Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

R E V I E W S
Lady Randolph Churchill and the Incomparable Lee Remick
No actress will ever hope to
portray Jennie Churchill better
than the late Lee Remick,
whom we honored just in time
with the aid of Gregory Peck.
RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill.
Seven-episode television documentary,
1974, starring Lee Remick as
Jennie, Ronald Pickup as Randolph,
Warren Clarke as Winston, reissued
by Amazon.com. Six hours, two
CDs, $36.49.
Amazon has brought out a new CD
version of one of the finest-ever
films about Winston Churchill, featuring
a striking performance by the
late Lee Remick. The original television
documentary, entitled, “The life and
loves of Jennie Churchill,” was broadcast
on ITV in Britain and PBS in the
USA in 1974.
Aboard the Queen Mary in Long
Beach, California, on 4 May 1991 the
International Churchill Society held a
dinner for Lee, then dying of cancer, to
present her with our Blenheim Award
for notable contributions to knowledge
of the life and times of Winston
Churchill. It was a bittersweet occasion,
Lee’s last appearance in public.
But we did her proud, thanks to the
participation of a special guest, Gregory
Peck, who had this to say of Lee
Remick:
“It was my privilege to work in
only one film with Lee. It was called
‘The Omen.’ It had to do with
Satanism. It had some horrifying
special effects; it was a spine tingler,
excruciatingly suspenseful—and complete
nonsense—and a blockbuster!
People lined up for blocks to see it.
While the studio executives took bows
as the money rolled in, only Lee and I
knew the secret of the film’s extraordinary
success: We did it! It was our
special artistry, our sensitive portrayal
of a married couple very much in love,
to whom all these dreadful things were
happening. We provided the human
element that made it all work. [He said
all this very much tongue-in-cheek.]
“There cannot be another
American actress so well suited, by her
beauty, her high spirits, her intelligence,
and more than that, by the
mystery of a rare quality which I would
call a depth of womanliness, to play the
mother of Winston Churchill....Playing
opposite this clear-eyed Yankee girl
with the appealing style and femininity
that graces every one of her roles just
simply brings out the best in a man.”
For interested readers, the Lady
Randolph Churchill issue, Finest Hour
98, Spring 1998, contains numerous
FINEST HOUR 148 / 38
articles including stills from this documentary,
which critic Stewart Knowles
described, pointing out that Lee was
not a Jennie lookalike: “What cast the
illusion were clothes, wigs, and the
talent of a great actress.”
Knowles was not exaggerating.
Lee Remick was one of the most
remarkable actresses America ever produced.
This was apparent already in her
debut in “A Face in the Crowd” (1957)
and “The Long Hot Summer” (1958)
through her Oscar nomination as the
wife of Jack Lemmon in “The Days of
Wine and Roses” (1962), and her final
film, “Emma’s War” (1986).
She won seven Emmy nominations
for her outstanding roles in
television docudrama, including the