Customer Reviews

Storm in a Teacup [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Storm in a Teacup" is a British satire - filmed in the early 1930's- of American screwball comedy. It struck me just odd and mesmerizing at same time - seeing Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison very early in their careers playing off-beat charming characters. Rex Harrison (I hardly recognized him) plays a English reporter (Frank Brudon) who lands in a small Scottish town. He gets an interview (it even shows him taking Greg Shorthand) with the Provost (Cecil Parker) who is dictating his achievements and full of himself. Brudon changes the story around to focus on an ice cream vendor, Mrs. Hegarty, who won't buy her dog a license and the Provost, along with other authorities, threaten to kill it. The revised story sparks a revolt in the small town and threatens the positions of people in power.

One scene stuck out as goofy as Brudon was eating oatmeal, salting, buttering it - trying to get it down - and exclaiming he did not know how the Scotts ate porridge for breakfast every morning. We even get a close-up of the bowl of oatmeal that he exclaims horses should eat. Another scene involves the Scottish game of golf played with Rex and Vivian Leigh (who plays the Provost's daughter). There is much dialogue on when Vivian Leigh should call "Fore!" - before or after she hits the ball. I sat there wondering why I thought this was interesting.

Political pettiness is magnified through the goofy plot that Mrs. Hegarty's dog is impounded because it had no license. There is a fine that could have been paid by anyone at anytime, but the whole film dithers around the dog and its license. All the local officials and elites give fuel to the insane situations ending up in a court of law with crazy witnesses and pompous officials.

"Storm in a Teacup" is such an odd movie, I don't think I can erase it from my mind. The satire was soft, but definitely there. It is such an early film with dry, dry humor it is worth the watch for a few smiles and look at earliest work of Leigh and Harrison.

Wonderful little film, a must for those who have a soft spot in their hearts for Scotland and their ways. Rex and Vivien are a joy to watch. Both Leonard Maltin's Guide and the New York Times gave it very high ratings and they did not lead us astray.

Saw this film first on TV. It is a fun film if you like dogs. Has a fuuny scene with umteen dogs running amuck through a grand old English home.

Widowed Mrs. Hegarty (Sara Allgood), ice cream peddler residing in a fictive West Scottish coast village, Baikie, has as sole companion her dog Patsy, but after she neglects to pay an annual canine licensing fee, the Provost (Mayor) of Baikie, William Gow (Cecil Parker) commands that the animal be dispatched, thereby inciting the titular tempest, for which a young English journalist is largely responsible. He is Frank Burdon (Rex Harrison), recently arrived in Baikie to begin employment with its newspaper. "The Advertiser", and it is Frank's willfulness that brings trouble upon himself as well as for others. In spite of romantic mutual attraction between Frank and Gow's daughter Victoria (Vivien Leigh), the dauntless reporter is well pleased to find a strong human interest slant within Mrs. Hegarty's plight and composes a story that immediately is spread throughout Scotland, therewith effectively putting an end to Gow's political ambitions, as he was preparing to stand for a parliamentary post, an aspiration that has apparently gone a-glimmering due to the Patsy affair, with the Provost moved to exact redress from Burdon by suing him for slander, an action that summons the probability of a final break between Frank and Vickie Gow. The film is constructed upon a play, "Storm Over Patsy", written in 1930 by German expatriate to the United States Bruno Frank, who settled in Hollywood as a screenwriter. It was rephrased for its exhibition upon the American stage by Glaswegian James Bridie and mounted with a good deal of success during 1936 and 1937 upon Broadway, the production generally featuring vocative Allgood in addition to Leo G. Carroll as Willie Gow. The provincial complexion of Baikie is more clearly rendered upon the screen than the boards, and fortunately Alexander Korda supplies adequate funding to furnish what he intends as a "small" film with significant numbers of extras along with a gaily embellished mise-en-scène. A contemporaneous review of the picture by producer/director/critic Basil Wright, published in The Spectator, expanded the amiable film's popularity, and it has retained a following because of its colourful scenes and characters, but a viewer will make note as well of superb costuming and, as must be expected, a superior performance by Parker who handily annexes the acting laurels here.