Customer Reviews

Curtain

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For lovers of classical theatre, Shakespeare and old fashione movie stars in the tradition of Hollywood in the 40's, this is the book for you! While most readers will have undoubtedly read another of Michael Korda's books, Queenie, which was the thinly veiled story of Merle Oberon, "Curtain" follows in the same style with, this time, thinly veiled allusions to Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, in this book, called Robert Vane and Felicia Lisle. The story begins in Hollywood, where following Leigh's Oscar winning performance in "Gone with the Wind", the two lovers are appearing together in a financially disastrous tour of the US, in a series of Shakespeare's plays. The first sign of Felicia's mental fragility appears when she has a nervous breakdown, is hospitalised in a private sanitarium and the bills have to be paid by their agent, Hollywood sleaze, Marty Quick. This puts them in his debt for years and even after the start of WW2 when they have returned to London, he follows them to show his complete control over what they can perform. It's a very sexy book , peopled by over the top characters in whom the readers will totally believe (and perhaps even recognise). If you love movies and their stars, if you love Shakespeare and the stage and love being able to pick out thinly disguised, well known people, you'll adore this book.

If you liked "Queenie", you would hope to like "Curtain", but you'll be disappointed. It's a less-entertaining companion piece. This time, the central characters are based (at first) on still more people from Uncle Alex's wartime L.A. and London: Olivier and Leigh; their stage colleagues; Danny Kaye; a Billy Rose type. The structure is too close to "Queenie", the plot is too contrived, and the stars are quite tiresome over too many pages. There's a lot about the Magic of the Theatre, but the only memorable laughs and tears are in the scenes with the two Bad Guys; you'll wish it were their book instead. As in his memoirs, Korda may be too calm and too nice to be a great writer, though the talent is there; he's a butter knife when you want a dagger.