Here is a brisk documentary about Noël Coward, who sailed to New York aged 20 with £17 in his pocket, and by his 30th birthday was the highest-paid author in the western world; in his lifetime he wrote 500 songs and 60 plays – acting in more than 70. At its best, this is an efficient film that does a solid, succinct job of fitting a lot of life into a little over 90 minutes; Coward died aged 73 in 1973. But in some ways this feels like a Wikipedia entry read out loud, never quite getting under the skin of a complicated man.
Coward grew up poor in the suburbs of London, aided and abetted on to the stage as a child by his adoring mother, Violet, who seems to have indulged her son’s precocious show-offy streak. Violet was a genteel woman who had fallen on hard times, and kept a boarding house. Coward once said he wanted to become as rich and successful as quickly as possible “to get mother out of that damned kitchen”. Even after his first big sensation in 1920s London with The Vortex, he lived at home with his mum and dad.
In The Vortex, Coward cast himself as Nicky, a “talented, sophisticated playboy”. Off stage, he carefully crafted his public image in the character’s likeness: clipped accent masking his non-posh background. He lived in fear of being outed as gay (his friend John Gielgud had a nervous breakdown after being arrested for cottaging). It is suggested here that Churchill’s disapproval of Coward’s sexuality might have been one reason that he didn’t get a knighthood after writing and co-directing with David Lean the patriotic wartime movie In Which We Serve. The extent of Coward’s fear of being exposed is clear from a diary extract: “I study my own facade carefully ... I take ruthless stock of myself in the mirror before going out, for even a polo jumper or unfortunate tie exposes one to danger.”
The film has a few intimate moments like this, when it feels close to Coward, but mostly it trots through his life and career. Still, there is plenty from Coward himself, who is never less than entertaining in diary entries and snippets of his screen acting. Then there is the chatshow appearances in later life; he drops bon mots like grenades, shamelessly basking in the glow of attention. “What age did you know you were a star?” the presenter asks. “Two,” he deadpans.
• Mad About The Boy – The Noel Coward Story is released on 2 June in UK and Irish cinemas.
