TBT: The Young Visiters (2003)

The Young Visiters (2003) has been on my watch list for years, but I could never find a decent copy of it without buying the DVD, which mostly smacks of effort these days. I’m not sure if I even know where the remote is to my Blu-ray player, I haven’t used it in so long. However, the gods have smiled upon all of us, because the full movie is available, for free, on YouTube, AND THE QUALITY DOESN’T SUCK! It’s like the Frock Flicks equivalent of winning the lottery.

The film is based on the novel The Young Visiters, or Mister Salteena’s Plan, which was written by Daisy Ashford when she was nine-years-old and published about 20 years later in 1919, complete with all the childish misspellings. I have only skimmed the book, but the plot couldn’t be more straightforward: Alfred Salteena (Jim Broadbent) is a socially ambitious “elderly” 42-year-old iron monger who has attained some level of success in his life, but he yearns to rub elbows with the upper classes. On a train ride, he encounters Miss Ethel Monticue (played by Lyndsey Marshal) and her mother, discussing their own social ambitions: Ethel is 17 and very keen to climb the social ladder. Alf inflates his own social standing to impress the mother and daughter, and Ethel is quickly dispatched to Mister Salteena’s residence in Dulwich on the pretense that she will then use Alf’s introductions to high society to obtain an advantageous marriage to a lord. Of course, Alf is smitten with Ethel and has no idea that he’s merely a stepping stone on her social climb. By sheer luck, Alf is able to pull some connections for an invite to the vast country estate of his acquaintance, Lord Bernard Clark (Hugh Laurie), which sets up the central love triangle of the film. Bill Nighy as Lord Clincham rounds out the main cast, with supporting roles played by other familiar faces such as Sophie Thompson, Sally Hawkins, and Geoffrey Palmer.

The costumes are incredibly well done, designed by Charlotte Holdich, who Frock Flicks readers may know from her work on Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth. Ethel wears a variety of lovely 1890s frocks that are all gorgeous, but here are some of the more notable ones.

As usual, the men’s costumes aren’t as interesting as the women’s, but they are equally well done:

Well, you’ll have to watch the movie to know how it all ends.

Have you seen The Young Visiters (2003)? Tell us about it in the comments!