Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Black Narcissus


This picture shows English actress Kathleen Byron receiving a bouquet of flowers on her arrival at Cardiff railway station in 1947. As you can see from the sashes worn by the girls on either side of her, she was promoting the film Black Narcissus. Directed by Powell and Pressburger it is now regarded as a classic nun flick. Byron stole the show playing the mentally unstable and pathologically jealous Sister Ruth. In the above snap she is on her way to the Capitol Theatre, Queen Street, where she was to make a personal appearance before the screening of the movie. It wasn’t all glamour, though. Amusingly, she had just come from Llanharan where she had been sent down a pit for a photocall. The film had nothing whatsoever to do with coal mining. I’ve seen one of the resultant pics and she doesn’t look at all happy: