Eric Porter was playing two parts. I'm not going to say who they are, but you'll figure it out. So Annette crosby is playing Ms. Cooper. She is. She owns the hotel, okay?
She is the owner. So we already talked about who she is. All right? And then there's a whole bunch of other. Other great character actors in this play.
So Geraldine McEwen, she also plays two parts, and she plays, I believe, what's her name. She plays Sybil, and she plays the wife. And I gotta find the name of the. Of the wife as well, that we see the back of her right now. But anyway, Annette Crosby is the girlfriend. She owns a hotel. All right? So. So everybody's in everybody's business, guys. Let me just say this. So here she is. She's new.
And it just showed a glimpse of her. Her other camera.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Windsor or the petting Mar. Meat. I don't think I'll have any soup. Thank you all.
I'll try the goulash.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Now. I want to get a closeup of her because I was like, man, she's really made up. So let's. We'll look at a couple of other stars right here.
She plays a witch. That's all I'm going to say. Just a horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible person.
She plays Mrs. Railon Bell.
I hope I'm saying that right, who manipulates her daughter, Sybil Railon Bell, who's played by Gerald. Geraldine plays that. This is the other character she plays just, oh my gosh, she's made that young lady a total wreck. And she's not even a young lady. She's like a fully grown woman. Right. Anyway, let's get to the mina potato. And I know I'm skipping over a lot. I'm sorry. Because there's a lot of great characters. Go look at it on, on classic British telly. Shout out to them. So, okay, here we go.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: I've seen how.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: And we'll minimize that, cuz we skip that.
Here's the ex husband, okay?
And he, he's having.
The Annette Crosby character is his girlfriend. Okay?
So he has a past and his past is, has brought him down to a level. Well, he has to live at this hotel and, and under certain circumstances. And he's also has an alias, okay. And I just wanna.
So he spots. And I, I know I'm rushing through it. He spots his ex wife and you would thought, well, I'm gonna say see a ghost. And in fact he did is gossiping.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: They already know that I write for the New Outlook under the name of Kato. Though how they found that out I'll never know because none of them would sully their dainty fingers by st touching a ball. She rag like that.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: I read it every week.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: Turning left wing in your old age.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Now look at. When I saw her, I was like, you know, pretty, you know, nice and done up, but I was like, man, she got a lot of makeup on. Like it was too much. And that's gonna play a little part in this. But so they see each other and they act like they're, you know, they're, they're very guarded. But they were married for a past.
For a past moment. I mean, they were married for, you know, they were together for a good little while before something happened and they broke up. And I'm not going to tell you, I want you to go and look at it. And what his, what happened with him and her is what dictated that this man go and live in this hotel and start a relationship with the hotel with the hotel owner, Ms. Cooper, right? Annette Crosby's character. So Annette Crosby, like most women who paying attention, you, you know your man ain't being 100 with you, right? So she is going to confront him.
And I just love how she figures out there's something between him and his glamorous ex wife. Right?
And Geraldine McEwen. Go ahead, girl.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: You cute. You cute.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: So here we go with the confrontation.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: You want to tell me?
[00:11:31] Speaker C: I can't.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: All right, so what did you say to the old ladies?
[00:11:39] Speaker C: Oh, nothing very much, I suppose. Just a rather sordid little piece of alcoholic self assertion, that's all.
I let him know that I used to work in the docks and that I knew Roger Williamson.
I think I covered that one up, though. I hope I did.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: I hope you did too.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: So you see, he has a lot of aliases and a lot of covering up to do.
And so Ms. Cooper continues to kind of press on it. Cause she knows he's not telling her everything.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Thing.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: And terror of the older lady. Residents of the Hotel Beauregard, Bournemouth.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: John, dear, I don't want to know what it is, but let me help you if I can.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: You know, Pat, that I love you very sincerely.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: Sincerely. That sounds like something a brother might think to assist her.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: So she's on to him. She knows that there's a change in him. And to the ladies out there, do you know, can you sense when a man's affections have kind of tampered down?
