Joan Greenwood’s slow, husky delivery makes politeness sound calculated. We rate the intelligence behind that voice: in Kind Hearts and Coronets, she makes us hear Sibella weighing up the person speaking before deciding what to believe.
Fi1m perspective
In Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Joan Greenwood’s Sibella sounds as though she has assessed the reply before the other person has finished giving it. Her delivery is slow and husky, but the thinking seems quick. We laughed at the doubt she makes audible beneath the politeness: she need not challenge a statement outright to make it seem suspect. Robert Hamer’s comedy gives Dennis Price’s Louis plenty of room to explain himself. Greenwood makes that male certainty rather less comfortable, and we rate her contribution highly.
There is a temptation to treat such a distinctive voice as sufficient explanation for the performance. Listen to how precisely she decides how much belief Sibella will grant the person speaking; the pleasure comes from judgement as much as sound. Valerie Hobson’s cooler Edith D’Ascoyne provides a useful contrast, though neither woman gets Louis’s opportunity to account for herself. We would have welcomed more of Greenwood, particularly when the film is so interested in the excuses people make. She complicates the comedy without being given equal space within it.
Her early film work included The Gentle Sex (1943), before the Ealing comedies brought her breakthrough in 1949. In The Man in the White Suit (1951), her Daphne Birnley is a cool, intelligent realist opposite Alec Guinness. That part makes good use of her ability to suggest desire without abandoning propriety. Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) offered another setting for her precise speech. These parts help explain why the witty, teasing woman became such a familiar assignment.
Her voice also encouraged typecasting, while Hollywood made too little of her individuality in Moonfleet (1955). Her later roles included Lady Bellaston in Tom Jones (1963). We would not pretend that an unmistakable voice guarantees an interesting character. The writing has to give her something to judge, and time for us to hear the judgement. Start with Kind Hearts and Coronets, then try The Man in the White Suit for another use of that cool intelligence.
Biography
Joan Greenwood (4 March 1921 – February 1987) was an English actress. Born in Chelsea, London, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began her stage career in 1938.
She appeared in several Ealing comedies, including as Peggy Macroon in Whisky Galore! (1949) and as Sibella in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Other screen roles include Daphne Birnley in The Man in the White Suit (1951) and Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). She also worked extensively in the theatre, including with Donald Wolfit's company after the Second World War.
Greenwood was married to actor André Morell from 1960 until his death in 1978.
