Meet Me Tonight
Director: Anthony Pelissier
Year Released: 1952
Rating: 2.5
Three short plays by the late, great Sir Noël Coward (taken from Tonight at 8:30) are mashed together - "The Red Peppers," "Fumed Oak" and "Ways and Means" - into a tolerable short-ish film. Both "The Red Peppers" and "Ways and Means" feel like Cliff's Notes versions of Coward's longer works ("Ways and Means" reminds me of Private Lives; "The Red Peppers" features your standard backstage bickering), but "Fumed Oak" is contained rage (in two scenes) as hard-working/hard-drinking Henry (Stanley Holloway) finally gets the nerve to tell his wife, mother-in-law and annoying daughter he's leaving them forever after saving up enough over 15 some years: it's one of the most eloquent and cathartic "Fuck You's" in theater.
