Word: cowardly
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Quadrille brought the Lunts back to Broadway in a Noel Coward period piece they had played for two seasons in London. It is, for Coward, rather Victorian in spirit as well as in setting; it scents its sinfulness with lavender, bodices its escalades in whalebone. The story takes a long evening to unfold, but can be summarized in a sentence. A marchioness and an American rail baron pursue their eloping spouses (Edna Best and Brian Aherne), fall in love while separating the lovers, and themselves elope in turn...
LEOPARDS AND LILIES, by Alfred Duggan (278 pp.; Coward-McCann; $3.50), finds a veteran historical novelist taking the field for the English against France in the time of bad King John. Lady Margaret fitzGerold, a highborn widow, is forced into an unwelcome marriage with Sir Falkes de Brealte, a Norman bastard and the best crossbowman in all England. Margaret, a practical woman of 14, runs Falkes's castle, appreciates his long absences from home, and is only mildly annoyed when he scolds her for lowering the drawbridge too slowly. Lady Margaret survives the harrowing siege of Bedford...
Spectacular No. 4 (Mon. 8 p.m., NBC) was the best spectacular yet. Directed by Hollywood's Otto Preminger and starring Ginger Rogers in three short plays by Noel Coward, the show started slowly with a vaudeville skit that was notable for the expertness of Ginger's cockney accent. The second playlet, Still Life, co-starred Ginger with Britain's Trevor Howard, but it lacked the pathos of either the 1936 Broadway original (starring Noel Coward and the late Gertrude Lawrence) or the movie version, Brief Encounter. But in the third number, Shadow Play, Ginger was romantically believable...
Edha Best and Brain Aherne play the sinned against and sinning mates of the Lunts. Both are agreeable, thereby undermining the Coward intent at every turn. Aherne displays more character and less foppish romanticism that the author seemed to have in mind. Miss Best, looking winning and dove-like, is asked only to coo and weep. Cecil Beaton's sets are tastefully appropriate; his idea of Serena's sitting room seems about what the Marchioness herself would choose...
Producers' Showcase (Mon. 8 p.m., NBC-TV). Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30 (in color) with Ginger Rogers...