# 11: Travels with My Aunt (1972)

Maggie Smith

as Aunt Augusta Bertram

in

Travels with My Aunt (1972)

 Screentime: 74 minutes and 2 seconds (68.2% of the film)

Maggie Smith plays the aging, odd and eccentric Augusta Bertram who meets her estranged nephew Henry at her sister/his mother’s funeral and cremation. From there Augusta introduces and welcomes her nephew into her extravagant and rather crazy lifestyle and Henry begins to learn of her illegal dealings as she decides to go overseas and chase after an old lover she met while she was young. The film is flawed and can be bizarre and stupid in places, but is still a fun ride with engaging performances enhancing the absurd screenplay. Interestingly the film’s humour/ type of comedy was something of a rarity of 1972 with gags among others about severed human limbs, marijuana and (my favourite) Augusta trying to sing the church hymn at the beginning.

FILM:

 

Maggie plays an elderly (with significant makeup), middle aged and even a teenage version of Augusta (with the latter looking quite ridiculous as a 40 year old Maggie stands next to actual 13 year old girls wearing the same uniform). Nonetheless she is a riot and so engaging in all aspects of her performances, she wears fabulous outfits (the film won the Oscar for best costume design) and she sports a grating accent. Fun ride, don’t take it too seriously. Surprisingly Maggie got a nomination for Best Actress here (amongst Cicely Tyson and Liv Ullman in much more Academy genre fare), and I think she deserves it!

MAGGIE-METER: 
 

 

"It's the best way to win a woman, Henry, to make her laugh."

# 10: The Honey Pot (1967)

Maggie Smith

as Sarah Watkins

in

The Honey Pot (1967)

 Screentime: 47 minutes and 26 seconds (37.7% of the film)

The Honey Pot is a rather strange murder/mystery/comedy where a wealthy and theatrical man Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) with the assistance of a former actor (Cliff Robertson) inadvertedly decides to pull a rather cruel joke on his three former flames and announces he is dying and asks each to come to his Venice home to say their final goodbyes. The three women arrive: Capucine as Princess Dominiqe, Edie Adams as the actress Merle and Susan Haywood as Mrs. Lone Star Crockett Sheridan (what a name!) who also brings her nurse Ms. Watkins (Maggie Smith). One night Mrs. Sheridan announces she is actually Fox’s common in law wife, however she is found dead in her home. The mystery begins as to who did it and why.

FILM:

I originally thought Maggie Smith had a smallish supporting role, and it turns out she actually ends up with the largest female part, while the biggest star from the cast ends up dead less than hour into the film. Confusing stuff. However she is fun and genuine here as she plays a love interest to Cliff Robertson’s character as well as the problem-solver for the fishy activity that is going on (the other gals really only sleep walk their parts). Her final few scenes are particularly memorable as she takes control of the situation and puts her foot down. A good performance!

MAGGIE-METER:

"... Love? You can't even say it, you poor man, you make it sound like hate."

# 9: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

Maggie Smith

as Muriel Donnelly

in

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

 Screentime: 18 minutes and 31 seconds (15.8% of the film)

 

John Madden's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a story of a group of older British citizens deciding to move and reside in a supposed luxury retirement village in India for a variety of reasons, either looking for a change of scenery, confronting past relationships, finding a wealthy husband, and for one, no pleasure or enjoyment whatsoever but for a speedy hip replacement procedure. The latter is of course Maggie Smith.

Once they have arrived, the group struggle to learn to adjust to such a severe culture change as they go about exploring the sights as well as looking for love, happiness and some contentment in their lives. It’s a wonderful ensemble piece with some of Britain’s best delivering a nice mix of drama and comedy. 

FILM:

 

Maggie Smith is the elderly Muriel Donnelly, a racist and bigot who initially gives everyone a hard time and is only going to India for her operation and planning to go straight back home when it is over. But as the film progresses we learn of her loneliness and her heartbreak over losing her long-time job as a maid for a family she considered her own. She then discovers that coming to India may have been the best thing for her as she starts snooping into the hotel’s financial accounts. 

Here Maggie is doing her trademark British bitch role, but instead of the typical snooty upper society lady, her character is a lot more Cockney/working class. She has a few wonderful scenes and as usual she delivers some of the film’s best lines. It's wonderful to see such a nice supporting role at Maggie's age, her presence promises a few laughs.

MAGGIE METER:

 

(referring to a nearby black doctor washing his hands)
"He can wash all he likes, that colour's not coming out..."

# 8: Death on the Nile (1978)

Maggie Smith

as Miss Bowers

in

Death on the Nile (1978)

Screentime: 15 minutes and 55 seconds (12.0% of the film)*
* Includes the short flaskback sequences which is repeated footage.

