by Noel Coward
In time-honored theatrical tradition, of course, all differences were resolved and the play would run for 657 performances.
Some of Noël's New York friends could not resist a joke at his expense. Comedies about ghosts were not exactly new, and there had been at least two successful recent films on the subject, Topper (1937) and Here Comes Mr, Jordan (1941). In George S. Kaufman's view, Noël's play should be called Topper Takes a Second Wife, while Dorothy Parker's suggestion was Here Comes Mrs, Jordan,
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NOëL'S CONTACT WITH Binkie Beaumont was kept very much alive. After all, even world wars end sometime, but The Theatre, laddie … Teasing the man who bestrode British theater was brief relief from more serious matters.
Dearest Binkie, dearest Bink,
Lorn and I sincerely think
You have been for long enough
Both illiterate and rough
And in fact for many a year
Very very common, dear
So accept from this address
Hints on gentlemanliness
That which warns of Luftwaffe spleen
Is a siren, not sireen
Soldier's furlough, sweet but brief,
We call leave and never leaf
Use grammatical restraint
Is not is correct, not ain't
Words like “nothing,” may we say,
End with G and not with K
Napkins, in the smarter sets,
Are not known as serviettes
Also, these are not tucked in
Neatly underneath the chin
May we add that opposite
Is pronounced to rhyme with “bit”.
Should you belch at lunch or tea
Never mutter “Pardon me,”
Mark these rules and, if you can,
Be a little gentleman.
(WITH LOVE FROM MR. NOËL COWARD AND MRS. LORN LORAINE) [NANCY MITFORD ANTICIPATED.]
NOËL WROTE TO JACK:
17 Gerald Road, S.W.i.
February 5th, 1942
Dearest Dab,
Here goes for one of our chatters. At long last we start shooting the picture today. I cannot possibly, in one letter, explain all the complications and obstructions that have been put in the way. Anyone would think I was trying to make a subversive propaganda film with the object of overthrowing the British Empire rather than a glowing tribute to the Navy. The Admiralty, of course, have been absolutely wonderful to me from the word go. I have been travelling all over the place to ships and shipyards and dockyards and Dicky has been fifty thousand rocks and so now all is well. It is scheduled for fifteen weeks and is costing one hundred and seventy thousand pounds … and so that is that.
Life here has been singularly bloody for the last few weeks. The Far East War news has, of course, depressed us abominably—added to which Jack Frost and Father Winter have joined their gnarled hands and frozen the sweet Jesus out of all of us. We have had weeks of snow which thaws and then freezes again and we fall down and break our legs and our faces are mauve and we cry and cry a great deal. Travelling about the country in these gala years is a fair picnic; there are practically no restaurant cars and only a very scanty supply of taxis, so if you could see your erstwhile luxurious and glamorous Poppa footing it through the snow carrying his suitcases, you would probably laugh hilariously. I have a meagre little “Drive yourself” car which I hire by the week to get me to and fro between my cottage and the studios and the days of Goldenhurst and Rolls-Royces seem very far away indeed … but I am sure it is good for my soul. All I can say is, it had better be!
In Which We Serve (1942). A welcome break in shooting. Noël relaxes on the Sussex Downs with co-director David Lean.
But even with the tension of filming building up, he finds time to update Jack on the doings of family and friends:
I dined [with friends] the other night and Cecil Beaton appeared and we had a great rapprochement and are now staunch buddies. My social life has been comparatively tranquil. I see, naturally, a great deal of Dicky and Edwina [Mountbatten] … Sybil [Colefax] occasionally … and every now and then Juliet [Duff] peers down at me. Cochran is trying frantically to raise money for another revue. Winnie [Winifred Ashton] is bounding about giving lectures and broadcasts, writing Welsh pageants, cooking meals, and knocking ornaments over. Gladys [Calthrop] is very crisp and efficient and horribly worried inside because Hugo [her only son] is in Singapore. Joyce [Carey] works daily at the Naval War Library and orders a lot of very refined old ladies about. Lorn is looking radiant as a Summer day and has given up wearing a hat for all time except on those occasions when she has to appear either with me, for me, or on account of me in the Police Court … Johnnie Mills has had a baby daughter [Juliet] to which I am Godfather. Arthur Macrae is in the R.A.F. and has got rather fat.
Four “Madchen in Uniform”: Ann Todd, Joyce Carey, Peggy Ashcroft, and Celia Johnson.
And now my great news. Ivor is coming back to London in Dancing Years and opens (and probably closes) at the Adelphi in March. As I cannot top that terrific bon bouche, I will now close … but I do want to know all that is happening to you, what your plans are, how Natasha is, how Fairfield is, how Leonora [Corbett] received my wistful little letter, how dear Clifton [Webb] is behaving, if Peggy [Wood] is as noisy as ever and how the Lunts are.
