At the peak of her film career, Deborah Kerr was featured in some of the biggest, flashiest frock flicks of the 1950s. While not the most historically accurate, these movies made a huge impact and are genuinely good entertainment! Kerr’s theater training and personal elegance added to every role, so she’s worth remembering this Wednesday.
Gulielma in Courageous Mr. Penn aka Penn of Pennsylvania (1942)
Lygia in Quo Vadis (1951)
Princess Flavia in The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)
Portia in Julius Caesar (1953)
Catherine Parr in Young Bess (1953)
Anna Leonowens in The King and I (1956)
Sheilah Graham in Beloved Infidel (1959)
Ida Carmody in The Sundowners (1960)
Miss Giddens in The Innocents (1961)
What’s your favorite of Deborah Kerr’s historical costume movie roles?
Where is Colonel Blimp?
Agreed! Blimp is the only one I’ve seen her in, but it’s a GREAT film!
Kerr was wearing WWII garb in the pix I found so it felt too contemporary to the movie’s date.
That was only at the end. It started pre-WWI, had a segment after the war, and finished in contemporary WWII.
Yep, she plays 3 roles in the film, and her 1902 costumes are lovely.
Nothing much done in her era looks historical to me…but will watch some of these…
Yaaay! I’m so glad she warranted a WCW – I’ve enjoyed her whenever I’ve seen her. She IS elegance. Like, look up “elegance” in the OED and you’ll see a picture of Deborah Kerr.
I’m not sure that first picture is from Beloved Infidel. Neither of the actors look like Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr.
It actually is a publicity still from BELOVED INFIDEL, but it’s been cropped (by whoever posted it to the source where it was found) to eliminate Deborah Kerr from the right of the image, for some reason.
The remaining actors shown are supporting actors Herbert Rudley and Karin Booth.
Kerr’s clothing and hairstyles in this aren’t even vaguely 1930s, as would have been apparent from the uncropped version of that still.
Still, I enjoyed the WCW post on Deborah Kerr!
The Sundowners; I felt that there was more heart in that story than some. But the nice Scottish lassie was always memorable. Interesting: three celebrities named Kerr, but each pronounced it differently: Deborah Car, John Cur, and Graham Care.
The color photo of her as Portia is gorgeous.
Quo Vadis put a redhead in Pink??? What were they thinking!!!!
I know redheads can wear some shades of pink but the image isn’t showing one of them!
My whole family, at least the female members, loved Deborah Kerr, especially when she got to cut loose on screen. (The governess in “The Innocents” is pretty neurotic.) She once said that she “came over here [Hollywood] to act, but it turned out all I had to do was to be high-minded, long suffering, white-gloved and decorative.”
Looking at the still from The King and I, I think we need a MCM for Yul Brynner
Oh God yes!!
I pretty much LOVE all the costumes pictured here. Deborah Kerr was one of the greats. As a gothic fan, I’ve gotta track down The Innocents. Also, I second the motion for a Yul Brynner MCM!!
That first dress from The King and I: I’m trying to imagine the yardage required for the skirt. And I third the motion for Yul Brynner!
Math/costume geek alert!
Mary — as an occasional Civil War reenactor, I can give you a quick and dirty estimate of the skirt size. Ms. Kerr is listed on IMDB as a being 5’6″ tall (the same as me!), and in the photo with the green-striped dress, the skirt is roughly the same width as her height. Diameter times pi, the magic of math, and the skirt would be a bit over 17 feet or nearly six yards around. However, to achieve that lovely drape, you would need to make the skirt about seven yards wide. If you had 45 inch wide fabric, you’d need six widths of about 45 inches in length, or 7.5 yards of skirt fabric. Add another couple of yards for the bodice and sleeves. And then a couple of petticoats, a gigantic hoop….
I too love her in the King and I bc of Yul.
Fourth for Yul, pretty pleeze! Always delightful and elegant, thanks for the WCW on dear Deborah.
Fun fact One you forgot is Edward My Son who has most of it’s Story through the 1910’s to the 1930’s and was originally to star Greer Garson just like Young Bess
The description didn’t have a date other than ‘son died in WWII,’ so contemporary with the film, & all of the costumes in IMDB’s pix looked modern.
Actually I’m pretty sure she made some other historical flicks later in life like A Woman of Substance
Her role started at the end of the series, in the 1970s-80s, thus not a frock flick by our standards.
Just because it’s such a wonderful ghost story, I’m voting for The Innocents.