Again, this was on Talking Pictures this Bank Holiday Monday afternoon 1 May 2023 – it is a film I did not know at all and can’t remember it’s release here or indeed anything about it.

However I did view it, and, true to reports, it proved quite a compelling film to watch – when I started I didn’t think I could stay the course but it sort of sucked you in and held you.

Dan O’Herlihy took the leading role in this, one of his best remembered films it seems, and he does give a very good performance in a difficult role where he is the main – and for a while – the only actor, so he effectively carries the film.

It was made in Pathécolor – Pathécolor, later renamed Pathéchrome, was an early mechanical stencil-based film tinting process for films developed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé in the early 20th century. Among the last feature films to use this process was the Mexican film Robinson Crusoe (1954) by Spanish Director Luis Buñuel

Dan O’Herlihy as Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe tends to his sick dog – his constant and only companion at this stage of the film

Robinson Crusoe

Of the many great films Director Luis Bunuel was involved with, ROBINSON CRUSOE is one of his very best.

The film contains the feverish dream sequence where Crusoe’s father chides him for his adventurous, and, therefore, “wayward” spirit; the scene where he is so desperate to hear another human voice he goes to the Valley of the Echo and shouts a Psalm, and then walks in despair into the sea and the final scene where, leaving the island at last with Friday, he looks back for the last time, and hears the ghostly echo of his faithful, but long since dead dog, Rex, barking...

Robinson Crusoe above He is joined on the island by his ‘ Man Friday’

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

ABOVE and BELOW – The final ‘invasion’ but Robinson Crusoe and Friday plus the two they have helped escape from their captors, finally escape for the island

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe – has been on the island for more than 18 years and has survived.

This film and the acting by Dan O’Herlihy really convey to us, the audience, the suffering he has endured from loneliness and isolation and yet also the warmth that he got from Friday and his animals. In the first few years, he had his beloved dog, Rex but when he died that must have been the darkest time that he spent there.

What a good film

This film was shown on Talking Pictures this morning 1 May 2023 – I had heard of it but not seen it. The one thing that I can’t quite work out is – where was it filmed ? From all the information available it seems to have been done in Hollywood with a strong cast of English actors – many of them resident at the time in Hollywood.

However Martita Hunt had a prominent part but I cant imagine that she went over there – I may be wrong on that of course. On further investigation – I am wrong – Martita Hunt was over in the USA starring on Broadway in one of her famous stage roles ‘Thwe Mad Woman of Chaillot’ and she did 350 performance in this role

She must have fitted in her part in ‘The Fan’ during that time

In fact after ‘The Fan’ the next film she made was in England at Denham Film Studios – ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ in the summer of 1951

The production of ‘The Madwoman of Chaillot’ was staged also at the St James Theatre in London’s West End with Martita in the role, in 1951

After this at the Phoenix Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, she starred alongside Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier in ‘The Sleeping Prince’ written by Terence Rattigan – another great success for Martita.

The film rights to this play were acquired by Marilyn Monroe who came over to England to make is as ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ with Laurence Olivier co starring with her. He was not really very good – had she had a better leading man I feel that the film would have been more successful.

I do remember when Alfred Hitchock was casting ‘Rebecca’ he wanted Ronald Colman who was not available and so had to go along with Laurence Olivier. My view is that Ronald Colman – a superb screen actor – would have been much better

Most of us film goers remember her mainly for that wonderful and memorable performance as Miss Havisham in the classic 1946 film ‘Great Expectations’ and maybe also a little later for ‘The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men’ but it does seem that her greatest achievements were on stage either in the West End of London or on Broadway.

She had played Miss Havisham on stage to much acclaim and so when David Lean was casting the film, he looked no further that Martita Hunt

One Theatre critic, who had seen her on stage said of her :–

“With an arresting appearance and a dominant stage presence, she proved most effective as strong, tragic characters, her Gertrude in Hamlet being accounted by some critics the finest they had seen.”