A trip into a surreal winter garden, a voyage on a stormy sea, a grisly homecoming – there is something for everyone in this “experiment in words, music and paintings”. Four films were made in this series for the BFI’s Telekinema at the Festival of Britain, combining some of the best contemporary illustrators and artists with a diverse range of verse. The readers are also of some pedigree, with Michael Redgrave, Stanley Holloway and Eric Portman adding their names to the bill.
Mary Davis, alone and destitute in New York City, pilfers a meal from a restaurant and eludes the police by ducking into the Cafe Royale, where she is shuffled along a line of aspiring chorines awaiting job interviews.
The Count and Countess Bertrand are prominent in society. The Count is also a lieutenant. The throw a society circus and part of the entertainment is ring master and circus rider Alexander Ivanoff.
Mary Young is a young wife who wants beautiful clothes. Her friend Enid invites her to shop at Madame Francine's, where she meets the Countess de Fragni, an artist, and Mr.
Fong Yim-fun puts on a tour de force as an ill-fated woman, separated from her lover through an arranged marriage to the terminally ill and impotent son of a warlord.
Stock-footage from Republic Pictures' earlier Zorro serials was served up once again in this 12 chapter cliffhanger, this time without the financially strapped studio having to credit Zorro creator Johnston McCulley or pay any royalties.
