Leslie Phillips could make an ordinary greeting sound improper. His silky delivery and precise comic timing deserve their reputation, but we also rate his later dramatic work, provided the films themselves are chosen carefully.
Fi1m perspective
A greeting from Leslie Phillips can sound like an improper suggestion before the conversation has properly begun. The silky voice and practised upper-class ease make the lecher recognisable at once; the precision of the delivery makes him funny. His rise in the late 1950s, through the radio series The Navy Lark and the Carry On and Doctor films, made that manner familiar. It also left him typecast, and the coarse material could ask less of him than his timing deserved.
By the early 1980s he was moving into dramatic character parts, a change worth taking seriously without treating every resulting film as a discovery. He plays Sir Joseph in Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa (1985), where Meryl Streep supplies the emotional urgency. The romance stays remote for too much of its length, with Robert Redford’s reserve and the unhurried pacing doing little to help. It is carefully made, but we would send anyone curious about Phillips’s dramatic work elsewhere first.
Empire of the Sun (1987) is the more rewarding choice, with Phillips playing Maxton, a prisoner of war, for Steven Spielberg. We were moved by Christian Bale’s Jim because his need to survive remains painfully clear, even when Spielberg’s grand presentation softens the horror. Phillips’s convincing dramatic performance makes a persuasive case for the change of direction. The supporting characters need more attention, however, so this is hardly the place to expect a full account of his abilities.
He did not leave the distinctive voice behind when he moved beyond the early comedies. He supplied the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), and played Ian alongside Peter O’Toole in Venus (2006). For a Phillips double bill, follow Empire of the Sun with Venus.
Biography
Leslie Phillips was an English actor. He achieved prominence in the 1950s playing smooth, upper-class comic roles, often using the catchphrases "Ding dong" and "Hello". He appeared in the Carry On and Doctor in the House film series as well as the long-running BBC radio comedy series The Navy Lark.
In his later career Phillips took on dramatic parts, including roles in Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa (1985) as Sir Joseph and Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987) as Maxton. He provided the voice of the Sorting Hat in several Harry Potter films and received a BAFTA nomination for his role alongside Peter O'Toole in Venus (2006).