When he's kind of withdrawing or withholding or there's a barrier there. She picked up on it right away. And she realized that the change came when his glamorous wife came right there. Darling, look at her.
She is darling.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: Darling, you have reason enough to know that my feelings for you are more than fraternal.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Look at that face.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Oh, Mrs. Shankland, they told me you'd.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Gone a long time ago.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: I had. But not bed. I was really.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: And so, as you get further on into the story, you will see the exchanges between these two.
What comes of that, what comes out of it. And you know me, I hate spoilers. But I want you to pay attention to the. Not just. You know, I always like to see how the women get down with each other. Not just how these two.
The ex wife, Mrs. Shanklin, I believe her name is. And these two. But how these two? Because can you tell? Ladies, do you know when a man. Let me just be honest with you, he don't want you no more. Okay. Or he never was yours.
Can you tell about that? And she, like I said, she picked up on it right away. And so if you don't understand the rules of power, you have to understand when your time is up and know when to exit gracefully. And let's find out.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: Does she do that rather drunker than.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Usual tonight because of seeing me?
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: I'm sorry.
[00:14:38] Speaker C: Oh, no, you're not.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Same old John.
You've left out the most important fact of all.
That you're the only person in the world I've ever been really fond of.
You notice how tactfully I leave out the word love.
May I have a cigarette?
Ooh, not still those awful cork tip things. I'll have one of mine. Give me my bag.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: Now you can see clearly.
I hope you can see clearly that this relationship and the dynamics of this relationship that was very passionate, very intense and this. She is the spider and he is the fly.
I'll just leave it like that.
And I. I'm gonna stop it here. I don't want to. Let me. I'll go just a little bit further.
So he finds out that she has several ulterior motives. Okay.
And this woman is a saint for several reasons. Ms. Cooper. Because she hides a lot of the people's sins. Let me just say that. And I. Please go watch it. I don't want to give away too much, but I love this. I. I'm not.
So you see what she's saying here? It was always about my lying that we used to quarrel in the old days. Do you remember? So he confronts her about something she did just, just then in a hotel that greatly affected him and threw his life into chaos. And she tried to lie about it and he caught her in the lie.
And Ms. Cooper, Ned Crosby's character didn't, didn't. Wasn't ratting her out, but she was just telling the truth about what happened and it kind of brought out that the ex wife was a liar.
And then I'll stop it here. Can this couple recover? Will they recover from the damage and the pain that they've inflicted on each other throughout the years? Do. Do you. Can. Can they do it?
I. I want you to watch and you tell me, can someone.
Can you tell if someone has withdrawn from you, male or female, but know this is from a woman's point of view? Can you tell?
And then what do you do about it? What is she going to do about it?
So check out separate tables on classic British telly. You will not be disappointed. Like share and subscribe to their channel. I'm going to. On YouTube. We're going to leave some links in the channel. But it's on YouTube. It's for free. Classic British telly, 1970s. Separate tables, guys. Thank you so much. I totally enjoy being with you.
I won't be doing a live the next time we'll. We'll be together. I believe that's been 13th. I'll have something probably pre recorded because I won't be available to do anything live. But please, please, please hang on in there. Come check me back out on the 13th of September. I'm not sure what I'm doing yet because I just watched so much stuff and whatever hits me, I'm like, we gotta talk about this. All Late to the Party. But again, thank you so much. I look forward to being with you in some capacity on the 13th. You guys, thank you so much. And you know what? Have a great day.
So my fellow stars and starlets, superstars, don't forget to comment.
Let us know what you think about these movies. Did you see these movies?
Comment, share, subscribe, like, follow, do all that. We really appreciate it. Let's keep these great series and films alive.
So this is Moya for another episode of Late to the Party.
Thanks you guys. Looking forward to the next one. You take care.
