Curtain Up *** (1952, Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Joan Rice, Kay Kendall, Michael Medwin) – Classic Movie Review 13,577  

The little known but essential 1952 British theatre-set comedy film Curtain Up memorably teams Margaret Rutherford and Robert Morley.

Director Ralph Smart’s little known but essential 1952 British comedy film Curtain Up teams Margaret Rutherford and Robert Morley at the head of an appealing cast that also includes Joan Rice, Kay Kendall and Michael Medwin.  It is written by Jack Davies and Michael Pertwee, based on the 1949 play On Monday Next by Philip King.

The epic battle of the chins between irascible repertory producer Harry Derwent Blacker (Robert Morley) and delightful dramatist Catherine Beckwith (Margaret Rutherford) is the attractive core of this pleasant, appealing Rank studios comedy with the authentic 50s flavour.

Joan Rice as timid young woman Avis, Kay Kendall as married Sandra Beverley, Michael Medwin as young actor Jerry Winterton, and Olive Sloane as widowed actress Maud Baron are also essential ingredients aboard the boards, and Lloyd Lamble shines as ‘Jacko’ Jackson, the exasperated stage director.

It is set in a fictional English provincial town called Drossmouth, where a second-rate repertory company are rehearsing the following week’s melodrama play Tarnished Gold at the Theatre Royal.

Curtain Up features fairly, er, smart direction by Smart, from a script based on Philip King’s play On Monday Next. Essentially, though, it’s valuable for the treasurable Morley and Rutherford star turns, and they are perfectly paired together, inimitably delivering the comedy goods.

Rutherford’s husband Stringer Davis appears as the Vicar and Rutherford’s eventual successor as Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Joan Hickson, is a landlady.

The cast are Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Olive Sloane, Joan Rice, Charlotte Mitchell, Kay Kendall, Michael Medwin, Liam Gaffney, Lloyd Lamble, Charlotte Mitchell, Charles Lamb, Constance Lorne, Maggie Hanley, Margaret Avery, Stringer Davis as vicar, Joan Hickson as Harry’s landlady, John Cazabon, Diana Calderwood, and Sam Kydd.

It is filmed in black and white but a colorised version is available.

It is made at London Film Studios, Isleworth, England.

Stringer Davis married Margaret Rutherford in 1945 after a 15-year courtship following the death of his mother, who opposed her as a daughter-in-law. The devoted couple appeared in more than 20 films together, notably the four films of Agatha Christie novels with Rutherford as Miss Marple in the early 1960s.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,577

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