The Dresser - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Dresser or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Dresser

[ivan]

This movie has a one hundred percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on fourteen critic reviews.

[steve]

One of the posters for this movie featured a long preamble that read: "Tom Courtenay is The Dresser. The wardrobe man devoted to the Star. Albert Finney is The Star. The actor devoted to himself. The story is about their friendship. The tears. The heartbreaks. The joys. The fears. The devotion. The dreams . . . What happens backstage is always pure drama. And often pure comedy".

[harry]

Plays by William Shakespeare that are performed, mentioned or referred to in this movie include "Othello", "Hamlet", "MacBeth", "Richard III", "King Lear", "As You Like It", and "The Merchant of Venice". Non Shakespearean plays included Sutton Vane's "Outward Bound" and "The Corsican Brothers".

[lynn]

The original Broadway production of "The Dresser" by Ronald Harwood opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in New York City on November 9, 1981 and ran for two hundred performances until May 1, 1982. The production was nominated for the 1982 Tony Award for the Best Play.

[tom]

Although "Sir" was based on Sir Donald Wolfit, the action has been transplanted back in time to World War II, a time when the real Wolfit, so far from being an elderly actor, poor in health, and prone to lapses in memory, was actually only about forty and at the height of his powers.

[tamara]

Wearing the hats of Producer and Director for this movie, Peter Yates assembled a cast of renowned British actors who were distinguished by their work in the theatre, as well as in movies. Peter Yates, a one-time Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate who had directed plays for the London (Royal Court) and New York City (American Place Theatre) stage, Yates was recognized for his ability to communicate on both sides of the camera.

[jamie]

The commemorative plate that Sir uses as his make-up tray was presented to him on March 21, 1929, for his performance of Hamlet.

[willard]

Sir Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney came from the north of England. Both of their careers as actors had emerged during the 1960s, particularly in the British "kitchen sink"/"angry young man" melodramas of the period. Ironically, the two hardly knew each other.

[brent]

The name of the repertory theater troupe was "The Coronet Players".

[janice]

The only movie that year nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and not in any Best Motion Picture category at the Golden Globes.

[melinda]

The line "Two hundred twenty-seven Lears, and I can't remember the first line.", spoken by Albert Finney (Sir), is what can be heard at the end of the Manic Street Preachers song "P.C.P."

[caroline]

Albert Finney (Sir) and Sir Tom Courtenay (Norman) received Academy Award Best Actor nominations for this movie. This movie is a rare instance where the one movie received two Best Actor Oscar nominations, a feat that was repeated with Amadeus (1984), where Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham were both Best Actor Oscar nominated.

[sophie]

One of the critic's names on a quote on the theater foyer reviews board is "R. Harwood" of the fictitious "Portsmouth and Gosport Express". The name is a reference to Ronald Harwood, the screenwriter, source playwright, and also one of the producers.

[steve]

The production notes for this movie state that this movie "is an intriguing look behind the scenes at life and relationships in a traditional touring stage company. Against a backdrop of Britain in (World War II) wartime, with the sounds of (Adolf) Hitler's air raids in the background, 'The Dresser' is about Sir, a grandiloquent actor-manager who has given his very soul to his career, often at the expense of those closest to him, and is now cracking under the strain of keeping his company on the road. Pivotal to his existence is The Dresser, Norman, equally passionate about the theatre and dedicated to his master, but wryly aware of Sir's frequently unreasonable demands."

[sara]

The original British production of "The Dresser" by Ronald Harwood opened at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester on March 6, 1980, and then transferred to the West End's Queen's Theatre in London on April 30, 1980. The production was nominated for the 1980 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play.

[russell]

Orson Welles and Sir Michael Caine considered collaborating on this in the early 1980s.

[nicholas]

Ronald Harwood based his play "The Dresser", and this movie's subsequent screenplay, on the biography "Sir Donald Wolfit CBE: His life and work in the Unfashionable Theatre", and on his own experiences as an actor and dresser for renowned Shakespearian actor Donald Wolfit. Harwood's repertory ensemble, Shakespeare Company, frequently performed Shakespeare's plays, and Harwood was Wolfit's dresser between 1953 and 1958.

[marc]

This movie was selected to be the 38th Royal Film Performance and screening at London's Odeon Theatre on March 19, 1984.

[sandra]

During 1962 and 1963, Sir Tom Courtenay in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), and Albert Finney in Tom Jones (1963), were stars in two of Director Tony Richardson's most celebrated movies, and each movie ignited their fames.