Jane Austen's Books & Adaptations discussion

July 2024 Watch: Sense and Sensibility (1971)



1971 BBC TV Series. 4 episodes. 45 minutes (per episode).

Written by Dramatized by Denis Constanduros, and directed by David Giles.

Cast:
Elinor Dashwood - Joanna David (23)
Marianne Dashwood - Ciaran Madden (28)
Edward Ferrars - Robin Ellis (28)
John Willoughby - Clive Francis (24)
Colonel Brandon - Richard Owens (39)
Mrs. Jennings - Patricia Routledge (41)
Sir John Middleton - Michael Aldridge (50)
Lady Middleton - Sheila Ballantine (42)
Mrs. Dashwood - Isabel Dean (52)
John Dashwood - Milton Johns (32)
Lucy Steele - Frances Cuka (34)
Nancy (!) Steele - Maggie Jones (36)


[Marianne, Willoughby, Edward and Elinor]

Where to watch:
YouTube - https://youtu.be/D45VvEeUNLo?si=VShK-... (ep 1)

So this is my period adaptation for 2024 Jane Austen July Readathon.

My thoughts after Episode 1:

Adapting Chapters 1- 13.
Picture quality is what you would expect from an old TV show - grainy picture & washed out colors. Hair, make-up, and costumes are painfully 70s.
Interiors are shot in a studio (and it's obvious) though there are several on-location exterior shots.

Screenplay is a bit unimaginative, there are many cuts but most of the dialogue is from the book /albeit abbreviated or shuffled to different scene/. Casting of the main characters is fine. I really like Joanna David as Elinor. Ciaran Madden is maybe a bit older looking than Marianne, but she is properly self-centered, foolish and annoying - a typical teenager.

- Margaret is cut entirely. There are only two sisters.
- Edward stammers and is more awkward than in the book. Interesting choice. Works quite well.
- Willoughby should be more dashing. The wig doesn't help and the voice doesn't fit either. I can see the actor as John Thorpe in NA.
- Colonel Brandon as usual for most adaptation is cast too old. 35 yo should not mean ancient.
- The actress playing Mrs Jenkins is having fun with the role but she looks younger than the actress cast as her daughter Lady Middleton. It's distracting when they stand next to each other.
- Sir John Middleton is overacting in a bizzare way. Bad choice either by the actor or the screenwriter.

My thoughts after watching Episode 2:

Adapting Chapters 14-28 (up to Willoughby snubbing Marianne at the ball).

In this episode I first felt that the plot was compressed too much. Everything is happening at a much tighter schedule. On the day of the failed Delaford party, after Colonel Brandon leaves and Willoughby and Marianne visit Allenham, Mrs Smith discovers what happened with Eliza and sends Willoughby away. In a couple of days, Edward arrives, stays only one night, never dines at Barton park, the next day the Palmers and Misses Steeles arrive at Barton Park, a ball is held, where Lucy starts to work on Elinor at once. The very next day Lucy forces herself into Barton Cottage to divulge her "secret" to Elinor. The very next day, everybody decides to leave for London, Marianne and Elinor accept Mrs Jennings' offer to go with her. After they arrive, Colonel Brandon comes and at once asks Elinor about Marianne's engangement to Willoughby, after the conversation he invites all of them to the ball where they meet Willoughby. It's way too rushed.

- Casting director did a really a bizarre job casting female supporting roles. The ages of most of the actresses are all over the place. Lucy Steele looks at least 35. Mrs Gray is on the ugly side. Mr Palmer is by far the most handsome man of all the cast?!
- They overstated the vulgarity of Mrs Jennings, the Middletons and Miss Steeles. Particularly Lucy is a caricature, no living person acts like this. Everybody is impossibly rude calling Miss Dashwoods by Christian names (sometimes across the room for everybody to hear), touching them, physically draging them around the room.
- Male costumes are horrid, especially shirts. What were they thinking every man wearing a bizzare starched asymetrical ruffle sticking out of their waistcoats?!
- Marianne's behavior is exagerated. I know it doesn't sound possible. But her absolutely rude familiarity when talking to Edward, or her hysterical howling at the ball when Willoughby snubs her is worthy of a bottle of Xanax.

