The news last week that Shelley Duvall has died provoked some depressing responses. Older men remembered her chiefly for The Shining, and younger men asked "Who is she?" with little interest, apart from indicating how irrelevant they thought she was.
Of course, at our house, she was the narrator, and executive producer of Faery Tale Theatre, a re-working of tales by Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, and Perrault, featuring a cast of actors prominent in the 80s (including Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, Lee Remick, Vanessa Redgrave, Edith Stapleton, Vincent Price, and a host of others); some remarkable directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Roger Vadim, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and a not-quite-famous Tim Burton; and sly dialogue from such writers as Jules Feiffer, Maryedith Burrell, and Robert C. Jones.
What impressed me most was the art design, based on famous illustrators. For example, one of my favourite tales was The Princess and the Pea (starring Tom Conti and Liza Minelli, and written by Rod Ash and Mark Curtiss), where the costumes and sets were based on the work of Aubrey Beardsley - sans the oversized phalluses, thank goodness.
Duvall produced other anthologies, such as American Tall Tales and Legends, but, although she was still able to enlist the participation of many fine actors, I think, from what little I have seen, that she did not have the same budget as for FTT, and the writing and art direction simply aren't at the same level.
Younger daughter used the sad news as an excuse to explore some of her favourites (Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood), and I set off in search of an earlier television production, starring Duvall, and based on a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald.
I found it. I'll talk about it tomorrow.
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