Death on the Nile is the 1930s Agatha Christie mystery focusing on a group of mainly English tourists visiting Egypt. The story mainly focuses on the young English couple Simon and Linnet and the ex-girlfriend Jacqueline. While travelling down the Nile one night, Simon is shot and injured by Jacqueline and Linnet is shot and killed in her bedroom within a matter of minutes. The only problem is Jacqueline has an alibi and couldn’t have killed her and the detective Hercule Poirot starts looking at the other passengers on the steam boat as the possible suspects. As it turns out they all have a significant motive for murdering Linnet.

The film is a lot of fun despite lacking the classiness of Murder on the Orient Express and some of the acting performed by in particular Mia Farrow  and Lois Chiles is a little cringe-worthy and melodramatic. The outcome is incredibly over the top but still entertaining and it is fun to see the all star cast ensemble act their respective parts: Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury (who is hilarious in her part), David Niven, Jack Warden and others.

FILM:

Maggie Smith plays Miss Bowers, the nurse and “servant” of the American socialite Mrs. Van Schuyler (Bette Davis). Davis and Smith have wonderful chemistry together and the two quarrel and bicker and deliver some hilarious dialogue such as:

Mrs. Van Schuyler: Come, Bowers, it's time to go, this place is beginning to resemble a mortuary.
Miss Bowers: Thank God you'll be in one yourself before too long you bloody old fossil!

You pick up early on that there is such limited character development for about 80% of the characters in Agatha Christie stories, and unfortunately Miss Bowers is no exception. Alot of her screentime accounts for her just sitting on the side of the screen or in the background as well as the extended revelation sequence which she is silently featured. She really only has a handful of short scenes featuring dialogue and one interrogation scene, but as I have said, the is pure Agatha Christie (remember Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for basically one scene and a bunch of reaction shots in Murder on the Orient Express). It was incredibly chic for an actor in the ‘70s to appear in a rather small part in the huge ensemble mysteries or disaster flick. It usually meant an easy good salary and high box office returns. Here Maggie is funny and excels in her part, even if she and many others in the cast were underused.

MAGGIE-METER:

 

"It has been my experience that men are least attracted to women who treat them well."

A little break. Will be back in a week.

Insanely busy at the moment hence the lack of updates/reviews. Will be back in about a week.

# 7: Capturing Mary (2007)

Maggie Smith

as Mary Gilbert

in

Capturing Mary (2007) (TV)

Screentime: 43 minutes and 29 seconds (44.8% of the film)

An orthodox choice I admit to pick so early, but Capturing Mary is the story of a young man named Joe letting in an older woman by the name of Mary into an empty and unoccupied house where she begins to tell her story and experiences many years earlier in the same residence. Here, the film juxtaposes between the present elderly and alcohol dependent Mary and the beautiful and up and coming journalist Mary in the 1950s. At a party, with guests such as Alfred Hitchcock in attendance, the young Mary meets a mysterious man named Grenville White that would change her life forever. Initially rather warm to Mary, he begins to act rather creepy and opens up to her and reveals horrible and shocking details about the lives of various famous people, and afterwards of all things offers a key to his house which she refuses and leaves and doesn’t speak to him again.

For reasons not exactly clear, despite only seeing him again at a few parties in the next 10 years, this encounter somehow affects the rest of Mary’s life up to the present causing psychological harm to her. His presence in her mind doesn't allow her to write new material in the ‘60s without leading back to that night, all her work with potential clients are cut short when Grenville goes behind her back and ruins her reputation and she starts drinking. The whole first half of the film was rather irritating and confusing, how could this man be so influential? Was I missing something? I mean 50 years on there is Mary still panicking at the ghost of him while she is at the park... The elements of the film didn’t click, I understand to a degree what the film was trying to get across about the different class systems of the 1950s, the longing influences people leave and how certain decisions can make an eternity of change but I honestly wasn’t a fan of the material. The performances, in particular, Maggie Smith (of course) and her younger self, Ruth Wilson were worth mentioning. For that I give the film, a generous:

 FILM:

Maggie Smith was her wonderful self and in thefilm she projects a Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement quality/vibe in her monologues and narration to the flashbacks, her fragility as she walks around an empty room or the way she glances and tears up as memories races through her head were brilliantly subtle. The final 20 minutes is her moment to shine, and although I mentioned before some aspects of the film is rather weak, Smith’s acting simply elevates the material. You want to give the woman a long hug for all the mental damage she has endured, and Smith portrays this in a heartbreaking and delicate manner.

MAGGIE-METER:

"This isn't a ghost story, no... this is worse than a ghost story. For me anyway"
 

 

# 6: Gosford Park (2001)

Maggie Smith

as Constance Trentham

in

Gosford Park (2001)

 

Screentime: 20 minutes and 41 seconds* (16.2% of the film)

* I should note here that screentiming this performance was a bit of a nightmare, when I time any of Maggie's performances, whenever she is featured or heard contributes to her time, therefore if a scene obvious features her but the camera is NOT on her, then that doesn't include her screentime. Robert Altman's style here in Gosford Park is easing in and out of multiple conversations, so at many times you can *just* hear Maggie speaking or *just* see her to the left or right. Additionally there are sequences where her character is in the car, but she (the actor) isn't necessarily there. I decided to only include sequences where you can obviously see her through the windows of the car.

