The coupling of Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl represents one of the shrewdest gimmicks in show-business; the film was guaranteed maximum curiosity value before one foot of it was shot. I found the combination of these two stars irresistible and salute a brave attempt to inject Ruritanian dash into the rather dreary provincialism of so much British Cinema. (p. 21)

One has become accustomed over the years to a certain amount of filmed theatre but there comes a time when stage conventions prove altogether too much for a predominantly visual medium. Characters' entrances and exits, perfectly natural in a theatre, can appear on the screen as patently artificial manoeuvres and key passages of dialogue cannot be satisfactorily split merely by a sharp shift of camera, or change of locale. The script's restless darting from embassy drawing-room to embassy staircase, to embassy entrance and...