Joyce Redman died -- at 96 -- the other day.
Writing in The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson praised the playwright Maxwell Anderson as much for his casting as for his play. He described Ms. Redman as “fiery, imperious and valiant,” and said she “scorches the pages” of Mr. Anderson’s script “to the point where the play is not a good fire insurance risk.” For better and worse, Ms. Redman’s fieriness as an actress was most memorably on display in her portrayal in “Tom Jones” of the promiscuous Mrs. Waters, with whom Tom locks eyes in lusty communion as they devour one course after another in a crescendo of sexual anticipation. Haskel Frankel described it in The Times in 1981 as “one of the funniest, most sensual scenes ever put on film without removing one stitch of clothing.” Ms. Redman and Mr. Finney told interviewers that they mainly improvised the scene, which is regarded as a classic and known simply as “the eating scene.” “Joyce and I had done theater together,” Mr. Finney told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk in 2000. “We just played it for fun. It was filmed early in the morning, and it took hours. They kept bringing more food — trying us out on different dishes. They’d say things like, ‘Bring more oysters. She’s very good on oysters.’ ” He added: “We weren’t sure the audience would get it at all. It seems they did.” ...NYT
