Edgar Wright Instagram – This time last week, the great actress Shirley Anne Field passed away. She was a striking screen presence and charming star of many British films of the ‘50s and ‘60s, with her name up in neon long before I was born. I remember my Mum talking about her quite often.
Later, I saw and fell in love with her in a number of films: ‘Peeping Tom,’ ‘The Flesh Is Weak,’ the utterly deranged ‘Horrors Of The Black Museum,’ as well as important key British New Wave entries from Woodfall Films such as ‘The Entertainer’ and the extraordinary ‘Saturday Night And Sunday Morning.’ She also is particularly great in the cult Hammer item ‘These Are The Damned,’ the modest, but very memorable ‘Lunch Hour,’ and a peak of swinging sixties cinema, ‘Alfie.’
She also later had a key role in the vanguard of ‘80s British independent cinema in ‘My Beautiful Laundrette,’ a landmark for Film4 and Working Title.
There may be many other credits I haven’t mentioned here; forgive me. If you are interested in her career, I do recommend reading her obituary in The Guardian, which has some frank and fascinating from Shirley. Even though she was a big star in her time and had much success, there was a feeling she was still underrated and had much more to give.
Even though it’s an early appearance for her, I am forever charmed by her supporting role in the hugely entertaining teen quake that is 1960’s ‘Beat Girl,’ where she sings the infectious and perhaps dubious ‘It’s Legal.’ I dearly love that film and that scene in particular.
Here’s to you, Shirley; may your name in neon never dim. | Posted on 19/Dec/2023 05:44:09
