Bitter Sweet: Act 1 Scene 1; Act 1 Scene 2

Film of the original London production of Noël Cowards Bitter Sweet, produced by Charles B. Cochran and at this time, starring Evelyn Laye. The material is shot from a stationary camera position showing the whole stage set.

The film material used for these clips is from unedited footage in the British Pathé archive.

It is a wonderful piece of treasure in that it shows lengthy scenes and musical numbers from Noël Cowards operetta Bitter Sweet, directed by Coward himself and produced by Charles B. Cochran at His Majestys Theatre, London on 12 July 1929.

It would appear from the Pathé footage that Evelyn Laye is playing Sari (Peggy Wood had dark hair), which suggests that the film must have been made some time after November 1930, although Pathé dates the film as 1929.

In my cast lists, I have assumed that the other cast members were from the original production, however, during the London run other actors took over certain roles, and the quality of the film makes it almost impossible to discern who may be playing who.

The film is silent, and scenes are randomly spliced together, not in order.

I have re-edited the material, into correct scene order (I appeared in a production of the show myself back in 1982) and for accompaniment have attempted to use contemporary and or relevant recordings from the show.

Although Coward intended the role of Sari for Evelyn Laye, she was angry with Cochran at the time, as her then husband Sonnie Hale (brother of Binnie) was having an affair with musical comedy star Jessie Matthews. Laye refused to work for Cochran as she felt he, by pairing Hale and Matthews in three successive shows, knowing of their relationship, was partly culpable for the break up of their marriage.

The role of Sari was therefore played by American Peggy Wood (who had starred in the original production of Rombergs Maytime on Broadway 1917, (and is known to later audiences as the Mother Abbess in the film of The Sound of Music).

Evelyn Laye buried the hatchet with Cochran and later in 1929 starred in the Broadway production of Bitter Sweet at the Ziegfeld Theatre. In 1930, she returned to London to take over the role from Peggy Wood people queued for twenty six hours outside His Majestys to see her.

Of Layes New York appearance Coward commented:

She played as though she were enchanted. Early on in the ballroom scene she conquered the audience completely by singing the quick waltz song Tell me, what is Love? so brilliantly, and with such quality of excitement, that the next few minutes of the play were entirely lost in one of the most prolonged outbursts of cheering I have ever heard in the theatre.

Peggy Wood, George Metaxa and Ivy St Helier, from the original London Production, recorded songs from the show at the small Queens Hall on 27 August 1929.

Ten years later, Evelyn Laye recorded two songs from Bitter Sweet, and there are also her acetate recordings from a radio broadcast of Bitter Sweet.

Bitter Sweet was filmed in 1933 by Herbert Wilcox as a vehicle for his wife Anna Neagle, and included the following actors from the original stage production; Ivy St Helier, Clifford Heatherley, and Alan Napier (latterly famous as Alfred the butler in the 1960s Batman series)

Metro filmed it in 1941 in Hollywood with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.

Of the latter Coward opined: After Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers dreadful film I can never revive Bitter Sweet a pity I was saving it as an investment for my old age.