Alice's Playhouse
In Alice's Playhouse you will discover an exceptional collection of feature films adapted from some of the most celebrated plays ever written. Often featuring towering performances, outstanding direction and exceptional writing, this collection is a superb archive of contemporary drama masterfully transferred to the silver screen.
Filmizations of The Bard's work may be scrolled via the 'Shakespeare' sub-feature in green on the left, along with other notable playwrights who have been adapted for celluloid.
For adaptations of novels and short stories, check the 'Special Interest' link and click on 'Based on...'
Right: Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh relax during the filming of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece, 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.
Antony And Cleopatra (BBC) (1981)
5.9/10
Director: Jonathan Miller
Starring: Colin Blakely, Janet Key, Jane Lapotaire, John Paul, Esmond Knight, Ian Charleso...
Colin Blakely and Jan Lapataire star in this BBC adaptation of Shakespeare's passionate tale. Mark Antony, one of the three rulers of the Roman Empire... Read more
On Golden Pond (1981)
7.7/10
Director: Mark Rydell
Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman
Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn play an aging married couple, Norman and Ethel Thayer, spending a dramatic summer in the woods. Their estranged daug... Read more
Othello (BBC) (1981)
6.9/10
Director: Jonathan Miller
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Bob Hoskins, Penelope Wilton, Rosemary Leach
After undertaking to film all Shakespeare's plays, the BBC produced some of the most faithful and gripping renditions of the bard's work ever committe... Read more
Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981)
7.4/10
Director: John Badham
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti
Richard Dreyfuss is phenomenal as a sculptor who is left a quadriplegic after a car accident and decides that he wants to be allowed to die, a choice... Read more
Twelfth Night (BBC) (1980)
8.1/10
Director: John Gorrie
Starring: Alec McCowen, Robert Hardy, Felicity Kendal, Sinead Cusack, Trevor Peacock
Directed by John Gorrie, this BBC production of Shakespeare's romantic comedy stars Felicity Kendall as Viola, a shipwrecked girl who disguises hersel... Read more
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980)
6.9/10
Director: Steve Roberts
Starring: Trevor Howard, Patrick Magee, Denise Coffey, Harry Fowler, J.G Devlin, Sheila Re...
Based on a radio play by Vivien Stanshall (who acts as narrator), Trevor Howard stars as an eccentric-to-the-point-of-insane nobleman who attempts to... Read more
Seems Like Old Times (1980)
6.7/10
Director: Jay Sandrich
Starring: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Charles Grodin
Adapted from Neil Simon's play Chevy Chase is a novelist abducted by criminals and made to be the fall guy for a bank robbery. After his arrest he es... Read more
The Corn is Green (1979)
7/10
Director: George Cukor
Starring: Anna Massey, Katharine Hepburn, Toyah Wilcox
A strong-willed teacher, determined to educate the poor and illiterate youth of an impoverished Welsh village, discovers one student whom she believes... Read more
Dennis Potter at London Weekend Television: Volume 2 (1979)
Director: Christopher Morahan, Gareth Davis
Starring: John Neville, Cyril Luckham, Ann Bell, Ray Smith, Ian Holm, Anthony Bate
Dennis Potter is one of the most significant writers of the twentieth century and undoubtedly his greatest successes were some of the single plays he... Read more
Julius Caesar (BBC) (1979)
7.4/10
Director: Herbert Wise
Starring: Richard Pasco, Keith Michell, Virginia McKenna, Charles Gray
Richard Pasco, Keith Michell and Charles Gray star this BBC production of Shakespeare's artful telling of conspiracy in the Roman Senate. Fearful that... Read more