The Barretts Of Wimpole Street

Sidney Franklin directed both versions of this well-known biopic, originally filmed in 1934. Jones plays poet and near-invalid Elizabeth Barrett, whose father's (Gielgud) almost incestuous adoration for her all but confines her to his London house. She is understandably lonely and depressed; her only companions are her books, her servants, her dog, and her horde of brothers (all wonderfully played by bright young men of the period), Enter Robert Browning (Travers), a fellow poet rich in love and warmth, who sweeps Elizabeth off the couch and into bloom like a morning glory at dawn. Gielgud, in a magnificent performance imbued with understated menace, attempts to sm...