Love, love, love, love, love
POPPA
PS. Lorn particularly requests that if you should happen to be an airraid warden, will you please be photographed immediately and send us one, because a picture of that round beguiling face surmounted by a tin hat would cheer us up no end. We miss you terribly, terribly and quote your wickeder jokes from the past over and over again and oh dear, oh dear, when in all this Goddam chaos shall we all be together again?
Work on the film began in earnest. Noël and Gladys moved into twin cottages at Denham to be near the studio, and shortly after there was an omen of sorts. The Navy wrote to say:
January 23rd
Of course we can commission H.M.S. Denham for which draft there will be no lack of volunteers. We will get a representative destroyer ship's company together, with a beard or two if possible, and give all the assistance we can to the making of the film.
For the ship to have the same name as the studio in which the film was to be shot seemed an encouraging sign.
With filming now under way, Noël could report to Violet:
March 16th
Really the way they have constructed the destroyer is wonderful. It is life size and accurate in every detail, though it's made chiefly of wood and plaster. The Navy is delighted and the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth has lent us crowds of real sailors when I need them for the big scenes. The War Office has also let me have 300 Coldstream Guards for the Dunkirk part … It's tremendously hard work but I am enjoying it. We had to spend eight days in an enormous tank filled with filthy fuel oil and, mercifully, warm water. You've never seen such sights as we looked. Before starting a scene we had to rub this black filth into our hair and ears and all over, then put on sopping clothes and flop in! The Kents [Duke and Duchess of Kent] came during that week and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle. On the screen, of course, the effect is marvelous—it really looks like the open sea. Happily we are at last clean again, even our finger nails have returned to normal!
In which we wait to serve. Actor Bernard Miles chats with the Duke and Duchess of Kent over a nice cup of tea.
There were lighter moments in darkest Denham. Gladys was given leave from her wartime assignment in the MTC (Mechanized Transport Corps) to assist Noël by designing the film's sets and clothes. In peacetime she was notorious for her somewhat multicolored personal apparel. This she had now had to exchange for an unrelieved khaki, causing Noël to write her another of his verse letters. (For some time her nickname had been “Blackheart,” commonly reduced to “Blackie.”)
Where are the bright silk plaids of happier years
And all those prawns that used to deck your e
ars?
Where, in the mists of yesterday, oh where
Is that small watch that formed a boutonniére?
Where is the twist of Mechlin lace you had
And called a hat before the world went mad?
Where's the harpoon that fastened up your coat,
Where those gay mouchoirs d’ Apache for your throat?
All, all are gone. The leopard skin, the sheath
Of striped percale. But perhaps beneath
Your blue and khaki, so austere and cold,
My Blackheart is my Blackheart as of old,
With shoulder-straps of shagreen and maybe
A brassiere of lapis lazuli.
In the Coward “family” you had to get used to this kind of affectionate teasing. Sadly there was a lot less to laugh about when later in the year Gladys received news that her son, Hugo, had been killed.
TO VIOLET:
Denham
April 9th
Everything continues to go with a swing. Yesterday was a highly exciting day because the King and Queen and the two Princesses came and spent three hours. I received them at the main entrance with Dickie and Edwina and Gladys. We took them onto the set first—there were two hundred sailors in the dock of the ship and they all came to attention. The King took the salute and it was really very moving. It was charming of him to come in Naval uniform. I did the “Dunkirk” speech with the ship rolling and the wind blowing and a good time was had by all. After that I took them all over the ship … I presented most of the staff and the cast. The Royalties were really enchanting to everyone, very gay and interested and informal. After that we took them through the workshops, then to the projection room to see some of the scenes we'd already done. They seemed very impressed and couldn't have been more enthusiastic. We all had a gala tea and I sat between them both and had a long talk about a lot of things. Their effect on the studio was electric …Altogether it was a great success.
A progress report also went to Lynn and Alfred:
17 Gerald Road
S.W.i
30th July, 1942
Darling, darling, darling,
Jack will have told you that the film is finished except for cutting and dubbing. I really do think it's pretty good and oh how I am longing for you to see it. It's a fair old tear jerker and I hope you cry satisfactorily.
