User Reviews

This British television movie from 1991 is a real treasure.

"Absolute Hell" offers a glimpse of a world that few people today could have imagined. A Bohemian members-only club, run by the amazing Judi Dench. The telefilm, based on the novel "The Pink Room," takes place in 1945, shortly after Germany surrendered. The setting is SoHo, one of the rare locales where gay men and women could actually feel welcomed, at that time.

What makes this movie so fascinating to watch is the great cast, especially Hugh Nighy, as an alcoholic has-been writer, being deserted by his lover of 9 years, and Betty Marsden, riveting as lesbian literary critic R.B. Monody. Her role is of a type that has rarely been portrayed on film and she is brilliant.

Because this is an ensemble piece we may not get as deep into the characters as we might have, but I think that might be part of the charm here. It is more of a window into a time that few people have seen depicted, than a specific character study.

Well worth the time to watch, if you have the opportunity.

This is Rodney Ackland at his finest. Seeing as the public were not very inspired when Ackland first released this play as "The Pink Room" in 1951, it is great to finally see it getting the credit it deserves. It was a confrontational piece at the time, putting a mirror up to society...a society who didn't want to accept they were anything less than they appeared to be. Ackland wrote about life as it truly was...and the screen version does it a wonderful justice. Judy Dench is wonderful as Christine. Teetering on the edge of her "existence"...and doing everything that she can not to have to deal with the harsh reality of her life. She is surrounded by a host of fascinating characters, who she clings to in various ways, good or bad. Ackland has captured the essence of this period of time...just after the end of World War 2, where rationing and the black market were the only means of obtaining many of lifes little luxuries, and here we see those people who were (whether they accepted it or not) on the "outer" of society come together and exist together as they see fit. The moral high ground is represented through Madge, the ordinary everyday acceptable through Doris (though she is in her own right exceptional) and all the other wonderful aspects of a period through the various array of other peoples who inhabit the "La Vie En Rose". Life through Rose coloured glasses...maybe that's how these people are attempting to escape, when we as the viewer are allowed the privelege to witness the absolute rack and ruin they try so desperately to avoid. Someone once said that the definition of "Hell" is "other people". It is interesting to note that Christine's "Hell" is the LACK of these so-called "other people". This production is wonderful...I would recommend it to anyone to broaden their horizons. :)

While Dame Judi Dench is magnificent as always, this play is dreadfully depressing about the lives of London life after WWII. But my biggest problem with it is the more than average homosexuality in the drama. While Dame Judi plays the tragic lonely heroine who would plead for the companionship of a homosexual. The play is rather a grim and depressing too watch. Surprisingly, I did watch most of it. But I have to say that Doris is the only one sane reasonable character. Granted, she is a sexually repressed character who uses sports as an escape. She is the only one who makes the proper observation about the barflys or members as escaping into alcoholism and sex.

London is the magnet for those escaping the twitched net curtain and pursed-lipped respectability of the suburbs or provincial dullness. And Soho was the very pole of that magnet. The brilliant, the hopeless, the artist, the writer, the harmlessly perverted, the amiably perpetually drunk could all find comfort, stimulation, companionship and appreciation in Soho's after-hours drinking clubs. Geoffrey Bernard (brilliantly portrayed by Peter O'Toole in "Geoffrey Bernard is Unwell") was just one of its luminaries. Quentin Crisp another. One famous impecunious artist would go from table to table with an old tobacco tin collecting money to pay for her drinks. It was a small, odd world; later overshadowed by its own legends.

At a time when homosexual acts were illegal, Soho offered an entirely non-judgemental welcome to all who would obey its free and easy club social rules. Queer, camp or dyke could and would exchange drinks, anecdotes, smiles and confidences with everyone else. The wonderful late Betty Marsden as the butch R P Monody and her "constant companion" are just two more unusual inhabitants. The Bill Nighy character's obliging indifference to AC/DC polarities seemed though, to a non-expert eye, unlikely. But perhaps not in Soho.

The writing, location and ambiance are incredibly reminiscent of those of Patrick Hamilton yet without his cruelty and viciousness. Here people are generally kind. Nothing very remarkable happens. People come, people go. Outside, a new Labour government is elected. Inside, one person passes away in an undignified but convincingly true to life circumstance. Judi Dench frets. The late Charles Gray is a fish in water. Few people are still around who remember Soho just after the war. "Absolute Hell" seemingly perfectly recreates that world. The cast appear not to perform rather to inhabit it. Bill Nighy's extreme realistic conversational style of acting provides the final convincing evidence that we the audience are there 60 years ago a fly on the smoke-stained walls of the club. That is the magic of the writing and particularly the production.

I cannot praise highly enough this sensitively written, brilliantly directed and acted play. The cast is superb, everyone is a star - down to the shortest, simplest parts, the characters are believable and well rounded. Not one dud note in the whole piece.

And what a cast! What a treat to see these treasures all together. The superlative Judi Dench is, as ever, totally her character - the blowsy club proprietor with a heart of gold, generally half-cut and constantly pouring scotch down herself and others. She's the needy, disillusioned pivot for the has-beens, wannabees and seekers of false joy, who dredge comfort from the forced gaiety of her pink-lit ambiance. Bill Nighy is always a treat to watch and gives the goods as a struggling writer; Charles Grey, the OTT gay agent with his camp acolyte is smooth (this is the gracious actor who gave his voice to the ailing Jack Hawkins, who lost his to throat cancer); and Francesca Annis, ever beautiful, hiding her despair under the gloss of sophisticated Devil-may-care. They are just part of a truly star cast in this black comedy of people picking themselves up after the horrors of war. It is never too much; each scene beautifully trimmed.

Accolades to the writer, director, the BBC and the marvellous players. I have watched it over and over again. Did it win an award? It must have done.

I wish I hadn't missed the beginning when it was screened on UK TV recently.

A great play, and very lifellike if you've ever spent much time in a drinking club in Soho! Francesca Annis and Bill Nighy are as brilliant as ever. Love the old bag who keeps asking "Is anyone going Earlsy Courtsy way?" (Translation - Can anyone give me a lift to Earls Court?) xxxxx