[Holly Martins]

DD-L's mother is the actress Jill Bacon.

[Terese Coe]

"WyndhamLewis was primarily a painter (good I think) but he also wrote novels, unreadable to me, and indulged in controversy. A powerful, not altogether nice man. I think Woolf may have despised, or hated, Wyndham Lewis because of his very right-wing politics. In otherwords they were enemies."

Thanks, John. That clarifies things, as does this:

"Lewis's novels are known among some critics for their satirical and hostile portrayals of Jews, homosexuals, lesbians and other minorities...During the years 1934-37 Lewis wrote The Revenge for Love (1937) set in the period leading up to the Spanish Civil War, regarded by many as his best novel. It is strongly critical of communist activity in Spain, and presents English intellectual fellow-travellers as deluded...Lewis's writing is in places undoubtedly offensive to minorities, but it is also offensive about majorities." [Wiki]

[R. S. Gwynn]

Day Lewis pere spent his last days in Kingsley Amis's house.

[David Anthony]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

All the things you say are true but I think you are forgetting one very simple thing. Most American actors won't play bad guys, particularly Nazi bad guys. Gregory Peck did it but I can't think of another one. So Nazis are always Brits. I wrote one of my best poems about this. It's called 'Being the Bad Guy' and here it is.

A posh English accent is Hollywood shorthand for villainy - even the Nazis have them.

Being the Bad Guy

I've been the Bad Guy a long time:
Sir Farquar Fitz-Arthur Fitz-Arse.
For hundreds of years I've been calling the shots
And I soon had my copybook covered in blots
As I duffed up the Irish, the Welsh and the Scots,
But you have to admit I've got class!
He's got Class,
Yes, we have to admit he's got Class!

I've been the Bad Guy a long time:
Captain Courtney Carruthers-Carlisle,
Perfidious master of legerdemain.
I did for the Beards and the Galleons of Spain
And I did for the Froggies again and again,
I was evil but how I had style!
He had style,
Oh so evil, but look at his style!

I've been the Bad Guy a long time:
Lord Valentine Vernon de Vere.
I'm a titled and treacherous, base and baronial,
Rabid reactionary, cheap ceremonial,
Vilely Imperial, Home and Colonial
King of the kick and the sneer!
Yes the sneer,
Uncrowned king of the kick and the sneer!

I've been the Bad Guy a long time:
I've been Just-As-Bad-As-lt-Gets.
I seduce with sang-froid, I corrupt with finesse.
I'm a serial sinner, a monster, a mess,
I'm Caligula, Satan, the Waffen SS,
And I even (gulp!) smoke cigarettes!
Cigarettes,
Yes, he even (aaargh!) smokes cigarettes!

I've been the Bad Guy such a long time
I don't think I know how to stop.
Ah the lure of the laudanum, the lick of the lash,
As I ravish young girls and abscond with their cash.
It's a quip and a twirl of my villain's moustache
Keeps this Englishman always on top!
He's on top,
For the English are always on top!

I did enjoy the Whitworth: brilliant in its way.

[Gail White]

Then again, why do the English believe that (as Noel Coward put it) "There's always something fishy about the French"?

[Jerome Betts]

Andrew, nice version of the old chestnut, except I think your view of the police over here is a bit out of date.

No problem with some Americans playing English people, e.g Gregory Peck and Meryl Streep. Her accent was brilliant in The French Lieutenant's Woman and superlative in that wartime SOE film based on a play.

[Skip Dewahl]

To mention Jeremy Irons again, when can we expect to see him in a remake role of the Boris Karloff Frankenstein monster? Now there's a villein, albeit not of his own choosing, I'd like to see afresh.

[Gail White]

Originally Posted by Jerome Betts

No problem with some Americans playing English people, e.g Gregory Peck and Meryl Streep. Her accent was brilliant in The French Lieutenant's Woman and superlative in that wartime SOE film based on a play.

Mastering accents is what actors do. I believe Jude Law is English, but he played the Southerner in "Cold Mountain" perfectly.

[Charlotte Innes]

Originally Posted by David Landrum

Americans have always had an inferiority complex about Brits--speak with a British accent and Americans will think you are intellectually superior.
dwl

At work... only have a minute... e-mail down at home... But outside movies, an English accent is considered the height of everything here. I've lived in the US for (ahem) over 20 years now, and I must have been told that my accent is "cute" several thousand times! I like to think it helps at job interviews and such, but can't prove it... Well, at least people pay attention in stores--sorry, shops!

Is movie life different from real life--or just exploring the dark side of the US-Brit issue?

Charlotte

[Marion Shore]

I think British actors take the prize for the cultivated upper-class villains--Nazis and such--but Americans have cornered the market on the viscerally horrifying psychos (notably Anthony Perkins) -- and who could match the chilling performance of Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death" and Robert Mitchum's bloodcurdling turn in "Night of the Hunter"--not to mention Jack Nicholson at the top of his nutcakey game?

Let's be fair--we've got our share of baddies on both sides of the pond.