Robert Altman’s Gosford Park is a murder-mystery/drama/comedy about a group of British high society and their servants coming together to the Gosford Park estate for a weekend of shooting and socialising. The film focuses on the lives of probably 40 characters and the liaisons, secrets and resentments that leads to the murder of the man of the house late at night. A detective arrives on the scene to investigate and find answers as to who is guilty and what was the motive as the weekend comes to a close. 

One may think the film sounds like the typical Agatha Christie mystery, but the who-dunnit? theme really takes the backburner instead to focus more on the simultaneous storylines of the guests and workers. The script is wonderful and all the actors deliver and perform their individual subplots wonderfully. The film is a major ensemble piece and the cast is to die for: Dame Maggie, Helen Mirren, Emily Watson, Michael Gambon, Stephen Fry, Ryan Phillipe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Clive Owen, Kelly Macdonald, Alan Bates, Eileen Atkins and Kristin Scott Thomas. I don’t know if it’s just me but the whole Upstairs-Downstairs scenario is just so entertaining to watch, and for that I give the film:

FILM:

 

Maggie Smith’s character Constance Trentham opens and closes the film with her maid Mary arriving and leaving the estate. Smith is wonderful and hilarious as the bitchy and snobby woman who despite her lavish lifestyle is starting to suffer some financial issues. It seems the entire weekend she just lives off the free food and any form of gossip spreading from both upstairs and downstairs and this makes her character so delightful. She deservingly got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress but it’s a rather low key role, she doesn’t get any Oscar scenes or breakdowns (unlike her co- nominee Helen Mirren) but she still stands out with those snarky comments or reactions. She’s a hoot and a natural for this type of comedy.

MAGGIE-METER:
 

(To her maid) "That settles it. Come back at half past eight. I'll get dressed. It's the greatest bore, of course, but I don't want to miss anything."

# 5: California Suite (1978)

Maggie Smith

as (Oscar nominated!) Diana Barrie

in

California Suite (1978)

 

Screentime: 24 minutes and 15 seconds (24.0% of the film)

Labelled for 1978 movie audiences as the “best two hour vacation in town”, Neil Simon’s California Suite is a film about four separate visitors (from New York, London, Philadelphia and Chicago) and their ‘misadventures’ while staying at the same Beverly Hills hotel. I have to admit that the overall film is pretty awful. The style of comedy is incredibly disjointed and mostly unfunny. Jane Fonda and Alan Alda’s segment is just poorly written, it is essentially the two just continuously arguing and insulting each other as they try and deal with their daughter’s issues (I know this reads hilarious comedy all over!), and then Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby’s segment is even worse; utterly stupid and slapstick. There was a slight improvement when it came to Walter Matthau and the “unconscious prostitute found in his bed while the wife is in the other room” storyline but then came Michael Caine and Maggie Smith's segment "Visitors from London", and all I can say is wow, wow, wow! 

For about 40 minutes, this film gets a 10/10 for the wonderful, heartfelt and humorous chemistry between the two British thespians and their story of a British actress Diana Barrie (Smith) preparing for the Academy Awards with her sexually ambiguous husband Sidney (Caine) and their antics, bickering and worries before the event as well as the drunk and forward confrontations they encounter in the aftermath of the evening. 

So when determining a score for the film:

Fonda/Alda: 1/5

Smith/Caine: 5/5

Matthau: 2.5/5

Cosby/Pryor: 1/5

Gives an overall average of:

FILM:

As for Maggie Smith, she is luminous and stunning as Diana Barrie. The part just seems to be written for Maggie 100% and she just pulls it off perfectly, balancing out both her comedic and light moments with rather hard hitting poignant and dramatic moments in her final minutes on screen. You kind of wish the whole film was just Michael and Maggie, and it really is a shame that such a wonderful performance was stuck in such a dead average film. The whole segment is memorable but highlights include Diana’s growing nerves and paranoia of a supposed hump on her back and her attempts of trying to get answers out of her husband’s closed off life (okay basically the entire final 10 minute scene). Their British presence I feel was just such a nice fresh breath of air, for an otherwise very American film.

MAGGIE-METER: (No hesitations)

"Screw the Oscars. Screw the Academy Awards. Screw me, Sidney. Please. Please"

EXTRA ADDITION:

Smith and Caine filmed their Oscar ceremony scenes during the red-carpet show at the 1978 Academy Awards, they also attended the event and presented Jason Robards with the Oscar for Julia. As for the following ceremony, Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and her competition was:

Dyan Cannon in Heaven Can Wait

Penelope Milford in Coming Home

Maureen Stapleton in Interiors

Meryl Streep in The Deer Hunter

... and who won?

Maggie Smith of course!

(standing with presenter Brooke Shields)