English actress Anna Massey (1937-2011) turns up in so many British frock flicks of the 1970s-80s! She’s got a slight overbite that lets her play dowdy or prim characters well, meaning she was often cast as the “repressed” or “disapproving” secondary character. Which is a totally necessary niche in historical films!
As always, I can’t find images from the following productions:
- Tilburnia in BBC Play of the Month: “Where Angels Fear to Tread” (1966)
- Millicent Bannon in W. Somerset Maugham: “Before the Party” (1969)
- Virginia Woolf in Mrs. Woolf’s Room (1980)
- Letty in The Day After the Fair (1986)
- Mrs. Arundell in Mountains of the Moon (1990)
- Miss Rabstock in Emily’s Ghost (1992)
- Miss Elsie Walkinshaw in The Slab Boys (1997)
- Ruth O’Callaghan in Alleyn Mysteries (1993)
- Mrs. Giblet in Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets (1995)
Titania in ITV Play of the Week: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1965)
A British TV adaptation of the Shakespeare play.
Renée de Montreuil in De Sade (1969)
This is on my list for Snark Week: a biopic of the marquis de Sade with “psychedelic imagery and go-go sensibilities” per IMDB. Massey plays the woman de Sade is forced to marry, who he’s very not excited about.
Jane Murdstone in David Copperfield (1970)
A British feature film adaptation of the Dickens novel.
Christiana Edmunds in Wicked Women (1970)
A sub-series of the ITV Sunday Night Theatre focused on true-life stories of Victorian murderesses. Edmunds was the “chocolate cream killer,” who laced sweets with poison in the 1870s.
Laura Kennedy/Standish in The Pallisers (1974-75)
A BBC TV production of author Anthony Trollope’s Palliser novels about an upper-class family in the 1860s-70s.
Queen Ealhswith in Churchill’s People (1974-75)
“A historical anthology series based on ‘A History of the English-Speaking Peoples,’ Winston Churchill’s four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies,” per IMDB. Ealhswith was the consort of Alfred the Great of England (reigned c. 849-99).
Lucetta Farfrae/Templeman in The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978)
An adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel.
Miss Ronberry in The Corn Is Green (1979)
An adaptation of a play “starring Katharine Hepburn as a schoolteacher determined to bring education to a Welsh coal mining town, despite great opposition” per IMDB.
Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca (1979)
A BBC TV adaptation of the 1938 Daphne du Maurier novel.
Charlotte in The Cherry Orchard (1981)
A British TV adaptation of the 1903 Chekhov play about a Russian aristocrat and cultural futility.
Lady Frances Nelson in I Remember Nelson (1982)
A British TV series about the romance between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton at the turn of the 19th century. Frances was Nelson’s wife.
Mrs. Norris in Mansfield Park (1983)
A BBC TV miniseries adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. Mrs. Norris is the bitchy aunt.
Caroline in BBC Play of the Month: “The Critic” (1982)
An adaptation of a Richard Sheridan, mid-18th century, society-set play.
Imogen Bennett in Another Country (1984)
A feature film adaptation of a play, set in the 1930s, about homosexuality, Marxism, and snobbery.
Gwen John in Journey into the Shadows: Portrait of Gwen John 1876-1939 (1984)
Gwen John was a Welsh painter who worked in France.
Sister Thomas in Sacred Hearts (1984)
Per IMDB, a film about “Life in a repressive convent school during the Second World War.”
Betsy in Anna Karenina (1985)
An American TV adaptation of the 1877 Tolstoy novel. Betsy is “Anna’s wealthy, morally loose society friend and Vronsky’s cousin” per IMDB.
Eudora in A Hazard of Hearts (1987)
A made-for-TV adaptation of a Barbara Cartland romance novel set in the Regency era.
Queen Victoria in Around the World in 80 Days (1989)
An American TV adaptation of the Jules Verne novel.
Miss Pross in A Tale of Two Cities (1989)
A British/French TV adaptation of the Dickens novel set during the French Revolution. Miss Pross is the no-nonsense governess of main character/love interest Lucie.
Nina in Screen Two: “The Man from the Pru” (1990)
“The story of a famous real-life murder case in which an employee of the Prudential Insurance Company was suspected of killing his wife,” per IMDB.
