Good God, Good Guinness

Steyn Online ^ | 29 Aug 2020 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

This August marks the twentieth anniversary of the passing of Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE, all of which is a long way from how he entered the world in 1914 as Alec Guinness de Cuffe. His mother was Agnes Cuff, and the Frenchification of her maiden name seems to have been an attempt to compensate for the blank space on the birth certificate where "Name of Father" should appear. "Alec Guinness" were his two Christian names, leading to periodic suggestions that his pa was a member of the Guinness family. Sir Alec himself took the view that he had been sired by a Scottish banker who turned up at the flat once in a while purporting to be an "uncle" and who paid for his young "nephew" to be educated privately. He was, at least in public, not much interested in his parents, neither the absent nor the present one. From this appropriately vague lineage emerged one of the most versatile actors of the twentieth century, and (via Star Wars) one of the wealthiest.

Alec Guinness was also an occasional contributor to The Spectator and a regular reader of it, although for some years I was never certain whether he got as far as my old film column. His friend Graham Greene had been a predecessor of mine as the Speccie's motion picture critic and he may have felt, quite reasonably, that from Greene to Steyn is not progress on the film-reviewing front. But in 1996 I was reviewing the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma and, prodded by the alleged Jane Austen expert I made the mistake of taking along to the screening, I bemoaned the ghastly dialogue, full of obvious non-Austenisms.

[Rummyfan]

Eight Alec Guinness roles, from one film, Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949)

[Liz]

Thanks for the pics.......one of my all-time fave movies.....Guiness was magnificent in each part.

[Buttons12]

While rooting around for treasure at youtube the other day, I found Guinness in a surprisingly dull story about Malta, aptly titled Malta Story.
He was great in Bridge.
Never saw Star Wars.

[Buttons12]

prodded by the alleged Jane Austen expert I made the mistake of taking along to the screening, I bemoaned the ghastly dialogue

That'll teach you not to borrow grace!

[Da Coyote]

Great article, but that last sentence brought a smile. Brilliant.

[Rummyfan]

While rooting around for treasure at youtube the other day, I found Guinness in a surprisingly dull story about Malta, aptly titled Malta Story.

I watched that recently too.

[angmo]

Speaking of Paltrow. I was walking through Tribeca in the mid 90s and they had closed off Beach Street to film some movie.

I was pretty drunk, it was snowing and this hot actress in costume was standing there and I said “what are you filming?”. She said “Great Expectations”.

I said “Oh, another remake. You know Alec Guinness, the guy who played Obi Wan Kenobe in Star Wars played in the original?”. She said “Oh there was an origianl?”.

I said “Believe it or not it was a book too. Good luck”.

[decal]

You can also find one of Guinness' last roles on YT, as the title character in Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote, with Leo McKern as Sancho.

As far as the Ealing comedies go, look for the wonderfully droll The Captain's Paradise where he plays a bigamous steamship captain, one wife in Gibraltar, one in Spanish Morocco.

[Sans-Culotte]

Great article. Loved the Austen episode.

Other roles of Guinness' that I enjoyed are Yevgrav in Doctor Zhivago (Guinness & Rod Steiger both stand out in supporting roles) and Major Jones in The Comedians (Guinness was about the only good thing in that film). He really disappeared into his roles.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

That was a darkly funny movie.

I have to say I prefer the British ending to the American one.