May 23rd   
Simon and Laura*      
(GB 1955)
Rank/Group Films. 91m.

A feuding celebrity couple agree to play happily married for the TV cameras in a daily drama.
A topical film both for its time and more recently (with the advent of reality TV and celebrity obsession), which starts out as an observant satire but soon degenerates into a standard Rank romantic comedy formula, deserving more of its cast.

Written by: Peter Blackmore, Alan Melville, from his play.~
Producer: Teddy Baird.
Director: Muriel Box.
Starring: Peter Finch, Kay Kendall, Ian Carmichael, Muriel Pavlow, Maurice Denham, Thora Hird, Hubert Gregg, Richard Wattis, Clive Parritt, and others.
Photography: Ernest Steward.
Music: Benjamin Frankel.

Preceded by:
The Fat and the Lean*
(Fra 1961. A.P.E.C. 15m. bw; Chaplinesque short by the recently graduated film student Polanski, vaguely symbolising his desire to break out from oppressive Poland (though shot near Paris.); w, d: Roma Polanski; p: Jean-Pierre Rousseau, Roman Polanski; s: Andre Katelbach, Roman Polanski; ph: Jean-Michel Boussaguet; m: Krzysztof Komeda.)