Midwinter's Tale, A

Midwinter's Tale, AKenneth Branagh writes and directs a comic tale about an out of work actor's desperate attempt to salvage his career and his life by staging a production of Hamlet. Lacking time and money to do the play justice, he hires a motley cast of drunks, incompetents, oddballs and an aging female impersonator to play Queen Gertrude. Now, through backstage dramas, inevitable disasters and the occasional triumph, this cast of would be losers strives to create

Bill Travers

The jailhouse at Jefferson

With its bittersweet title tune (music by Henry Mancini)

Both Nellies contend with the same cantankerous coot

Ashley must locate the documents before the Duke decides to kill the story by killing the reporter

A gullible private

Kathleen falls in love with an American - the murderer's son - and the past sweeps back to haunt the present

where they're mobbed by various birds - and secretly monitored by a nerdy scientist to determine if they are rocket worthy

the mannerisms

A night of binge drinking leads Seever to wake up married to a complete stranger who he assumes is after his money

But Clara discovers love - with an ardent Italian who mistakes her limitations for charming naivet�

When director Gregory LaCava (My Man Godfrey) was casting The Age of Consent