I enjoyed doing the Film in a way but it's a soul destroying business from the acting point of view. One of the good things that has emerged from it is my determination never again to sell a play of mine to the movies unless I have complete control. In order to ensure this I have formed my own permanent unit consisting of Ronald Neame, (the best camera man in the business) and David Lean, who is the only first rate cutter and director over here. They are both young and enthusiastic, expert and perfectly charming—you really will love them when you eventually meet them. David's wife [Kay Walsh], incidentally, plays the girl in my Film and is perfectly wonderful. They are making, under my supervision, a film of This Happy Breed while I am playing it on tour. After that I intend to do Blithe Spirit, probably myself, in technicolour. With this arrangement no play or story of mine can be done without my control. If, for instance, another company wishes to buy a script that we shall not have time to do ourselves, the casting and direction and choice of camera man, cutter, etc., will be controlled by my unit and so never again, I hope, shall I see bloody massacres like Bitter Sweet, Design for Living, etc., etc. It really won't entail so very much extra work for me and, although I shall not get vast Hollywood prices, I shall at least ensure that my prestige as an author will not be lowered in the eyes of millions of people by the grubby minds of a bunch of Hollywood cheap skates. I am sure you will approve of all this.
I still move dimly about in the political shadows in so far as I know pretty well what is going on. I spent an enchanting weekend with the Edens. He is in fine form although obviously working terrifically hard.
Jack will have also told that I am going off for a six months tour of the provinces. I'm madly excited about this, for to get back to the theatre again after the God damned Film industry is sheer heaven. Apart from the three plays I have to do two munitions concerts a week and various inspiring speeches, so I shall be hard at it … I am now going away for two weeks holiday to Wales to learn my parts and relax. What wouldn't I give for just a few days with you and Grandpa? I really do miss you so dreadfully. I suppose this bloody war will end sometime so that we can all be together again even if we're in bathchairs.
… Oh dear, oh dear, there's so much I want to tell you that I couldn't possibly put in a letter. I think of you such a lot and it would be lovely once more to put my little triplicate photograph frame on a stage dressing table instead of a movie one.
Love, love, love, love, love, love,
NOELIE
And Gertie was anxious to tell him that the word of mouth was out in America even before the film opened in England:
American Theatre Wing
War Service Inc.
Gertrude Lawrence Branch
Dennis, Massachusetts
September 14th 1942
Dearest old Dearest,
The news of the “Coward Picture” has spread far and wide, with also many stills in Life mag., so naturally America is all agog and getting ready to redeem its War Bonds to buy tickets.
All my love
GERT
Noël wrote a detailed account of the filming in Future Indefinite, All that needs to be said here is that the film was about what it is like to fight a war and what it is like to be the loved ones at home, waiting and worrying.
We see the HMS Torrin (aka the Kelly) built and fitted, taking her sea trials and then going into combat. We get to know members of her crew, and when the ship is sunk off Crete and the survivors cling to the Carley raft waiting to be picked up, we see—in a series of lengthy flashbacks— something of their private lives.
Despite his assurances to Mountbatten that this was not intended to be Mountbatten's own personal story, the fact remains that in the film, Noël as Captain D wears Mountbatten's naval cap and uses his friend's address to the men almost verbatim.
In Which We Serve had its premiere on September 17, 1942, and was an immediate and enormous critical success.
Edwina Mountbatten wrote:
15 Chester Street
Belgrave Square
S.W.i.
Darling Noël,
I have just had a letter from the Queen in which she says—”I hear that Noël Coward's film is superb, for he so utterly understands and loves our wonderful people.” I so agree with her, but I think you know just what Dickie and I feel about the picture and how much we rejoice in your own happiness in what you have succeeded in doing for so many millions of people.
With very much love.
Edwina
A relieved Lord Mountbatten wrote:
Combined Operations Headquarters
IA Richmond Terrace
Whitehall S.W.i.
24th October, 1942
Dear Noël,
The King and Queen kept their promise and ran “In Which We Serve” at the official dinner for Mrs. Roosevelt. The party included the Prime Minister (who had seen it before and said he liked it better the second time than the first), Field Marshal Smuts [South Africa], the American Ambassador, etc. All were genuinely thrilled with it.
I liked it as much the third time as the first.
Two days later Churchill wrote to Mountbatten:
October 26, 1942
PRIVATE
I thought Noël Coward's film In Which We Serve was rather more mixed than when I saw it the first time. It is conceived in the spirit of a dream passing before a man in the early stages of drowning, but in some respects the chronology is disturbed. There should be a few captions to say whether it was Crete or the North Sea where they were fighting. The two operations are so mixed up now that most people would find it difficult to follow them separately. There was at first a caption saying �
��Crete 1941,” but this seems to have been dropped out of the later edition.
As you took an interest in the film, perhaps it would be well for you to have a talk with the author on the subject.
WC
26/X
Later Mountbatten wrote to Noël to explain and excuse Churchill's reaction. He had had to leave the room at a crucial point in the story to take a phone call about the desert war in Libya and had been understandably distracted from the film.
The king apparently “told off” the prime minister about getting muddled the second time he saw the film.