MARJORIE LAWRENCE: THE WORLD AT HER FEET
Australia, 2021, 88 minutes, Colour.
Narrated by Kiri te Kanawa.
Directed by Wayne Groom.
A very enjoyable documentary, a portrait of an Australian, international career and success, but unexpected events in her life: Marjorie Lawrence.
When we are asked about Australian opera singers, we probably name Dame Nellie Melba and then move on to Dame Joan Sutherland. What about Marjorie Lawrence in between them? She began her successful career in the 1930s, in her 20s, Paris, the Metropolitan in New York, entertaining and charming world audiences, a headliner.
Here is an opportunity for today’s Australians to learn something about Marjorie Lawrence. For audiences who are of a certain vintage, she was well known. This reviewer remembers from school days the biographical film, Interrupted Melody, starring Eleanor Parker (Oscar-nominated for this performance) as Marjorie Lawrence, with Glenn Ford as her husband. This was the mid-50s, MGM production, Cinemascope, colour – and we see glimpses of the trailer in this present film.
As the film opens, Eleanor Parker meets Marjorie Lawrence on the set of the mid-50s version of television’s This Is Your Life. It is a happy Marjorie Lawrence, aged 50, feted for her life and career.
Then the narrative goes back to a fairly straightforward chronology of her life. Marjorie Lawrence was fa Victorian. She was born in Deans Marsh, west of Melbourne, and grew up in the town of Winchelsea. Fortunately, there are quite a number of photos of Marjorie and her family so that her early years are brought to life, and some footage about children growing up in the country. (Throughout the film various members of the Winchelsea community comment on life there, on Marjorie and growing up, on her father and his running a local cinema where, in 1939, she gave a concert performance.)
In many ways, Marjorie had something of a charmed life, winning the Sun-Aria Competition, recommended to Paris, expert singing teachers, audition and debut in Monte Carlo, performances in Paris, New York. In the background are quite a number of singing excerpts from her operator career.
The talking heads in this film are very interesting, Richard Davis, her biography, Brian Olsen-Castle an Australian opera director and, later, Ita Buttrose, a strong connection because it was her father who ghosted Marjorie Lawrence’s bestselling autobiography, Interrupted Melody. Richard Davis calls his biography Wotan’s Daughter, highlighting the fact that in her early years, Marjorie Lawrence specialised in roles from Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, especially Brunnhilde (commenting that she had a robust frame) – even surprising the opera world by deciding not to lead her horse into Siegfried’s fire at the end of Gotterdammerung but, country woman that she was, riding her horse across the stage into the fire!
Marjorie Lawrence had a triumphal return to Australia in 1939. Later she was asked to entertain the troops, Americans in the various camps, especially those wounded in action. And she went to Darwin, Adelaide River, entertaining the Australian troops. And she entertained British troops in Europe. She sang at Pres Roosevelt’s fourth inauguration, a friend of the president, American honours, meeting Queen Elizabeth and her daughters, British honours, the French Legion of Honour.
Those who know what happened, unexpectedly, almost tragically, to Marjorie Lawrence will be amazed at how she coped with difficulties, responding heroically, leading a life well lived – and for others.
Those who do not know what Interrupted Melody means, a recommendation to see this film to learn more about the life and career of Marjorie Lawrence.
