Re-discovered for the 2013 London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, this "Play of the Week" is being hailed by the BFI as "possibly the earliest surviving British gay television drama". It's based on the 1953 play by Julien Green, which played a theatre club in London in 1955 because its theme was rejected by the Lord Chamberlain (the UK theatre censor). Set in the American South in 1861, months before the start of the Civil War, it concerns Polish soldier Jan (Peter Wyngarde, who is visiting the Broderick family in South Carolina when he falls in love with plantation owner Eric (Graydon Gould). In keeping with most gay drama of the period, it ends in tragedy. Green's skill lies in hinting at the love that dare not speak its name in much the way the subject would have been dealt with in polite society in the 19th century. This is a fine drama of unspoken love, with many other conflicts seething away on the sidelines. It's expertly handled by unknown Canadian director Mario Prizek, who always finds the right camera angle to convey the intended emotion. Wyngarde does well (sometimes with the camera inches from his face)and the rest of the cast is also of interest. It includes several black players, among them Johnny Sekka, who later went to Hollywood; former Hollywood silent screen star Bessie Love; and child actor Karl Lanchbury, who ended up in soft porn. Unfortunately the accents are all over the place. The play was broadcast live in 1959 and is an example of how well TV coped with live drama at this time. There are no hiccups, only a brief moment when somebody doesn't duck down far enough as he runs underneath a camera. We just see the top of his head. Also watch for the bit where a boy leads an old, blind slave out of a door and they can briefly be seen speeding up in order to make their next entrance somewhere else. Without ad breaks, it runs 81 minutes. It will be added to the BFI's Mediatheque, where anyone can view it. Recommended.
Review of South