Overall impression: not possitive.

Episodes 3 and 4 were better than episode 2.

- They changed Willoughby's letter, there is no lock of hair, no return of previous corespondence, and the impact is a bit muted because of that (it's the result of how compressed Episode 2 was)
- The rudeness of Mrs Ferrars to Elinor takes place in a much wider company. There is a screen painted by Elinor on display and Mrs Ferrars offends Elinor's art more overtly than in the book. Marianne flies into hysterics. She causes such a scene that John Dashwood is horrified and ashamed of the connection.
- Lucy Steele remains a caricature of a human being. I believe she might be a cocroach wearing a human skinsuit.
- Mrs Jennings has more scenes than I would expect. The actress was quite populat at the time. So it might explain that.
- Colonel Brandon presses Elinor to offer Delaford living to Edward in his name way too much. Elinor then goes unchaperoned to Edward's bachelor pad to do so. Edward tries to profess his feelings to Elinor?! Shouldn't have been there IMO.
- Marianne gets sick on her way to Cleveland and faints almost immediately she gets there.
- Willoughby's conversation with Elinor is mostly intact.
- Mrs Dashwood starts scheming and promoting Colonel Brandon to Marianne almost immediately after her arrival at Cleveland (that much is consistent with the book).
- The added conversation between Marianne and Brandon and their bonding over books were nice.
- While Edward is proposing to Elinor in the garden, Colonel Brandon adresses Marianne as "my dear Marianne", she smiles at him and he kisses her hand. Elinor and Edward dash indoors, announce their engangement and everybody is merry. THE END.

My thought on the series:

Loved Joanna David as Elinor. Easily the best performance of the series. Ciaran Madden as Marianne was convincingly ebullient, hystrionic, and/or annoyingly rude. At 28 she did pull off a more than decade-younger Marianne quite well.

Isabel Dean as Mrs Henry Dashwood was fine. Patricia Routledge played Mrs. Jennings sometimes with too much gusto but overall I liked her slightly exaggerated performance. Robin Ellis was a fine Edward - the added stutter and clumsiness worked quite well. I didn't care for Clive Francis as Willoughby, he had a shrewd slimy look about him that made him instantly suspicious. (Or maybe it was just me anticipating what was to come?!). Richard Owens as Colonel Brandon didn't have much on-screen time, but when he did (especially in Episode 4) he did fine.

Performances I thought were bad: Michael Aldridge as Sir John Middleton and the main offender Frances Cuka as Lucy Steele. These characters were pure caricatures. Sir John's loud ejaculations felt unnatural and artificial - proclamations of memorized lines. And Lucy? I expect Lucy Steele to be superficially pretty and elegant, and underneath it cunning, a competent liar and flatterer. I need to believe that anybody would be duped by her. This Lucy Steele was played as a vulgar monster who couldn't conceal her true nature for a second. Whatever the flaws of the script might have been, these actors failed to bring humanity to their characters.

All of the story beats were there. The added scenes didn't bother me much, with the exception of Elinor going unchaperoned into Edward's bachelor pad to offer him the living at Delaford. Did it really add anything meaningful? The incorrect use of given names drove me bonkers.

Costumes and make-up were 70s TV kind of bad. Music felt generic.

I can't fathom what the casting director was thinking?! The ages of the actors were all over the place. Mrs Jenning is one year younger than her daughter Lady Middleton?! The actresses looked their respective ages and it was immersion-breaking to see them standing beside each other. The same goes for Lucy Steele - the actress looks her real age - 34 (at the time of the shooting) maybe even a bit older. Whenever she had a scene with Joanna David (23) it looked so strange. Even just her standing next to Edward whose actor was 5 years younger than her and looked more youthfull. I wouldn't mind their real ages if the make-up department could make them look younger, but they failed.

Final verdict: Overall, I thing that the series was neither terrible nor excellent, it was ...just fine.

Lucy reminded me of a cockroach wearing a human skinsuit. Devoid of humanity.