| The Holly and the Ivy | |
|---|---|
Original Australian film poster |
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| Directed by | George More O'Ferrall |
| Produced by | Anatole de Grunwald |
| Written by | Wynyard Browne Anatole de Grunwald |
| Starring | Ralph Richardson Celia Johnson Margaret Leighton |
| Music by | Malcolm Arnold |
| Cinematography | Edward Scaife |
| Distributed by | London Films |
| Release date(s) | 22 December 1952 (UK) February 4, 1954 (US) |
| Running time | 83 minutes (UK); 80 minutes (US) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Holly and the Ivy is a 1952 drama film about an English clergyman whose neglect of his grown offspring, in his zeal to tend to his parishioners, comes to the surface at a Christmas family gathering. It stars Ralph Richardson, Celia Johnson, and Margaret Leighton. It was adapted from a play by Wynyard Browne with Margaret Halstan as Aunt Lydia and Maureen Delaney as Aunt Bridget repeating their roles from the stage.[1]
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"Russian screen writer Anatole de Grunwald imbues this poignant adaptation of Wynward Browne's West End stage hit with Chekhov's spirit and relocates the Russian's genius for deftly drawn characters to a rambling Norfolk parsonage on Christmas Eve. Apart from a few introductory scenes in the capital, director George More O'Ferrall does little to hide the story's stage origins. But the family's confinement in a remote, snowy village reinforces the sense of detachment that Richardson's offspring have mistakenly imposed upon him and allows the screenplay to focus on such Chekhovian themes as the vagaries of emotion, the agony of disillusion, the breakdown of communication and the desecration of authority. The performances and clipped enunciation may seem antiquated to those reared on the kitchen sink realism that was about to transform British filmmaking. But to austerity audiences, a clergyman accepting his daughter drowning her sorrows [in alcohol] after personal tragedy would have seemed daring in both its honesty and its humanism. So while The Holly and The Ivy now radiates a nostalgic glow, it is actually a revealing record of a country on the cusp of the dramatic social, economic and cultural change that has, sadly, made faith, fidelity and family feel like relics of a distant past." [2]