Prioress in Sea Dragon (1990)
A TV series set in the 10th century and about Vikings.
George Sand’s Mother in Impromptu (1991)
What it says on the label!
Mlle. Antoinette Dupont in The Darling Buds of May (1991-93)
A British TV comedy/drama set in the 1950s.
Aunt Marchmont in The Return of the Psammead (1993)
A British TV series in which “Four children encounter the magic powers of Psammead, the sand fairy,” per IMDB.
Gertrude Bell in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992-93)
An American TV series about the youth of fictional adventurer Indiana Jones. Gertrude Bell was a famous explorer (see our review of Queen of the Desert for more about Bell).
Dr. James Barry in A Skirt Through History (1994)
A TV docudrama about women in history. Dr. Barry was a famous surgeon who lived his life as a man, but was born female.
Miss Mead in Angels and Insects (1995)
A naturalist becomes enmeshed with a super creepy family in 1850s-ish England. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m guessing Miss Mead is an upper class servant? Or spinster aunt?
Nanny Tess in Haunted (1995)
A horror film set in 1928 England.
Sarah Cole in A Respectable Trade (1998)
A TV adaptation of a Philippa Fucking Gregory novel set in the late-18th-century slave trade.
English Teacher in Dark Blue World (2001)
A feature film about Czech pilots who fought for the British Royal Air Force during World War II.
Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
An adaptation of the Oscar Wilde comedy play. Miss Prism is the fussy governess, exactly the kind of role Massey excels at.
Rosie in An Angel for May (2002)
A TV movie in which a modern? boy travels in time to World War II.
Miss Stanbury in He Knew He Was Right (2004)
An adaptation of a mid-19th-century Trollope novel about a suspicious husband and a strong-willed wife.
Older Agatha in Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures (2004)
A TV docudrama about the mystery writer.
Mrs. Bedwin in Oliver Twist (2007-08)
An adaptation of the 1840s-set Dickens novel. Mrs. Bedwin is the housekeeper of kindly Mr. Brownlow (who cares for Oliver).
Miss Haxby in Affinity (2008)
The film is about two women becoming emotionally involved in a 19th-century women’s prison. Sadly it’s been too long for me to remember who Miss Haxy is!
Mrs D’Urberville in Tess of the D’Urbervilles (2008)
A BBC adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel. Massey plays a rich woman who shares a last name with Tess.
Miss Pebmarsh in Poirot: “The Clocks” (2011)
Requisite British murder mystery series appearance!
Which of Anna Massey’s historical roles stands out most to you?
FYI…that “lobster” brooch in “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a hand holding a rose. FYI…her connections to other actors is interesting. She was the daughter of Canadian actor Raymond Massey, and one-time wife of Jeremy Brett.
And sister of actor Daniel.
She is excellent as Mrs. Norris in Mansfield Park. (And that is my favorite adaptation of the very under-rated story).
When I watched Mansfield Park, I wanted to beat her (i.e. Mrs. Norris) to a bloody pulp. Considering the nature of that character, this is a good thing.
I haven’t seen any of the Dickens pictures or The Pallisers, but they are on my ‘to watch’ list. I can definitely picture her as Miss Murdstone.
I might give the Phillipa Gregory adaptation a miss though.
You left out “Day After the Fair”… a lovely quiet film that takes place in the very early 1890s. It was impossible to fund but a recorded-off-the-tv copy is on YouTube. She plays the main characters sister-in-law who acts as housekeeper.
I love “Angels and Insects”. She’s the children’s governess. (Don’t you love how the children are dressed alike?) And it squarely 1860s, not ‘50s, with big hoop skirts… even on the children.
“Find” not “fund”.
Massey has a great old-young face, a bit like Ruth Sheen. I’d love to see her again in “Angels and Insects.” By the way, “A Respectable Trade” is one of P.F.G.’s pretty good (meaning pre-Tudor) novels.
She’s quite the ringer for Gwen John, isn’t she? Perfect casting!
I loved her in Rebecca, she was perfect casting as Mrs. Danvers. Interesting side note, Jeremy Brett was her ex-husband and her father was the actor Raymond Massey.
How this good lady managed to avoid being cast as Miss Marple I have no idea – she has exactly the right sort of face for the part (Innocuous without being boring) and I suspect she was more than talented enough to do it Justice.